Today, the public prosecutor released referee Tomáš Grimm from detention, who is one of 20 accused of alleged corruption and influencing the results of the matches of the second and third football leagues. Czech Television (CT) informed about it.
The other three prosecuted charges, including the former vice-president of the Football Association of the Czech Republic (FACR) Roman Berbr, remain in custody.
Information about Grimm’s release was confirmed by his lawyer. CT said that his client had decided to testify, and thus the reasons for detention disappeared.
In mid-October, the case of the alleged influence of football matches by referees was unleashed by police intervention in several places in the country, including the FACR headquarters in Prague.
Forensic scientists claim that everything was managed by an organized criminal group. According to the media, it was mainly a match between Vyšehrad, which advanced from the third to the second league in the 2018/19 season. Matches were also to be influenced for the purpose of betting.
Investigators in the case accused a total of 20 people, most of whom are being prosecuted at large. In addition to Grimm and Berbra, Roman Rogoz, the sports director of Vyšehrad, and former league player Michal Káník also ended up in custody.
Sixty-six-year-old Berbr has already resigned from the position of vice-chairman of the FACR and from the position of executive committee also the head of the Pilsen Regional Football Association. Berbr’s partner Dagmar Damková also left the position in Czech football. According to earlier information from the server Aktuálně.cz ended up at the request of the UEFA Jury.
Last week, in response to the case, the FACR Executive Committee announced seven steps by which it wants to clean up Czech football. One of them was the dismissal of the jury, including its chairman Jozef Chovanec. Only Tomáš Bárta remained, who was nominated for the League Football Association, which manages professional competitions.
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