Soccer: Fifa probes new fixing claim

GENEVA - The credibility of international football friendlies has taken another hit, with Fifa investigating claims that four countries were brought to neutral Turkey for matches suspected of being fixed as part of a betting scam.

Officials from Latvia and Bolivia, Estonia and Bulgaria are working with Fifa regarding the double-header in Antalya last Thursday that was arranged by an agency.

Curiously, the games produced seven goals that were all scored from penalties, including one that was ordered to be retaken after the initial spot kick was missed.

The Estonian federation said yesterday it had suspicions two weeks earlier, while the Latvian body still does not know the identity of the match officials despite confronting them before kick-off and repeatedly asking the agency for information.

Fifa has asked all four federations for their version of events to help with the investigation.

It's not the first time a friendly arranged by an agency has drawn suspicion. Last September, a fake Togo team lost 3-0 to Bahrain in a friendly arranged by a match agent with Singapore connections.

Neither national team filed a complaint, so Fifa did not formally investigate suspicions that the host Bahrainis were duped into playing a game they were certain to easily win. The Togo federation banned one of its coaches for his role in the affair.

In an apparently similar case, a team posing as Zimbabwe's first choice admitted throwing matches on its tour of Thailand and Malaysia in December 2009. Players said they received instructions at halftime to ensure the correct results were achieved for the types of wagers that had been staked.

As the sports betting industry becomes more popular and complex, UEFA President Michel Platini has called match-fixing as part of illegal coups the biggest danger facing the game.

In Turkey, the scoring was dictated entirely by referees' decisions, as Latvia beat Bolivia 2-1 and Estonia and Bulgaria played out a 2-2 draw.

Latvian Football Federation spokesman Martins Hartmanis said the identities of the referees for its game were still unknown despite numerous written and verbal requests to the agency, Footy Sport International.

Hartmanis claimed to have insisted on Fifa-designated referees for the match, but two weeks before the game received the names of three referees - supposedly from the Czech Republic - who were not on Fifa's list of elite international officials.

Before the game, organisers said the referees were from Hungary, but when Latvian officials approached the referees, they claimed to be from Croatia.

"This turned out to be a bit confusing, but it was 15 minutes before kick-off and our general manager didn't want to stop the referees from preparing for the game," Hartmanis said.

The Bolivian federation said it sent a message to Fifa President Sepp Blatter asking for "an exhaustive investigation".

- AP