Football

23:00 | 24.09.2014 | Viewed []

Domenti Sichinava: "The Joint Work of GFF and MIA Has a Good Outcome"

 

According to Domenti Sichinava, president of the Georgian Football Federation, the detention of 8 referees by Anti-corruption Agency is the result of 1.5-year cooperation of the federation and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He made this statement at the press conference attended by general secretary Rezo Arveladze, Dima Bokeri, head of Competitive Division, and Levan Mikeladze, head of Referee Supervisors’ Committee.

Domenti Sichinava: “Today what happened is the result of 1.5-year cooperation of the Georgian Football Federation and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. I am happy that there are evidences. Now we want to find out who is the second side the referees cooperated with. Perhaps, we will find out their names in the next few days. The Georgian Championship goes on. Tomorrow morning the Referee Committee will hold a meeting and referees will be distributed for the next round. We informed UEFA about this issue.

- Can football players be involved in this corruption scheme?

Sichinava: It is criminal and the MIA must investigate it. I do not exclude that football players may also be involved. The Ministry mentioned citizens in its statement. Hopefully, their names will be found out. We met representatives of the MIA two weeks ago. We signed memorandum with the Ministry of Sport and the MIA. We receive information about suspicious matches from UEFA and then we inform the MIA.

-  How many matches was the information about?

- The investigation is under way. The fact is that 8 referees are detained.

- If it is not a secret, what is the salary of referee?

- Referee receives 1080 GEL in Supreme League. The first and second assistants have 500-500 GEL.

- Was this fact unexpected for you?

Levan Mikeladze: It was a real shock for us. One of the detainees (Tornike Gvantseladze) is FIFA referee.

Rezo Arveladze: UEFA sends us information about suspicious matches. If one club is mentioned in suspicious matches three times, the federation can punish it. Fixed matches are one of the worst diseases in the world. That is why UEFA cooperates with Europol and FIFA – with Interpol. The information received from UEFA is sent to the MIA. Sometimes we thought why they did not react. However, now we all saw the result.

Sichinava: A year ago Arveladze and I met referees and we told them we were cooperating with the MIA. I think the investigation will find out the names of those citizens who cooperated with the referees.

Arveladze: We wanted investigative bodies to get involved in this case. Our cooperation must go on.

Sichinava also noted Gvantseladze was invited to one of the tournaments at the end of October but tomorrow the GFF will send an official letter to UEFA and he will be removed from the referees list of this tournament.

Lasha Tabagari

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