By Mark Baber
December 21 – The Bundesgerichthof (German Federal Court of Justice) yesterday ordered a partial retrial for Ante Sapina (left with an unsuspecting Lionel Messi) and Marijo Cvrtak who were found guilty of deception and sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison in May 2011.
Between 2008 and 2009, the Croatians worked with referees and players to manipulate the results of over 20 games including a qualifying match for the 2010 World Cup. Sapina’s proceeds, mostly from Asian betting markets, were
believed to total over €2.3 million.
36 year old Sapina admitted he travelled to Sarajevo and met Bosnian referee Novo Panic who agreed, in exchange for €40,000 euros ( $52,000), to ensure that two goals would be scored in the second half in the 2010 World Cup qualifier between Liechtenstein and Finland in September 2009. The match ended in a 1-1 draw with both goals coming in the second half. According to Sapina, one of the goals was the result of a clearly incorrect penalty decision awarded to Finland.
Other matches which were manipulated included a Champions League qualifier between Debrecen and Fiorentina and several Europa League matches, as well as matches in Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Slovenia, Switzerland and Turkey.
Two referees involved – Panic and Ukrainian Oleh Orekhov have been banned for life by UEFA.
Prosecutors complained that the punishment meted out by the Bochum Landesgericht (regional court) was too lenient and argued that Sapina’s deeds should be considered organized crime.
On the other hand, Sapina’s lawyer, Ralf Neuhaus argued his client’s cooperation with authorities as crown witness gave valuable insight into the structure of match fixing, so the sentence should have been reduced.
The Bundesgerichthof in Karlsruhe agreed with both the complaints and sent the case back to the lower court on
Thursday. The Bochum court will now have to look into whether some of the men’s actions constituted actual fraud rather than just attempted fraud, whether Sapina and his conspirators constituted ‘gang’ and what financial damages were suffered by people who placed bets on the fixed games.
The partial retrial will not reverse the guilty verdicts but could lengthen or shorten the sentences the men will have to serve although legal experts believe there will be little variation in the sentence.
Sapina was previously sentenced to two years and 11 months in the betting scandal around referee Robert Hoyzer in 2005. That scam was exposed after a game between Paderborn and Hamburger SV in which Hoyzer sent off Emile Mpenza and awarded two highly dubious penalties to Paderborn. The regional league club beat the Bundesliga club 4-2.
For Sapina, who is not currently in detention as he is not considered a flight risk, every day that he remains free and commits no further crimes can help him later in converting some of his sentence into probation.
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