October 12, 2007	Friday	Ramazan 29, 1428

PRAGUE (Czech Republic), Oct 11: Three former football officials and seven Czech league referees were convicted of bribery in a match-fixing scandal on Thursday, receiving suspended sentences and fines.

The corruption trial was part of a bribery scandal considered the biggest in Czech history. The case broke in 2004 when police wiretaps revealed attempts to fix matches.

Since then, more than two dozen football officials and referees have been suspended or fined by the country’s football federation for offering or accepting bribes.

Ivo Valenta, the former chairman of FC Synot, was fined 350,000 koruna (US$17,875) for his involvement in the scandal and was given a four-month suspended sentence, judge Karel Rasin said. The club’s former sports manager, Jaroslav Hastik, was fined 100,000 koruna (US$5,105) with a six-month suspended term.

Another club official, Igor Stefanko, has to pay 50,000 koruna (US$2,555) and was handed a three-month term, said Rasin, who issued the verdict at the district court in Kromeriz, east of Prague.

Hastik was also banned from working as a football official for five years, and Stefanko for two years.

Referee Vaclav Zejda received a 10-month suspended sentence and was fined 200,000 koruna (US$10,215). He was also banned from working as a referee for five years. Another six referees were fined up to 100,000 koruna (US$5,105) and banned between two and three years.

Rasin said he expected all of them to appeal the verdict.

The 10 officials and referees were handed similar bans and fines by Rasin in January, 2006, but an appeals court later cancelled them and ordered a new trial.

The scandal broke in May 2004 when police detained Hastik and Hruska on charges of paying and accepting a bribe of 175,000 koruna (US$8,940) to influence a match between Synot and Sparta Prague. —AP