Did Zenit St Petersburg bribe their way to silverware?
Russian mafia bosses bribed Zenit St Petersburg’s UEFA Cup opponents last season to ensure they won the competition, according to a Spanish judge. Baltasar Garzon claims to have uncovered evidence that Bayern Munich were paid to throw their semi-final against the Russian side.
The Spanish press have today reported that Bayern received vast amounts to lose the home-leg of the semi-final, which they did in style with a 0-4 defeat. The result meant Zenit progressed 1-5 on aggregate. There is no word yet on whether they had to pay for the privilege of playing Rangers in the final!
A statement on Zenit’s website said: “The quality of play shown by FC Zenit in the games against Rangers FC and Bayern Munich is the best proof that the victories were earned by Zenit in honest and non-compromising challenges.
“Allegations of deals mentioned in the media are offensive to all parties mentioned. At this moment FC Zenit’s legal department are evaluating the origins of the story. After this, a decision about legal means to protect the club’s reputation and sport as a whole, shall be decided.”
The positives that Zenit can take out of the allegations is that - at this stage - there is no suggestion that they had to bribe Euro-flops Rangers to lose in Manchester. Now that would be embarrassing.
UEFA is apparently very concerned about the reports and has launched an investigation. Spokesman William Gaillard (he always gets rolled out when there is a bit of controversy, doesn’t he?) said: “When there are rumours of this type, our members of the disciplinary committee handle them and we are going to look at this closely.”
The only football match I have ever thrown involved launching the Subbuteo pitch around the room in a tantrum after a defeat, but if I was involved in high-level corruption I think I would insist on the team in question losing by a goal or two and not an unexpected 0-4 defeat. It does not require too much common sense to work out that a narrow defeat would have been a bit less conspicuous, and I would imagine even the stupidest of Russian mafia bosses has this level of common sense. This does leave some question marks over the allegations.
Have the Spanish press found some way of proving that it was actually Getafe who won last season’s UEFA Cup? I guess we will have to wait for Gaillard and co. to ascertain exactly what the facts are, but I am sure UEFA would hope not to find anything.
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The comment “Euro-flops” to describe Rangers is an absolute disgrace. The Rangers hugely over acheived to get to the final, and to describe the runners up as “flops” is shamefully biased reporting.
And the match against MU was an other bribery?
I think it is absurd to suggest that Bayern Munich would ever throw a game away.
I really like the way Zenit play, reminds me to the Dinamo Kyev, which made it to the semi-final in the CL. Great team, clear style, typical Ukranien football school (even though they are Russian, there is nothing like Russian school). Respect goes to Valerij Lobanovsky, one of the greatest coaches of all time.
Erm, Paul that was a reference to this season…
You could make the case in either season based on the kind of football Rangers played.
What caught my curiousity is why a Spanish judge would (1) have any interest in a bribery case between two clubs based outside of Spain and (2) why this is even being investigated in a Spanish court of law. What is the tie between a Spanish officer of the court and a match fixing allegation between a German and Russian club? Was there some bribery that occurred in a Spanish league match that left a paper trail to this particular UEFA Cup tie?
SoCcErLeNs! stop false report. Its known to everyone that you guys lie a lot, but this one is not even well constructed. For instance a spanish court ruling on Russian and German clubs issue (there is no issue anyway). What should uefa do then, rule on spanish vs spanish club problems? SoCcErLeNs LIERS! LIERS!! LIERS!!!.
And there are no such statement on Zenith website, Infact its only SoCcErLeNs that is reporting this. Why not give a link of the so called “spanish media” website as I can read and understand Spanis.
INSPECTOR, its Soccerlens not SoCcErLeNs and its spelled LIARS not LIERS. Id you don’t even know how to speak English, I highly doubt you’re a real ‘inspector’.
Zenit is the biggest bunch of racists in the footballing world. They dont buy black players, they dont keep black players. They’re bloody pathetic !!!
inspector you are an idiot. it IS on their main site. can’t you read?
http://www.fc-zenit.ru/eng/main.phtml
third story down. this story has also been reported in other outlets.
try again, but you are the liar.
Moment of childishness here:
haha Inspector got pwned!!
Sorry couldn’t resist.
It’ll be interesting to see if this comes to anything. You’d rather it not and just focus on the fact that they whipped some pretty good opponents to win the competition, but you can never be sure about anything when money’s involved.