News and Articles related to City of Sofia
Current date: 2010-02-09 09:19

FC Levski Sofia Victim of International Gambling Mafia

The Bulgarian football team Levski Sofia has recently become a victim of the international gambling mafia. The team has been deceived in the transfer of the players Zhivko Milanov, Ze Soares, Darko Tasevski, and Usef Rabeh to the Russian champion Rubin (Kazan), BGNES reported.

"Representatives" of the football club Rubin have been in contact with FC Levski`s president, Todor Batkov, and have been preparing him for the fraud. Two people, who presented themselves as agents of FC Rubin met with Batkov, and faxes with offers for the four players were received in the Levski`s offices. The two cited names and gave him contact telephone numbers.

While the team and the whole administration were in Villarreal, the attacks continued, and even the name of a contact person in Moscow was given. The team`s management decides to send the football players and the team`s Financial Director, Konstantin Bazhdekov to Moscow. There, they were welcomed by a man, who presented himself as a representative of the FC Rubin.

However, Todor Batkov, became suspicious Sunday and called the telephone number he was given earlier, and it turned out that it did not belong to the president of the FC Rubin at all. Batkov became a victim of the international gambling mafia, BGNES informed.

Meanwhile, the odds for the Bulgarian team CSKA Sofia winning over Levski Sofia in the Sunday`s game dropped drastically from 1.96 to 1.67 on the biggest Asian gambling web site, SBObet.

According to specialist, this could only mean that large sums of money were bet on CSKA winning. The offer for some of Levski`s best players was a false one, and it only aimed to weaken the team before the undying derby against CSKA, thus allowing some people to make a lot of money.

FC Levski`s management intends to approach the Bulgarian authorities, and to ask Interpol for assistance, in attempt to find the guilty ones, BGNES reported.