German prosecutors arrest second referee

German referee Dominik Marks has been arrested at his apartment in Berlin on suspicion of fraud and money-laundering, Berlin state prosecutors said yesterday.

Prosecutors said the warrant for the arrest of Marks, already suspended by the German football association (DFB), was based on statements made by Robert Hoyzer, the referee at the centre of Germany's worst match-fixing scandal in 30 years.

Prosecutors said Marks, the second match official to be arrested in the scandal, was involved in rigging the results of three matches, but did not specify which ones.

Berlin prosecutors are investigating a total of 25 people suspected to having manipulated at least 10 matches in 2004. They include Hoyzer, Marks, two other referees and 14 players.

Hoyzer, 25, has admitted fixing matches for money from a Croatian gambling gang and is cooperating with prosecutors. He has implicated several other referees.

Both Hoyzer and Marks worked in the German second and third divisions. Hoyzer said Marks had rigged two matches - a second division game on December 3, 2004 between Karlsruhe SC and MSV Duisburg that Duisburg won 3-0 and a regional league, or third division, match between Hertha Berlin's amateur side and A. Bielefeld's amateurs that Berlin won 2-1 on August 11.

Hoyzer said Marks got e30,000 for rigging the results of the Karlsruhe-Duisburg match and €6,000 for Berlin-Bielefeld which the DFB last week ordered be replayed.

Hoyzer, arrested in February but released two weeks later, faces eight charges of complicity to defraud. He was released after agreeing to surrender his passport and report to police three times a week.

The DFB has recommended Hoyzer be fined €50,000 and banned for life.