Swiss FA bans 9 players involved in match-fixing scandal

24.05.2010, Acting on information gathered from the Europe-wide betting probe into match-fixing by German authorities last year, Switzerland’s Football Association has suspended nine football players from the Swiss league for at least one year for alleged match-fixing, with five players suspended indefinitely.

The Swiss Football Association said that four players – Pape Omar Fayé (Thun), Mario Bigoni, Marc Lütolf and Darko Damjanovic (all Gossau) - have been suspended for an indefinite period, while an unnamed amateur player known only as MB of Slavonija Bern has also been suspended indefinitely.

Thun’s Eldar Ikanovic has been suspended for 36 months, while fellow Thun player David Blumer and Fribourg’s Boze Gudelj have both been suspended for 24 months. In addition Wil 1900’s Anto Franjic (now with Vaduz) has been banned for 12 months.

The association said that all nine players had at one time or repeatedly infringed the football league’s anti-gambling rules by receiving money to influence or alter the outcome of football games.

The association said that Dark Damjanovic was involved both as a player and as an intermediary between others, while the player known only as MB was suspended solely for his role in recruiting others to fix matches. The remaining players all took payments in order to manipulate football matches, said the association.

The nine suspended players have eight days to appeal the Swiss Football Association’s ban. Charges against Christian Leite Nieva of Gossau and Darko Tofiloski of Schaffhausen were dropped due to a lack of evidence.

Last year UEFA confirmed that it was assisting German authorities with their investigation into corruption and match-fixing of up to 200 football matches involving domestic league games in Austria, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Slovenia, Switzerland and Turkey.

The Swiss Football Association claims it is the first federation to bring sanctions against football players following the investigation.

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