A group of researchers has the testimonies of two people linked to the world of football who revealed how these mafias operate in the country and provided evidence with which support their claims.
"This is a raid in which football players, referees, intermediaries and bettors evidence that bribes have been offered for party arrangement; The joint action of the Major Division of Colombian Football (Dimayor) and the Attorney General of the Nation begins to show its first fruits "
The case was brought into evidence three months ago when a professional player from a well-known club (to avoid embarrassment to the investigation no names are revealed) received a direct offer.
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It all started with communications, first via Whatsapp and then on his cell phone, with a colleague he had shared with another professional team, who offered him $ 20 million pesos (COP) to allow his team to lose the game that was disputed this weekend. Among other things that the intermediary player proposed, was that he will seek to generate a maximum penalty to alter the result.
The denouncing soccer player, after receiving such an offer, aired the case before the president of his team and the club manager, between astonished and outraged, made the case known to the Dimayor, who delegated the matter to his Disciplinary Commission.
However, this is not the only case that raised doubts about the transparency of the activity income in this sport, recently, in another party, a similar situation appeared.
"The modus operadi, was the economic offer to a person close to a footballer so that he will also alter the result of the match, causing a penalty or allowing the opponent his free action to make a goal"
With two cases in less than three months, the alarms were ignited in the Dimayor, which through its Disciplinary Commission investigated and identified the actors of bribes. As evidence, the record was nurtured with statements from those involved, copies of messages via Whatsapp, location of matches, the four clubs that clashed and the support of investigators.
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According to the initial results of the first phase of the investigation, one of the prosecutors said that they already have in sight a football referee who would have received $ 15 million COP to favor a team and also a player whose prosecutor says he has evidence Which received $ 20 million COP to affect the outcome of a match.
The investigations have detected that the handling of this money is through accounts in tax havens and that it would even have connections with mafias in Southeast Asia, soothes of the great mafia of punters.
-And the tentacles of this network are controlled, say researchers, from several offices, including some of the most important in Bogota and Panama-
