Eastern Football Corruption

Football's Wild East

Since the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991, Eastern European football has been thrust into a new and often frightening market-dominated world. Huge million-pound salaries are now enjoyed by the game’s elite, and politically-motivated oligarchs are using their vast fortunes to control and influence both the local and national game. And yet, despite this radical financial overhaul, the seedy Soviet traditions that had dogged the game prior to this (match-fixing, drug-taking and hooliganism) continue to reign on. 

‘At first glance,’  explains Behind The Curtain: Travels In Eastern European Football author Jonathan Wilson,  ‘everything has changed, but look closer and the same old issues exist.’  The untidy collision of extreme global capitalism with die-hard Communist practices has plunged the Eastern European game into a new and worrying phase of football corruption, leading Uli Hesse-Lichtenberger, author of Tor! The Story Of German Football, to describe the region as  ‘the Wild East’.

POWERFUL POLITICS

While Eastern European football is influenced by many factors – managers, agents, referees – it is also entwined in the world of politics. In 2004, for example, President  Vladimir Putin decided to take drastic action after seeing Russia lose 7-1 to Portugal in a World Cup qualifier. A former KGB chief, Putin had inherited the Soviet belief that sporting results are connected to its international prestige. He immediately contacted the Russian Football Federation and instructed RFF President  Vitaly Mutko to build up the national side and seek investors and sponsorship. Mutko then contacted new Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, (the world’s 16th richest man, no less) who quickly tapped up seasoned Dutch coach Guus Hiddink for the national side. Abramovich subsequently began to invest huge sums of money in Russian football, and within the next two years a host of wealthy businessmen had followed suit across Eastern Europe. Allegations of corruption amongst many of these wealthy despots have plagued the media ever since.

MATCH-FIXING

One of the biggest – and most common – accusations levelled at Eastern European clubs is match-fixing. In Russia, UEFA Cup winners Zenit St Petersburg are currently considering legal action against Spanish newspaper El Pais, who said that the trophy had been  ‘bought’  by a Russian gang.  The paper alleged that Gennadios Petrov, the reported head of an underworld gang, used around £30million to  ‘buy’  the semi-final and final (Zenit had thrashed favourites Bayern Munich 4-0 in the second leg match of their semi-final, before beating Rangers 2-0 in the final. Neither of the opposition teams are implicated in any way – it’s unclear how the games were  allegedly  ‘fixed’). This accusation stemmed from an intercepted phone conversation between Petrov and one of his associates. As UEFA continue to probe the case, it was revealed that Petrov’s gang has its origins in St Petersburg but used Spain as a base for its money laundering operations.

A similar case is under investigation in the Czech Republic, involving FC Synot. In 2004, the club’s director, Jaroslav Hastik, and assistant referee Stanislav Hruska were arrested at a motorway petrol station, with Hastik accused of bribing Hruska with 175,000 crowns (about £5,000) after Synot beat Sparta Prague 2-0. In a linked case, referee  Vaclav Zejda was recently re-arrested after allegedly taking 120,000 crowns (£3,500) from Synot after a different match three years ago. TV sports reporter Tomas Kohout said of the affair:  ‘There’s corruption from the lowest level of Czech football to the very top. Players in the lower league admit:  “OK, so we bought an opponent a barrel of beer, and we won 3-0, but nobody knows, so it’s fine.”’  Hastik resigned over the affair, angrily barking:  ‘This is just the tip of the iceberg.’

The most potentially damaging situation of all though is occurring in Poland, with a recent match-fixing scandal engulfing the country to such a degree that its role as joint host of Euro 2012 is in serious doubt. Twenty-nine clubs, including leading outfit Legia Warsaw, have already been caught up in the maelstrom, with 116 officials and players implicated. Former Celtic defender Dariusz Wdowczyk was charged with bribing referees during his time as coach of Korona Kielce.  The team had gained consecutive promotions to the Polish Premier League, but were relegated following the accusations. A video released by the Polish anti-corruption authority CBA showed Wdowczyk sitting at his dinner table muttering,  ‘It’s a shame it had to happen.’ 

‘Everyone knows bent businessmen are bribing referees,’  says legendary keeper Jan Tomaszewski.  ‘Until this is rectified, Poland shouldn’t be allowed to host the tournament.’

AGENT INFLUENCE

Another spin-off effect of the new money pumped into Eastern Europe is the transfer of power into the hands of the agents, who are said to circle like vultures over the carcasses of several national leagues. Their newly empowered status comes largely as a result of the disintegration of the united  Yugoslav football league 13 years ago, which effectively ruined competitive football overnight.

The new leagues spawned two horse races in many cases (Hajduk Split/Dinamo Zagreb in Croatia and Red Star Belgrade/Partizan in Serbia) while in Slovenia, one team, Maribor, has ruled for the last decade. Rapidly falling crowds, accompanied by decreasing  TV and sponsorship deals, have forced the clubs to sell good players abroad, thus increasing the role and importance of the football agents.

Last year, bribery accusations were made by a former agent against the Slovenian national manager. Agent Miran  Vuk alleged that he’d been forced to pay £4,000 to Bojan Prasnikar (the then manager of Maribor) to secure first team slots for his clients Nastja Ceh and Marko Kmetec. Prasnikar has vowed to take  Vuk to court, for  ‘the most vile slander and disgraceful comments’  against him.  To add to the furore, the entire league programme may now be suspended as police probe further allegations that  ‘sugar daddy’ money is falling into the wrong hands.

Agent influence and  ‘sugar daddy’  money are also making headlines in Romania. In May 2008, George  ‘Gigi’  Becali, owner of Steaua Bucharest, claimed that he wanted his representatives to buy  ‘some chocolate and candy’  with the £1.3million that was found in his car. Becali later admitted that the money was to buy a plot of land. He’s now under investigation for suspicion of trying to influence referees to officiate games in Steaua’s favour.

But this situation is nothing new.  ‘When I was playing,’  said Steaua legend Gheorghe Hagi,  ‘[former Romanian dictator] Nicolae Ceausescu saw to it that games were swung in our favour. And now this. Communist or Capitalist, people involved in football in Romania have no ethics.”’

In an ongoing investigation, prosecutors are attempting to prove that, by illegal transactions and intermediary agents, an assortment of club managers and chairmen have colluded to take more than £8million that rightfully belongs to clubs. Hagi adds:  ‘If this was in England or Spain, it would be the decade’s biggest ever sports story. But as it’s Romania, people expect nothing else.’

‘Special training’

In a desperate attempt to achieve a return on their sizeable investments, some club owners have urged managers to reinstate sbori (training camps) between matches. In Russia, they tend to be held in Black Sea resorts, with players separated from their families for weeks on end. Former Spartak Moscow striker  Vladimir Beschastnykh told Maxim,  ‘Sometimes I feel like they are training us for the Special Forces.’

One of the features of the  ‘special training’  has been to inject young players with stimulants. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, several former East German stars have admitted to receiving shots which gave them headaches, joint pain and altered their  ‘whole mental wellbeing.’  One Romanian star told Maxim,  ‘I have received amphetamines to increase my energy levels, and cortisone shots to enable me to crack the pain barrier.’  It is rife throughout the league.

In the latter part of 2003, three Romanian stars died within months of each other, arousing suspicions of drugs. One of those was Stefan Vrabioru of Astra Ploiesti, who collapsed minutes after being brought on as a substitute in his debut against Rapid Bucharest and died on the way to hospital. The case of striker Adrian Mutu, currently being sued by Chelsea for around £13million after testing positive for cocaine in 2004, further illustrates the temptations facing tomorrow’s East European stars.

‘There are sharks everywhere,’  explained Maxim’s contact.  ‘They encourage you to live the high life – hookers and coke – and then hang you out to dry when you are exposed.’

CROWD TROUBLE

Another evil lurking beneath the surface of Eastern European football is that of crowd violence. Russian authorities have recently reopened the file into the world’s worst ever sporting disaster, which occurred at Moscow’s Lenin Stadium in 1982. Fans were leaving the ground at the end of a UEFA Cup tie between Spartak and Haarlem, when a last-minute goal caused hundreds of fans to rush back into the stadium, and many were crushed to death. Official figures released at the time said 77 had died. In reality, the figure was nearer 340, and relatives of the deceased have urged the Government to pursue the officials responsible for issuing the false data.

During the Soviet era, a strong police presence at grounds, together with a ban on fireworks, ensured that terrace violence was contained. As the Communist shackles, which once maintained order, were swept away, many grounds have become hotbeds of racial tension, with old grudges being settled. On the final day of the 2007/08 season in Bulgaria, for example, Lokomotiv Plovdiv fans threw missiles, stones and bottles at CSKA Sofia fans from outside the stadium, and pelted the Champions’  coach with stones and petrol bombs.

Though police are dealing with these hooligans with lengthy bans, the problem is almost impossible to contain. The continual verbal harassment of black players, and the neo-Nazi presence outside grounds behind the former Iron Curtain highlights yet another depressing aspect of the game.

Even with the injection of new money and management, it seems that the deep seated prejudices and financial malpractice prevalent in the Eastern European game are here to stay.