Club Brugge head coach Ivan Leko, who was accompanied by his lawyer, was released from the Palace of Justice in Tongeren after questioning (AFP Photo/ NICOLAS MAETERLINCK) |
Brussels (AFP) - A top football referee and a Belgian club executive were among the first suspects charged on Thursday in a massive fraud and match-fixing scandal that has engulfed Belgium's elite league, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors
said more than 20 suspects were being investigated a day after hundreds of
police carried out 44 house searches across Belgium, France, Luxembourg,
Cyprus, Montenegro, Serbia and Macedonia.
The judge
in charge of the case has also issued European arrest warrants to seek the extradition
of suspects detained abroad, a spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor's office
told reporters in Brussels.
The enquiry
is focused on some of Belgium's best known football agents, including Mogi
Bayat, the former manager of Sporting Charleroi, who was arrested in his home
on suspected links to crooked transfer deals.
Another
agent Dejan Veljkovic is suspected of both fraud and match fixing, according to
Belgian media reports.
Suspicions
of match-fixing emerged during the fraud investigation, with a focus on matches
played in the 2017-18 season, prosecutors said.
Veljkovic
is alleged to have engineered a match-fixing scheme with a Belgian referee in a
failed effort to save club KV Mechelen from relegation.
The
Mechelen financial director, Thierry Steemans, has been detained and charged in
the match-fixing case, Flemish daily De Standaard reported.
The
searches were carried out at the headquarters of nine football clubs, including
Mechelen, Anderlecht, Club Brugge, Genk and Standard Liege.
Club Brugge
coach Ivan Leko, whose team is playing in the Champions League this season, was
released after questioning on Thursday.
The house
searches outside Belgium were mainly connected to the suspect transfer schemes,
said prosecutors.
The
investigation started in late 2017 as a result of a report drawn up by the
Sports Fraud Cell.
UPDATE: Belgian prosecutors have charged 19 suspects and detained nine in a massive fraud and match-fixing scandal that has mired Belgium's top football league in scandal https://t.co/cpONvjJWoP #MogiBayat— AFP news agency (@AFP) October 12, 2018
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