The referee scandal rolls on. But now the IHF’s head of referees, Per Morten Sødal, announces that two of the top referee pairs suspected of match-fixing are no longer being investigated by the Austrian police.
– They have been cleared, he tells TV2.
It has really stormed among the international judges. This is because the big scandal that has come to the surface, where the majority of IHF and EHF referees have been connected with match fixing.
The reason why the scandal came to light was the report that the analysis company Sportradar has been working on since 2018, with the knowledge of EHF. This report mentions eight pairs of referees – who, since publication, have been part of an Austrian police investigation.
Freed from suspicion
But in an interview with Danish TV2, the head of referees at the IHF, Per Morten Sødal, announces that the pair of referees Gjorgji Nachevski and Slave Nikolov from North Macedonia, as well as the Croats Boris Milosevic and Matija Gubica are no longer being investigated by the Austrian police.
Recently, however, the EHF announced that the Croatian referee Matija Gubica has been suspended for three years for violating the ethical rules – something linked to betting on matches. But Södal states that this has nothing to do with match fixing.
– First: His partner, Boris Milosevic, has done nothing wrong. He is not under investigation. He is not suspected of anything, says Sødal to TV2 and continues:
– Second: This case has nothing to do with the 2018 Sportradar report and it has absolutely nothing to do with match fixing or match manipulation in any way. This is a violation of the code of ethics.
Source: TV2