Scandal of bribed, betting Czech soccer referees in offing

Prague, Sept 24 (CTK) - Another scandal involving bribery of Czech soccer league referees is likely to burst out soon, weekly Tyden writes Monday, reacting to the information that the Sparta club owner, Daniel Kretinsky, has submitted a package of evidence to football association head Miroslav Pelta.

"I'm shocked by it," Pelta is quoted as saying.

According to Tyden's information, the documents in question also contain a 40-page file of "omnipresent dirt" that has been uncovered in Czech soccer by a private detective agency hired by Kretinsky.

The information concerns "the way of supervising matches. At the moment, only three of us in this country know details. Me, doctor Kretinsky and anti-corruption police chief Tomas Martinec, whom I've conveyed the materials," Pelta is quoted as saying.

"We can't disclose concrete information, it would thwart the investigation," he reiterated.

Behind the scenes, speculations have it that the affair involves soccer referees who either accepted bribes or bet on the results of the matches they directed as referees, Tyden writes.

"The practice of referees betting via their friends is quite common in Czech soccer. I think the affair may be linked to it," a former second league referee told the weekly.

He, too, bet and accepted bribes, he admitted.

"It was impossible otherwise, At that time at least. And now? I cherish no illusions in this respect," he said.

According to behind-the-scene information, Kretinsky, a billionaire and an influential shark, hired a detective agency to comprehensively map up the property of Czech soccer referees.

The enquiry showed that they could not have acquired such properties by an honest supervision of matches, even if combined with another job, Tyden writes.

The daily Sport has come up with a bizarre theory of the Albanian mafia controlling Czech referees at a distance.

Nevertheless, none of Tyden's reliable sources considers this hypothesis trustworthy, the weekly says.

Another, though little probable, possibility is that Kretinsky is gathering materials to compromise Viktoria Plzen, last season's Czech soccer champion and Sparta's big rival among the country's best teams, who is the thorn in Kretinsky's flesh and whose owner Tomas Paclik Kretinsky strongly resents.

"This is utter nonsense, I'm absolutely calm. I don't know what [Kretinsky's documents] are about, but Plzen is not involved. Our conscience is clean," Paclik told Tyden.

Some media, nevertheless, have highlighted suspicious situations and referees' decisions helping Plzen win league matches, such as the controversial penalty kick owing to which Plzen defeated Sparta 1-0 earlier this month.

A time bomb is ticking in Czech soccer again after a bribery scandal a few years ago. It may explode in the days or months to come, Tyden writes.