Sports

UEFA questions goalie in soccer-fix scandal

UEFA, rocked by Monday’s announcement that crime gangs have fixed or tried to fix hundreds of soccer matches around the world, has questioned a Hungarian goalkeeper linked to attempts to fix a Champions League match against Liverpool in 2010.

Vukasin Poleksic, a Montenegro international who plays for the Hungarian club Debrecen, was questioned about being approached by match-fixers before “two international matches.” Yesterday, following a report in a Danish newspaper, Debrecen identified those games from its 2009-10 Champions League campaign.

“The two matches were the away match against Liverpool and at home against Fiorentina,” the club said in a statement.

Poleksic yesterday denied any wrong-doing in an interview with the British newspaper The Daily Mail.

“Anyone who watched the match would know that what people are saying is bull,’’ he said. ‘‘We lost 1-0 at Liverpool and I played a good game. How can anyone say I threw the game?’’

UEFA, the governing body of Europe’s soccer associations, subsequently took action over the Fiorentina game, banning Poleksic for two years for “breaching principles of integrity, loyalty and sportsmanship” by failing to report a corruption plot.

England’s FA and Liverpool have said they knew nothing of suspicions surrounding the September 2009 game.

Poleksic completed his two-year ban last June and resumed his career with Debrecen.

Europol, the European police agency, said it uncovered 380 matches in Europe and another 300 questionable games outside the continent, mainly in Africa, Asia and South and Central America. No teams or particular matches were identified in Monday’s announcement.

Meanwhile, revelations that a Singapore-based crime syndicate has been involved in the global match-fixing scandals has put extra pressure on authorities in Singapore to take action against the alleged ringleader.

The Singaporean businessman known as Dan Tan has been placed on Italy’s wanted list and has been implicated in various investigations into soccer corruption, including Monday’s revelations.