UEFA will not investigate Lyon Champions League match despite big goal swing

By David Gold

December 8 – Lyon’s stunning 7-1 win over Dinamo Zagreb in their crucial Champions League qualifying game will not be investigated for irregular betting patterns, UEFA has said.

The French club were heading out of the competition at half-time of last night’s game as they were drawing 1-1 in Group D, and though second placed Ajax were losing to Real Madrid in Amsterdam, the Dutch side led on goal difference between the pair by five.

Lyon then went on to score six more goals in Croatia, an incredible turnaround which sent them through at Ajax’s expense alongside the Spanish giants.

The turnaround prompted speculation that there may have been foul play at work.

This year has seen a spate of match fixing inquiries as well as betting rings trying to take advantage of football games.

Cyprus, Italy, Turkey, Greece, Finland and South Korea are just a handful of the countries who have been affected by some form of match fixing.

UEFA uses a detection system to monitor irregular betting patterns, and said today: “For the time being this system has not shown any irregular betting patterns around yesterday’s games or their outcome that would justify any inquiry on that front.

“UEFA considers the integrity of its own competitions, including the UEFA Champions League, as an absolute priority and pays extra attention to all games.

“We have also implemented a Betting Fraud Detections System (BFDS) as a tool against match-fixing – a system which monitors 29,000 games a season including all UEFA matches – and utilises data from more than 400 betting companies.”

European football’s governing body did not close the door entirely on an investigation though, saying that if a match official felt something underhand had occurred, they could look into the game.

“We are currently waiting to receive the reports of the referee, referee observer and match delegate to see if, in their opinion, something suspicious might have happened,” a spokesman said.

“If there is anything in these reports that could raise a doubt, UEFA may then charge a disciplinary inspector to investigate the matter.

“But there is nothing at this stage that would justify doing so.”

Remi Garde’s team’s remarkable result last night was the second night in a row that a French side had completed a minor miracle to qualify for the knockout stage of the Champions League.

On Tuesday (December 6), Marseille had been 2-0 down against Borussia Dortmund and heading out of the competition, as Greek side Olympiakos were beating Arsenal and had climbed above them in the Group F standings.

Didier Deschamps’ men scored a late equaliser, though they were still going out, before Mathieu Valbuena scored an incredible last minute winner to send them through.

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