Bulgaria Involved in Yet Another Rigged Friendly Scandal - Report

Bulgarians have allegedly tried to "fix" the Romania-Uruguay football friendly scheduled for the end of February.

The Bulgarians have called Romanian Football Federation President Mircea Sandu proposing EUR 20 000 in exchange of substituting the referee of the game with "their man", explaining that they needed just one more game to reach FIFA's Elite Category.

Sandu, however, became suspicious and decided not to change the referee selected for the friendly match, Hungarian Viktor Kassai, according to Migur Porumbacu, director of the Romanian lower-tier football club Otopeni.

At the beginning of March 2011 FIFA opened disciplinary proceedings against match officials in relation to the international friendly matches Estonia v Bulgaria and Bolivia v Latvia played in Antalya (Turkey) on 9 February 2011.

The Bulgarian football body has repeatedly protested its innocence, saying they knew nothing of the betting scam that involved its game against Estonia.

It was recently reported that the Bulgarian national team may have participated in an another mixed friendly. The Bulgarian game in question was played on May 24 2010 in Johannesburg against South Africa  and ended in a 1:1 draw.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!