UEFA probes match-fixing from Tirana club in Europa League qualifier

TIRANA, Aug. 06 – European soccer’s governing body UEFA is investigating possible match-fixing in last month’s Europa League qualifier between Norwegian side Aalesund and Albania’s KF Tirana.
Aalesund won the second qualifying round second leg tie 5-0 on July 26 to go through 6-1 on aggregate.
“UEFA’s betting fraud detection system, which monitors more than 29,000 matches across Europe on a yearly basis, including all Champions League and Europa League qualifiers and subsequent matches, has detected suspicious betting patterns in the Europa League game between Aalesund and KF Tirana,” said UEFA in a statement.
“UEFA has already mandated a disciplinary inspector to further investigate the matter.
UEFA is investigating evidence that suggests this Europa League match was fixed last month.
UEFA says its betting fraud monitoring system “has detected suspicious betting patterns” in Albanian club Tirana’s 5-0 loss against Aalesund of Norway.
European football’s governing body says it has “mandated a disciplinary inspector to further investigate the matter.”
Norway’s football association has said it was alerted by the national lottery, which stopped taking bets when the score reached 2-0 in the second-leg match of the second qualifying round on July 26.
Lottery officials reported unusual betting patterns from undisclosed Asian countries, including wagers that the game would end 5-0.
The Albanian football club issued a statement denying any allegations of match-fixing and also welcoming the investigation from the UEFA. The Albanian club also criticized the Norwegian club for starting a campaign against it from the very first time they would meet in July.