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Probe launched into possible Bundesliga match fixing

Investigations have been launched into possible match fixing in Germany's Bundesliga to profit a betting ring, after allegations were published at the weekend.

Published: 31 August 2008 12:08 CEST
Probe launched into possible Bundesliga match fixing
Photo:DPA

The Bundesliga (DFL) and the German Football Association (DFB) say they are both looking into claims that two 2005 games were manipulated in favour of massive bets.

Spiegel Online reported allegations on Saturday that a first league match between Hannover 96 and 1. FC Kaiserslautern, and a second division match between Karlsruher SC and Sportfreunde Siegen were suspect – and that several million euros were bet on the games.

Suspicions were raised by Canadian journalist Declan Hill, whose book about betting rings is published in German next week.

He says the 2006 World Cup knock-out match between Brazil and Ghana in Dortmund was influenced by an Asian betting syndicate.

The syndicate, run by William Bee Wah Lim, was exposed for trying to influence several games in the German regional league and the Austrian first league. He was jailed for more than two years by a Frankfurt court in 2005.

The two new matches under scrutiny had not until now been considered suspicious.

But a 208-page document showing Lim’s internet betting network shows a number of personal connections between him and the Kaiserslautern, Karlsruher and Siegen teams.

A joint statement from the DFL and DFB said that steps had been taken to engage an investigation firm to check betting movements. It also said, “Should it be necessary, the DFB legal committee will start immediate investigations, and make its decisions. Furthermore, the DFB and league association will, as in the past, support the responsible criminal authorities in their work should that be requested.”

German football is still reeling from the most serious crisis in its history in 2004 when

referee Robert Hoyzer admitted having received €70,000 to influence the results of 23 matches, mainly second and third division games in 2004.

CRIME

Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

A 17-year-old has turned himself in to police in Germany after an attack on a lawmaker that the country's leaders decried as a threat to democracy.

Published: 5 May 2024 12:52 CEST
Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

The teenager reported to police in the eastern city of Dresden early Sunday morning and said he was “the perpetrator who had knocked down the SPD politician”, police said in a statement.

Matthias Ecke, 41, European parliament lawmaker for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), was set upon by four attackers as he put up EU election posters in Dresden on Friday night, according to police.

Ecke was “seriously injured” and required an operation after the attack, his party said.

Scholz on Saturday condemned the attack as a threat to democracy.

“We must never accept such acts of violence,” he said.

Ecke, who is head of the SPD’s European election list in the Saxony region, was just the latest political target to be attacked in Germany.

Police said a 28-year-old man putting up posters for the Greens had been “punched” and “kicked” earlier in the evening on the same Dresden street.

Last week two Greens deputies were abused while campaigning in Essen in western Germany and another was surrounded by dozens of demonstrators in her car in the east of the country.

According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against politicians in Germany in 2023, up from 1,806 the previous year, but less than the 2,840 recorded in 2021, when legislative elections took place.

A group of activists against the far right has called for demonstrations against the attack on Ecke in Dresden and Berlin on Sunday, Der Spiegel magazine said.

According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is planning to call a special conference with Germany’s regional interior ministers next week to address violence against politicians.

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