The Greek Sports Ministry is to launch an investigation into match-fixing after receiving a report from European football’s governing body UEFA.
“The Secretary General of Sports, Panos Bitsaxis, delivered to the District attorney’s office of the Supreme Court a file from UEFA, which concerns five football matches from the second division and one from the Super League,” said a statement from the Greek Sports Ministry on Wednesday.
Bulgarian referee Angel Angelov has been suspended for four matches, the official’s third ban in as many years, after complaints over his performance in Levski Sofia’s 3-1 win over nine-man Minyor Pernik on Sunday.
The Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) announced the suspension on Tuesday and it follows a four-match ban in 2007 and his removal from the referees’ list last year amid accusations of favoring CSKA Sofia.
Two J-League players who elaborately combined to take a penalty at the weekend were deemed to have broken the rules, Japanese officials said on Wednesday.
The Chinese company ordered to stop making soccer World Cup mascots because of poor working conditions in their factory hit back at the accusations on Wednesday, saying they were victims of South African politicking.
FIFA’s branding company Global Brands Group (GBG) said on Tuesday that Shanghai Fashion Plastic Products Co. Ltd (SFPPC) must halt production of the Zakumi, the tournament mascot, until it improved working conditions.
Coach Cesare Prandelli said he was bitter that an offside goal in the first leg of Fiorentina’s Champions League tie against Bayern Munich had ultimately cost his side a place in the quarter-finals.
The Serie A side went out on away goals despite winning the second leg 3-2 on Tuesday after Miroslav Klose’s late goal that should have been disallowed gave the German side a 2-1 advantage in the away match.
Chinese referee Shen Huangying has denied a state media report that she was questioned by police as part of an ongoing match-fixing investigation, a Beijing newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Four top Chinese referees, including one former World Cup and one current international official, have been taken for questioning by police investigating match-fixing in Chinese soccer, state media reported on Monday.
The Global Times newspaper named the four as Lu Jun, who officiated at the 2002 World Cup finals but is now retired, Huang Junjie, who has been on the FIFA’s international list since 1998, women’s referee Shen Huangying and Guangdong referee Zhou Weixin.
A soccer match between Turkish sides Bursaspor and Diyarbakirspor in primarily Kurdish southeastern Turkey was suspended on Saturday after fans threw stones at players and officials.
Soccer will continue to rely on human judgment when it comes to disputed goals after the game’s rule-makers flatly rejected the use of video and chip technology now and in the foreseeable future.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has defended the comments he made about Stoke City defender Ryan Shawcross whose tackle broke midfielder Aaron Ramsey’s leg in two places last Saturday.
He had called Shawcross’s challenge on the 19-year-old Wales international “horrendous and unacceptable” in the immediate aftermath of the Premier League match.