Liverpool's thrashing of Besiktas linked to fix probe

Liverpool's thrashing of Besiktas linked to fix probe

Andy Hunter and Stuart James
Wednesday December 5, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

Liverpool's record-breaking Champions League defeat of Besiktas last month is one of the games under suspicion of being rigged, according to a report in Germany.

Uefa announced on Saturday that it is working with Europol to investigate games which may have been fixed as part of illegal betting activity. The European governing body has received information that 26 games in the Champions League, Uefa Cup and Intertoto Cup may have been fixed since 2005 with Liverpool's 8-0 drubbing of the Turkish club at Anfield - the highest score in Europe's premier competition - among those allegedly involved.

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An article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung claims there was an influx of bets on the winning margin just before kick-off at Anfield but Liverpool themselves were unaware of the accusation last night and there is no suggestion that the Premier League team have been involved in any wrongdoing.

The club have not received any contact from Uefa or any investigating authorities while European football's governing body has stated it will not reveal the matches under suspicion at this stage. According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung Hamburg's 4-0 win against Honved in the Uefa Cup second qualifying round last August - achieved after an own-goal and a 90th-minute strike for the German side - is also among the games that are considered suspicious.

Uefa's director of communications, William Gaillard, has said that Uefa is only looking into 15 games and that only one of them - an Intertoto Cup tie played last summer - was being "officially investigated". "At this stage I can neither confirm or deny the reports," Gaillard said. "There has to be a certain amount of confidentiality with these things because we could risk a source of information drying up."