Bookmaking mafia used Russian champs to fix Bulgarian derby

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Published: 24 September, 2009, 09:45

Levski Sofia have become the victims of swindlers, who falsely introduced themselves as Rubin Kazan representatives in order to affect the result of derby their Bulgarian league derby with CSKA.

According to Sport-Express newspaper, Levski were approached by a person, who introduced himself as Mark Berger, a Rubin Kazan representative.

He said the Russian champions were offering €4 million for four of the team’s key players – Darko Tasevski, Zhivko Milanov, Youssef Rabeh and Jose Soares.

The transfer window in Europe has closed, but Berger explained that Rubin received permission to sign new players due to a recent epidemic of injuries, which was not true.

But the Levski bosses decided not to check his words and sent the players to Moscow for talks just on the day they were supposed to play against CSKA Sofia and the “impaired” Levski lost to their rivals 2-0.

The quartet soon returned to Sofia empty-handed as Rubin knew nothing of their supposed meeting. Berger never contacted the Russian club, but he’s reported to be connected with the international bookmaking mafia.

Meanwhile, Bulgarian journalists say they were unable to find any witnesses, who saw Tasevski, Milanov, Rabeh and Soares in the Russian capital. So the mystery is far from being solved.

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