Referee Marks released on bail, Koop facing suspension

German referee Dominik Marks was released on bail yesterday four weeks after his arrest under suspicion of match-fixing.

Police arrested Marks on March 9 on the basis of information supplied by Robert Hoyzer, the Berlin-based referee who has admitted taking €67,000 ($86,160) in bribes to fix games for a Croatian betting ring.

Marks, who like Hoyzer referees in the lower divisions in Germany, had already been provisionally suspended by the German Football Association (DFB).

He has had to turn in his and his wife's passports as a condition of bail.

The DFB recommended yesterday a six-month ban for Bundesliga referee Torsten Koop for not reporting Hoyzer quickly enough.

Koop informed the DFB in February that Hoyzer had tried to recruit him to join a betting ring during the previous month.

The DFB, unhappy at Koop's failure to come forward sooner, gave him a provisional suspension on February 14.

Koop, who has refereed in the top flight of German soccer for all but one season since 1996, originally justified his decision not to report Hoyzer immediately by saying he thought his colleague was just bragging.

The scandal has been a huge embarrassment to German football authorities as they finish preparations to host the 2006 World Cup.