Did you also throw the game against Kaunas....?

I know you'd sell your best players as quickly and for as much money as 
possible (i.e. Hutton and Cuellar), but I find it hard to believe Rangers 
are that hard up for cash that they'd throw games too. ;)


http://www.kickoff.com/static/european/news.php?id=11177
Zenit deny corruption and consider legal action
Posted: 2008-10-01

Zenit St Petersburg on Wednesday denied the UEFA Cup was won dishonestly and 
are considering legal action against media which reported a Russian criminal 
gang arrested in Spain issued bribes.

The gang said they used tens of millions of euros in bribes to "buy" the 
trophy won by Zenit St Petersburg last season, beating Scotland's Rangers 
2-0 in the May final.

Zenit had also beaten favourites Bayern Munich 4-0 in the second leg match 
of the semi-final at home.

The Russian club said on their website: "The play performed by Zenit 
footballers in the matches against Rangers and Bayern gave the best possible 
proof that those wins were achieved in honest and uncompromising style.

"The rumours published in those media sources defame all of the named 
clubs."

The statement added Zenit lawyers were studying the media coverage and would 
be deciding whether to take legal action to defend the club's reputation.

The newspaper ABC said Gennadios Petrov, head of a powerful Russian 
underworld gang, and one of his cohorts said they used between 20 and 40 
million euros to "buy" the semi-final and the final, according to a 
telephone conversation intercepted by Spanish police.

Spanish police launched an investigation, but have been unable to determine 
if the gang had contacted players and officials from Bayern and Rangers or 
if the two were merely bragging.

The newspaper El Pais said that Petrov, in a taped telephone conversation, 
"said that 50 million had been paid to Bayern. He did not say if it was 
dollars, euros or roubles, but that the figure was correct."

A judicial source and the interior ministry decline to comment on "an 
ongoing investigation," when asked by AFP.

UEFA said it planned to investigate.

"When there are rumours of this type, our members of the disciplinary 
committee handle them and we are going to look at this closely," UEFA 
spokesman William Gaillard said.

In Germany, Bayern Munich said in a statement it had "no knowledge of such 
suspicions. We are going to try and obtain all the information about this 
affair."

The newspaper El Pais said top Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon had asked 
German prosecutors to help with an investigation.

It was Garzon who in June ordered the police operation that led to the 
arrest of around 20 people, including Petrov, and broke up the 
Tambovskaya-Malyshevskaya gang, one of the largest Russian underworld 
networks in the world.

Authorities also froze bank accounts containing a total of 12 million euros 
(17 million euros).

The gang, which has its origins in St Petersburg, used Spain as a base for 
its top leaders and for money-laundering its gains from illegal activities 
in Russia and other former Soviet states, according to police.

It was not clear from the reports how the gang planned to benefit from 
offering the bribes.

But El Pais said the investigation showed that Petrov, who was arrested at a 
luxurious villa in Majorca, "had interests in Zenit" and in the football in 
general.

Zenit, on Tuesday were beaten 2-1 at home by Real Madrid in the Champions 
League group stage.

date: Wed, 1 Oct 2008 23:13:49 +0100 author: liam*