By Erwin Quinonez
05 Sep 2023, 00:21 AM EDT
Almost a week after reporting the existence of a match-fixing network in its local league, the Bolivian Football Federation (FBF) filed a formal complaint this Monday for the crimes of “aggravated fraud and criminal association” against a group in which players, leaders and referees are involved.
At least “5 or 6 players” along with “some referees and a couple of leaders” are involved in the crimes that are specified in the complaint that was filed with the La Paz Prosecutor’s Office, as indicated by the lawyer of the governing body of Bolivian soccer, Christian Camacho.
In this sense, the legal representative of the FBF indicated that, as it is such a serious and delicate accusation, evidence “of all kinds” and “forceful” elements such as recordings and witnesses were delivered to the Public Ministry.
The lawyer took advantage of the space provided by the media to clarify the seriousness of this situation and the fact that very dangerous people are behind all this, to the point that several of the witnesses “fear for their lives” since this it involves not just “economic extremes, but issues of threats.”
Having said this, Christian Camacho avoided giving names or details of the cases involved and said that “we must wait for the pronouncement of the authorities” in order not to contaminate the investigation.
A few days ago, an audio of a conversation between a soccer player and a person who proposed to take a penalty in a game in exchange for $5,000 dollars was leaked.
Last week, the president of the FBF Fernando Costa denounced the existence of a “corruption network” for match-fixing in which former leaders and “foreign tentacles” would also be involved.
He mentioned that these events have perforated “most” of the 17 clubs in the Professional Division and also the teams that participate in the Simón Bolívar Cup, which is the promotion championship.
Costa called some meetings, the most important will be this Tuesday with the Ordinary Congress of the FBF in which he will suggest the stoppage of both competitions.
In the main tournament of the Professional Division, 17 teams that have played between 22 and 24 games compete, with The Strongest, from La Paz, the leader with 49 points.
That championship went into recess for the first day of the South American qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup in Mexico, the United States and Canada, while the promotion competition is paralyzed.
With information from EFE.
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