Russian Premier League has integrity called into question after match-fixing media explosion

Ordinarily, the game between Amkar Perm and Rostov on Saturday afternoon would be of little interest to most supporters in Russia. However, it turned into one of the most talked about games of the season. Premier League officials sent special commissioners to Perm, several fans wrote on forums that they were waiting for the game “more than for the Champions League final”, and the whole country held its breath to see what occurred.

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It was all down to the biggest disease in Russian football, namely match-fixing. The game in question became such a hot topic of conversation in Russia because the teams were openly accused of fixing the result – Rostov were supposed to lose to Amkar on purpose. Optimists prayed for the visitors to play for their pride, pessimists waited for the inevitable to happen. The suspense was immense. Or was it? The drama finished in a most disappointing way possible – Amkar duly won 1-0 in a very dull match. It looked like the teams did not even bother to invent an interesting scenario to make their intentions more difficult to understand. Bulgarian midfielder Georgi Peev scored with a deflected free kick midway through the first half, and that was it.

The sensational events ahead of the game were due to extraordinary actions taken by a small internet site, futbol-russia.ru, that came to prominence offering punters early information on fixed games. The site invites people to buy their tips on the day of the game, then place huge stakes with legal bookmakers in Russia or abroad. Futbol-russia.ru’s manager, available for customer service through his ICQ account, claims never to be wrong. This week, in order to prove his worth, he published his tips on a forum, free of charge for all to see. The information was extremely decisive – Volga bought their away game from SKA-Energiya Khabarovsk in the second division, while Rostov were about to lose to Amkar in the Premier League.

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The game in Khabarovsk took place on Tuesday, and the hosts were leading 1-0 at half-time. During the match, futbol-russia.ru’s forum happily advised everybody “to put all the money they have” on Volga at internet bookmakers who offered live-betting on the game. Not surprisingly, the lines on a Volga win were extremely low for a team trailing in an away game, but they reached a hefty 1.65 at some point. Volga equalised on 62 minutes, and scored a winning penalty three minutes from time.

The outcome made futbol-russia.ru famous overnight, and its manager even agreed to an interview with the biggest Russian sports newspaper, Sport-Express, in order to promote his “business”. He boldly claimed that Rostov must lose to Amkar in order to return a debt. Last season the teams played on the final match day, and Rostov needed a draw at Amkar to make sure they were not relegated. The game did end in a draw and according to futbol-russia.ru, it was payback time.

“Rostov absolutely have no option but to lose. Everyone is waiting to see what happens now, but they will lose anyway. THEY MUST LOSE. Rostov players don’t want their cars to be blown up. I invite everyone to make very high stakes on Amkar,” he claimed in the interview. In addition, he sensationally claimed that 35 of the games in the Russian Premier League are fixed, while in the second division more than half of the results are pre-determined.

Most bookmakers did not offer lines on the game in question. Those who did put the lines on Amkar at around 1.40, extremely low for a 14th-place team playing against Rostov, placed fifth, fighting for historic Europa League qualification.

Those who placed their stakes are rich today. Amkar had no problems whatsoever and took the three points routinely. Rostov had an extremely poor game, lost a lot of balls, failed to pressurise Amkar, and rarely even ran at full speed. Moreover, they made a lot of fouls in dangerous spots, and one of the free kicks eventually found the net.

“All the hullabaloo ahead of the game made it very difficult for us. We weren’t aggressive enough and didn’t create chances,” said Rostov coach Oleg Protasov. Some fans and journalists openly pitied the ambitious Ukrainian, who has worked wonders with Rostov despite having to pay back debts from the last season when he was not even in charge. Some were curious whether he was against losing without a fight and had to succumb to the agreement between the clubs. Amkar coach Rashid Rakhimov said it was a poor game by both teams: “The level of play was just terrible. Our strikers were horrible, and we were very lucky to score.”

However, words from Protasov and Rakhimov are not of huge importance today. All Russia is waiting for action from the Premier League and the Football Union. There is little doubt something must be done in order to restore some credibility to the league. Everyone in the country knows there are many fixed games, but never before has the issue exploded in the press in such an emphatic fashion. In the meantime, futbol-russia.ru are about to be pretty popular with heavy punters.

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