Banned player insists he is innocent

Former national team Kevin Sammut who has been found guilty of match fixing by UEFA, insisted this afternoon that he is innocent.

Addressing a news conference together with his legal team at The Excelsior Hotel, he said that while his true friends believed him, many asked him to spill the beans.

But he did not have anything to reveal, he insisted.

His lawyers said he will be appealing the decision.

Mr Sammut was on Friday banned from the game for 10 years following the conclusion of investigations by the UEFA Control and Disciplinary body into match-fixing allegations in the Euro 2008 qualifier between Norway and Malta.

UEFA said it would also be requesting FIFA to extend the ban, to give it a worldwide effect.

The legal team insisted this afternoon that the process of natural justice was blatantly ignored by UEFA, which did not even listen to witnesses.

Lawyer Manuel Mallia said that UEFA based its decision on “indirect, uncorroborated hearsay” and explained that defence received notification of the case just 15 days before hearing and it immediately submitted its objections with UEFA.

UEFA was also informed that Mr Sammut did not have the financial means to take witnesses to Geneva and the defence requested a translation of some of the documents, which were in German, but UEFA did not reply.

UEFA told the defence that although the defendant was invited to testify, he was not obliged to.

Lawyer Michael Sciriha said he cross-examined Croatian fraudster Marijo Cvrtak, who came up with the allegations, for almost two hours and Mr Cvrtak could not remember the basic details.

Moreover, he never mentioned Mr Sammut by name and his name was first suggested to him by the prosecutor. Mr Cvrtak had only said that one of the players had glasses and curly hair while another was short and chubby. He noted that the longer the Croat was interrogated, the more holes were uncovered.

Dr Mallia said that throughout the investigation, Mr Sammut had replied to all questions put to him by the Malta Football Association, UEFA and the police.

The legal team did not rule out releasing the transcripts of the cross examination once these were published by UEFA, “to show what a farce the trial was”.

Dr Mallia said the defence was awaiting UEFA’s explanation of the judgment so as to file an appeal.

Should this appeal fails, the team could then go to the Court Arbitration of Sport and later to the European Court.

The defence team also included Lucio Sciriha.

The case came to light in May last year after Mr Cvrtak, an ally of Ante Sapina who headed a notorious betting syndicate, testified during his trial in Bochum that he had met with at least three Malta players at an Oslo hotel to rig the Norway-Malta game. In the game, Norway had scored three goals in the last 18 minutes for a 4-0 victory.

The MFA had launched its own independent probe, which it concluded in March. It then passed the findings to UEFA, which had requested to take over the case since the match in question fell under its jurisdiction.

Investigations conducted by two UEFA disciplinary inspectors when they visited Malta in April found more compelling evidence.