By Richard van Poortvliet
April 3 – Zenit St. Petersburg and the clubs former players have strongly denied allegations of match fixing made by Erik Hagen. The Norwegian defender, who played for Zenit between 2005 and 2008, claimed that players bribed an official in a UEFA Cup group stage tie against Vitória de Guimarães on 20 October 2005 in St. Petersburg.
Zenit won the game 2-1 thanks to goals from Aleksandr Spivak and Andrei Arshavin, while Hagen played the whole 90 minutes. The Russian press noted after the game that Hagen shouted at his teammates and broke the dressing room door.
The 38 year-old alleged the players each paid referee Dejan Delevic, from Serbia and Montenegro, $3,000 to ensure that Zenit won the match.
The side from Russia’s second city were coached by Vlastimil Petržela (pictured) at the time and the head coach from the Czech Republic said he is surprised by the allegations.
“I do not know why Hagen has made such a statement,” the 60 year-old commented. “I remember that game really well. It was a tough outing against a strong team. If you remember, the referee sent-off Vladislav Radimov in the game. I will repeat again, there is no way that the players collected money to bribe the referee”.
Meanwhile, the club’s general director, Maksim Mitrofanov, has said the club will not be looking into the incident themselves. “I do not see a reason to open an investigation into this case. If UEFA decided to carry one out, our club will do everything to help them, by giving them all the documents they request.”
However, the spokesman for Russian Football Union president, Nikolay Tolstykh, says they plan to under-go their own investigation.
“The Russian Football Union will consult with UFEA concerning the statement by Erik Hagen because this alleged incident is part of their jurisdiction. If the Russian Football Union receives any solid information then we also may become involved,” said spokesman Yury Zhmurko.
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