Maltese football has been rocked by fresh match-fixing allegations after it emerged that the national team’s Euro 2008 qualifier away to Norway may have been rigged by a notorious Croatian betting syndicate whose members are currently on trial in the German city of Bochum.
According to reports in international media, Marijo Cvrtak, one of the accused, told the District Court in Bochum that Norway’s 4-0 victory over Malta at the Ullevaal Stadium in Oslo had been manipulated.
Cvrtak reportedly told the court that he had met with at least three Maltese players in an Oslo hotel before the game.
“I would have rather had a 5-0 (result), but the players had already agreed between them,” Cvrtak was quoted as saying.
Faced with such information, the Malta FA promptly issued a statement yesterday afternoon announcing that “the necessary investigative procedures have been initiated”.
“In the light of information received by the Malta Football Association in relation to the trial presently being held in Bochum, Germany, regarding match-fixing allegations against Ante Sapina, Marijo Cvrtak and M. Dragan, and wherein mention was made of the qualification match Norway vs Malta, played on the 2nd June, 2007, in Oslo, Norway, the Association hereby notifies that the necessary inves-tigative procedures have been initiated,” the MFA statement, signed by Louis Micallef, the association’s deputy general secretary, said.
“The Malta Football Association shall communicate further information at the opportune time.”
The Times has information that the Malta FA have already contacted the police over the matter.
According to The Telegraph, the 35-year-old Cvrtak spent nearly four hours last week explaining how games were rigged, where bets were placed and how the cash was raked in during his on-going trial.
The Euro 2008 qualifier against Norway was the first of a double away header as five days later Malta faced Bosnia Herzegovina in Sarajevo, losing 1-0.
In the match against Norway, played at the Ullevaal Stadium, Malta conceded after 30 minutes when Kristofer Haestad put the hosts ahead. They appeared to be coping well with Norway’s pressure only to be swamped by a three-goal blitz in the final 17 minutes.
‘Norway punish late Malta collapse’ was the headline of The Sunday Times match report as goals from Thorstein Helstad, in the 73rd minute, and Steffen Iversen (79) fired the hosts three goals up before John Arne Riise made it 4-0 in the dying stages.
Czech coach Dusan Fitzel was in charge of Malta at the time. His starting formation read: Mario Muscat, Ian Azzopardi, Brian Said, Stephen Wellman, Gilbert Agius, Michael Mifsud, Kevin Sammut, George Mallia, Andre Schembri, Kenneth Scicluna and Jamie Pace.
Ivan Woods replaced Sammut at the start of the second half, Daniel Bogdanovic came on for Schembri on 70 minutes and Etienne Barbara replaced Mifsud seven minutes from time.
After the match, Fitzel expressed his disappointment at the team’s lacklustre performance, saying that Malta had been poor in all departments, especially after Norway scored their second goal.
Ironically, Malta had exceeded expectations in the Euro 2008 qualifiers after finishing with a tally of five points. They beat Hungary 2-1 at home, drew 1-1 in Moldova and held Turkey to a 2-2 draw at the National Stadium.
Allegations that Malta’s qualifier against Norway may have been fixed come only days after FIFA announced that it would fund an Interpol training programme to help tackle match-fixing and irregular betting thought to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
“The threat of match-fixing in sport is a major one, and we are committed to doing everything in our power to tackle this threat,” said FIFA president Sepp Blatter in a statement after a meeting with Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble.
FIFA also announced that it would add an investigation task force to its betting monitoring unit, bringing it close to practice at UEFA.
Interpol has estimated that illegal football gambling is worth up to hundreds of millions of dollars in Asia alone each year.
FIFA will contribute eight million euros to its Anti-Corruption Training Wing at Interpol in Singapore over the first two years, followed by €12 million over the following eight years.