Tel Aviv club caught up in UEFA match-fixing sweep

Five clubs in Latvia, Albania, Slovenia and Hungary are suspected in the biggest match-fixing investigation in the history of European soccer. Among the seven qualifying-round games under investigation are two involving the Tel Aviv-based team Bnei Yehuda, which defeated Latvia's FC Dinaburg twice in Europa League qualifiers.

It is the Latvians, however, and not Bnei Yehuda who are under investigation, as all of the clubs suspected of wrongdoing had lost the matches in question.

UEFA, Europe's soccer governing body, identified the clubs yesterday as Dinaburg, KF Tirana, KS Vllaznia, NK IB Llubljana and Honved. They allegedly fixed seven qualifying-round games in the Champions League and Europa League between July 16 and August 6.

About 200 matches are being investigated in a criminal probe led from Bochum, Germany.

UEFA officials met yesterday with national association leaders from the nine countries - Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Slovenia, Switzerland and Turkey - to share information about the investigation.

UEFA is cooperating with the Bochum prosecutor's office, which has targeted domestic league matches across nine countries. German-based betting syndicates are suspected of bribing players, coaches, referees and other officials to fix games. The suspected criminal leaders are believed to have made at least $15 million, authorities say.

See full story on page 14 of the IHT.