Twenty current and former soccer players in the Austrian league are being treated as suspects over match-fixing and up to 17 first and second division matches could have been manipulated in the past seven years, criminal investigators said on Thursday.
The revelations came a day after the arrest of defender Dominique Taboga, who was released by first division side SV Groedig two weeks ago over match-fixing allegations.
Altogether, six people are in custody in connection with the case, including former Austria international forward Sanel Kuljic and two Albanian citizens, investigators and state prosecutors told a news conference in Salzburg.
Investigators said that the 17 matches under suspicion included nine in the Bundesliga, the top flight of Austrian soccer, of which three were played this season involving Groedig.
These were Groedig’s 3-0 defeat by local rivals Salzburg in October, their 1-1 draw at home to Wolfsberger earlier this month and their 2-2 draw against Rapid Vienna, also this month.
The remaining eight games were all in the Erste Liga, the second tier of Austrian soccer. Nine of the 17 matches involved former Bundesliga club Kapfenberger, relegated at the end of the 2011-2012 season.
Federal criminal investigator Andreas Holzer told the news conference that a list of 30 players had been found in Operation Rinas as police carried out house searches in Vienna, Salzburg, and the provinces of Carinthia and Lower Austria.
“Twenty of them have already been questioned and are being treated as suspects,” he said. “As you can imagine, the investigations are very complicated, it’s an international investigation which is difficult to carry out.”
He said that in some cases, bets may have been placed on penalties or corners, rather than the result of the match itself.
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