The match between players from Perm and Rostov was under scrutiny from sports journalists even before the 19th round. Specialists started having suspicions as a result of the betting figures on the ‘Amkar’-‘Rostov’ game. According to the bookmakers, everyone was confident that the team from Perm will win.
An observer from ‘Sport-Express’ newspaper, Igor Rabiner, who directly accused the football clubs of a secret deal, showed information from two bookmaking agencies. The ‘Bet League’, headed by Oleg Zhurabskiy, head of the National Association of Bookmakers, which has cooperation agreements with FIFA and the RPL (Russian Premier League), was giving a rate of 1.05 to ‘Amkara’. This means that each dollar a person bets on the Perm team would give a profit of 5 cents. The odds for a tie were 10.0, and for ‘Rostov’ to win – 17.0. The British Betfair agency was giving the same odds of 1.05 for ‘Amkara’, 27-1 for a tie and 40-1 for ‘Rostov’.
After tip-offs from journalists, the RFU (Russian Football Union) and the RPL took the match in Perm under special control. Three observers arrived, one of whom is the deputy head of the football union and head of the committee for matches. According to an observer, there were talks with the clubs' coaches, Oleg Protasov and Rashid Rakhimov. They were warned that a CD with a recording of the match will be handed to the head of the RPL, Sergey Pryadkin, and will be examined episode by episode. Despite this, Igor Rabiner believes that this did not prevent the teams from playing a fixed match.
The football authorities have a different opinion. On Monday, the head of the legal department of the Russian Premier League, Boris Larin, said that suspicions of a fixed match in the 19th round of the Russian Championship between ‘Amkara’ and ‘Rostov’ from Rostov-on-Don were not proved. ‘Amkara’ was offended by the clamour, Larin said. “Perhaps people expected more attacking play from ‘Rostov’, but poor attacks can be explained. The Rostov players lost a set of leading players before the match. The fall in bets placed is also logical. ‘Amkar’ was highly motivated by the threat of relegation, while ‘Rostov’ lacked leading players. People knew about these facts,” Larin emphasized.
Author: Georgiy Saralidze exclusively for VK
