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Czech ref suspended for rort [Tue Sep 20th, 2005]
A referee in the Czech Republic received an eight-month suspended sentence for agreeing to accept a bribe to fix a game last year.
Judge Marketa Polanecka said Vladimir Pastyrik was guilty of agreeing to accept 30,000 koruna to fix a Czech league match between Viktoria Zizkov and Brno in February last year.
Pastyrik agreed to accept the bribe in a telephone conversation with Viktoria Zizkov sports director Ivan Hornik two days before the match. Viktoria, facing relegation to the second division, won 2-0.
Pastyrik was the first to be sentenced for corruption in a scandal that broke last May when police wiretappings revealed attempts to fix matches. Since then, more than two dozen football officials and referees have been suspended or fined for offering or accepting bribes and are awaiting trial.
Five Czech league teams had points deducted at the end of the season for their involvement in the scandal.
Pastyrik, who also was sentenced to pay a fine of 30,000 koruna and was banned from working as referee for the next three years, immediately appealed the verdict.
PA Sport
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