TIRANA, Dec. 8 – Albania’s six straight Superliga winners could face further sanctions over match fixing allegation following a one-year ban from European competition, a senior UEFA official has warned.
Emilio Garcia, the head of the UEFA disciplinary and integrity unit, said the European football’s governing body was considering further action following last summer’s decision which he called a ‘preliminary ban.”
“The UEFA disciplinary bodies are considering real disciplinary measures,” Garcia said at a panel session on match-fixing at the International Sports Convention as quoted by AP.
“The numbers don’t lie and the betting patterns don’t lie,” the UEFA lawyer said, adding that Court of Arbitration for Sport judges agreed betting monitoring “is a reliable means of evidence.”
UEFA banned Skenderbeu over match fixing allegations in two Champions League qualifiers and two Europa League group-stage games in 2015. The European football’s governing body suspects Skenderbeu who have dominated Albanian football in the past six years could have also been involved in fixing around 50 domestic matches since 2011.
Last July, Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld a UEFA ruling that banned Albania’s champions Skenderbeu from European competition for 1 year over match fixing allegations, paving the way for Superliga runners-up Partizani to replace them in the Champions League campaign.
UEFA welcomed the decision saying “the case affirms the reliability of UEFA’s betting fraud detection system in identifying abnormal betting patterns on matches played by the Albanian club at European and domestic levels.”
The probe came after Brussels-based Federbet gaming anti-corruption organization, cast match-fixing doubts on several of Skenderbeu fixtures, including the UEFA Champions League qualifying round with Northern Ireland’s Crusaders and UEFA group stage matches with Lokomotiv Moscow, Dinamo Zagreb and Sporting Lisbon.
Skenderbeu ended their last year’s Europa League campaign with a 3-0 home defeat against Russia’s Lokomotiv Moscow, finishing bottom in Group H, but making history as the first Albanian club to have made it to the group stage of a major European competition. Skenderbeu earned only three points from a 3-0 home victory against Sporting Lisbon.
The club, who have denied any wrongdoing, currently rank second level on points with leaders Kukes and are a favorite to win the Albanian Superliga again along with rivals Partizani who were hoping to be crowned champions following Skenderbeu’s ban after finishing second last season. Albania’s football association has justified it can impose no other sanctions by stripping the champions of their titles following the final say by the Court of Arbitration for Sport banning Skenderbeu for one year.
Reacting to news of a new probe, Skenderbeu’s president Ardian Takaj said he was surprised by the recent statements by the senior UEFA official, saying that only few days ago UEFA rewarded Skenderbeu with Euro 105,000 for financial fair play.
“That story is over, we have already received our punishment. I am not at all aware of a new probe into our club. I just learned that a senior UEFA official has mentioned Skenderbeu. That’s okay with us. Nobody prevents UEFA from investigating into European clubs,” said Takaj, who has been in charge of Skenderbeu for the past four years.
“That’s their job, but I can tell you that our last contact with the European football governing body was on Monday when we were informed of a bonus regarding financial fair place. UEFA praised our club and rewarded it with Euro 105,000. A decision has already been made on the Skenderbeu issue and the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld it,” added Takaj.
