IN SHORT:
“Dinamo Riga” took a 3-0 lead in the game, but in the end suffered a hard-to-explain 3-4 loss. One of the participants of the game denied the suspicions in an interview with LTV, justifying the fluctuation of the result with the low level of football in Latvia.
LTV knows that the biggest shadow of suspicion falls on the actions of the goalkeeper, center back and captain of “Dinamo Riga” on the field. Currently, 12 players have been suspended, but only a few suspects are likely to face permanent bans.
It is also known that this was not the first suspicious match with the participation of “Dinamo Rīga”, and the Latvian Football Federation (LFF) had previously collected information. The “Delfi” portal also announced that the name of “Dinamo Rīga” has also appeared in the Estonian court, where the case regarding a possible match-fixing network is being considered.
The development director of the Estonian Football Association, Mihkels Uiboleht, said that cooperation in solving the case started in the fall of 2021 and is still ongoing. Uiboleht refrained from providing a broader explanation of the various aspects of the case.
On the other hand, LFF’s Security and Fair Play Specialist Konstantin Rubins explained that the federation initially gathered information.
“The Latvian Football Federation was informed about this process already last year,” Rubins said. “Estonian colleagues shared all the information they could share. We are following up, we didn’t want to intervene right away. Let’s start with the fact that the Estonian police were very reluctant to share information.”
The problem of fixed matches in Latvian football is an old one.
A criminal case is pending in court, which was started 10 years ago – on September 5, 2013, based on the application of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). That year, in the second round of the UEFA Champions League qualifiers, Daugavpils “Daugava” played suspicious games against the Swedish club “Elfsborg”.
Initially investigated a possible fraud in the amount of 375 thousand euros against UEFA. The umbrella organization of European football wanted to recover the amount paid to the Daugavpils club for participating in the Champions League qualification.
Prosecutor Dmitrijs Troickis said that, unfortunately, sufficient evidence was not obtained that would allow the relevant charges to be brought.
“The situation is also affected by the fact that UEFA had already paid the mentioned sum of money to the club after the initiation of the criminal proceedings, despite its suspicions about the club’s participation in the lottery,” explained Troickis.
The investigation found that the suspects Olegs Gavrilovs and Yevgeniis Klopovs may not have paid taxes on a large amount of the money obtained from the manipulation of football matches in sports bookmakers – almost 48 thousand euros. The investigation also revealed that the two most likely embezzled 284,000 euros of the club’s money.
The case has been in court for six years, its consideration is dragging on, and there is not even a first-instance verdict yet.
The examination of the criminal case has been postponed 21 times, and five times it has been necessary to forcibly bring witnesses.
“It was this criminal case that raised the issue in the country that the manipulation of the results of sports games was not criminalized at that time,” emphasized prosecutor Troickis. “If the mentioned article had been introduced into the law even before the initiation of the criminal proceedings, it is likely that the criminal proceedings would have been completed much faster.”
Thanks to the contribution of Daugavpils football, the Latvian Criminal Code now includes an article on the manipulation of the results of sports games. There is still no such article in Estonia, and this makes the fight against result manipulators more difficult in the neighboring country.
“When a special offense of sports fraud is introduced in Estonia, it will send a strong signal to offenders and make the work of both the police and the prosecutor’s office easier,” said Uiboleht, development director of the Estonian Football Association.
LFF Security and Fair Play Specialist Rubin pointed out the importance of the public’s position in the fight against manipulation of results.
“The position of the federation is very simple – we hope for the support of the entire football family,” said Rubin. “It is clear – until the attitude in the society changes, without the participation of the society we will never fight it.”
It is significant that during the Daugavpils “Daugavas” case, recordings of telephone conversations of football players were also played in the courtroom. In them, you can hear that the players call Oļegs Gavrilov, who was already disqualified from Latvian football for life, as “papa”.
The central behind-the-scenes figure in the story of “Dinamo Riga” is also the club’s unofficial owner, Russian businessman Nikita Kalashnikovs, who has attracted most of the players over whom the shadow of suspicion falls. LFF specialist Rubins promises to correct daily monitoring processes and improve club licensing so that new “papas” do not appear in Latvian football in the future.
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