Football|The Swedish Football Association takes the matches of the three clubs to disciplinary action.
Football Association announced on Thursday that it would initiate a disciplinary process for three Finnish clubs. The disciplinary process concerns suspicions of betting fraud and competition manipulation.
All announcements are related to men’s league levels Second and Third. All doubts carried forward concern three clubs: Ilves-Kissa and FC Futura, who play in the second division, and FC Finnkurd, who play in the third division.
Suek, the Finnish sports ethics center, and Palloliitto have collaborated to collect evidence and additional information.
Helsingin Sanomat reported on suspicions of manipulation against the clubs at the end of August.
“We have received important help from Suek and especially from Uefa and Sportradar. This will take time, but the most important thing is that the work will be finished”, the general secretary of the union Marco Casagrande tells.
Casagrande couldn’t tell what nature the announcements from different matches were.
“They keep coming to different people. Some more detailed, some frustrated. I don’t have exact information about the details.”
The aim of the disciplinary procedure is to find out whether all or any of the three clubs mentioned above are guilty of violating the ethical principles of the competition regulations and whether a penalty can be imposed.
“Nobody wants these at any level. We want all matches to be played fairly. Perhaps this describes the fact that you have to be satisfied with not discussing the suspicion of manipulation directed at the main series, but about the lower series. It doesn’t make the activity any more acceptable, but it’s clear that the higher up it is, the greater the pain and damage to reputation.
“We need to think about how we can better prevent this threat in the lower leagues in the future. And you have to remember that we are still talking about doubts. Although we believe that we have enough evidence that we could submit the matter for disciplinary action.”
Police has done at least preliminary investigations regarding things. According to Casagrande, Suek is passing on information to the police.
“I can’t tell if Suek has sent this yet. I would assume it is.”
The disciplinary process focuses on three clubs. Still, according to the editorial’s information, the persons involved in the suspicions also have connections to several other clubs and players in Finland.
According to Casagrande, Suek’s investigation unit knows best why the investigation was limited to Futura, Finnkurdi and Ilves-Kisso.
“It has been reasonably clear where the line is drawn at this point. It may be that individual issues and lines of investigation can be opened through this. And on the other hand, discipline is the other side. I strongly hope that the authorities will also move forward with this matter”, continues Casagrande.
What do you think about the fact that the official investigation has been so slow?
“It is clear that the police have a lot to do and they have to prioritize their resources. That’s perfectly acceptable. The legal basis here may be challenging, to what extent that criminalization is fulfilled. In any case, we would hope that the matter would be more straightforward through the criminalization of sports fraud.”
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