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Marked man
Accusations of match-fixing and bribery dog soccer star
Staff Writer, The Prague Post (November 20, 2002) At the beginning, it looked innocent. In mid-June, soccer defender Tomas Hunal was getting back to practice after a vacation. He had good reason to have rosy expectations for the new season. Only a month before, he was a driving force for Viktoria Zizkov en route to the club's best-ever finish in the Gambrinus liga -- third place. Viktoria was even in the fight for the league title until the end of the 30th and final round in mid-May. Viktoria needed to draw with Slavia Prague in a last-round game to win the title. With five minutes remaining in the game, the score was 0-0. Suddenly, Slavia struck: Lukas Dosek held the ball at the line and crossed the ball to the box. Viktoria players standing in the box were one step behind their Slavia counterparts. Unmarked Slavia striker Pavel Kuka scored a comfortable goal.
Hunal, who was widely considered one of the best sweepers in the league, did not prevent Kuka from scoring. Viktoria ultimately lost the game 1-0, enabling Slovan Liberec to celebrate a historic Czech league title, and also helping powerhouse Sparta Prague take the runner-up position that gave Sparta a chance to qualify for the lucrative Champions' League. Having shaken off the bad memories during the vacation, Hunal was entering the Viktoria dressing room to get ready for a first practice when a bunch of his teammates mobbed him. "As soon as I entered the lockers, some of the players, including [Ales] Pikl, [Ludek] Straceny and [Zdenek] Scasny rushed to me, saying that I threw the game with Slavia and that the team did not believe me anymore," Hunal recalled in the only interview he has given on the subject, to Hattrick magazine. Hunal swore that he had not helped fix the game. However, he did not convince his Viktoria teammates. Viktoria captain Ales Pikl said, "I was thinking about the Slavia game during the entire holidays. If we could just draw in order to win the title, Zizkov may never in the future have a similar chance. When I talked with teammates about it, many of them told me that they did not believe Hunal. Maybe they were just afraid to tell him."
Pikl argued that he could not understand how Hunal had strong performances throughout the season, but played poorly in the key match of the season. "It was just hard to believe that the best sweeper in the league was now passing the ball to the opponent," Pikl said. The team eventually voted against Hunal and he was forbidden to practice. Hunal was traded to Teplice in September. The sale of Hunal seemed to have put the controversy aside. But the Hattrick article containing Hunal's statements that he was accused of corruption spurred the Czech Soccer Association (CMFS) to investigate the case. Even though rumors about unfair practices in the Slavia vs. Viktoria game emerged immediately after the match, CMFS spokesman Daniel Macho insisted that there had been no reason to lead any investigation. "Until now, no one launched any complaint or protests, so there was no reason to initiate any investigation," Macho said. "In addition, it's quite hard to prove that someone doesn't play his best on purpose ... and no one will bring a bill proving some corruption." Alexander Karolyi, chief of the CMFS Disciplinary Committee, said that speculation was not enough to start disciplinary action, so the committee had to wait until more concrete statements were made. Karolyi said that the Disciplinary Committee has compiled all available evidence and passed the case on to the police. "In contrast to some previous cases, we decided to pass the case on to the police this time. The police are obliged to tell us about their findings within one month, and the case will then either be passed on for prosecution or the police could drop the investigation due to lack of evidence," Karolyi said. "However, the [disciplinary] committee will wait for the police report and we'll then decide what steps we can take." Karolyi said that corruption was an unfortunate phenomenon everywhere, including soccer. He said that the CMFS had no right to control financial flows in soccer clubs. Karolyi insisted that CMFS disciplinary sanctions could be levied only after indisputable proof of corruption is submitted. "We can't punish someone just on the basis of pure suspicion," Karolyi said. Bribery allegations also occurred in the Czech soccer community one year ago. Bohemians Prague club secretary Ludek Klusacek publicly declared in mid-February 2001 that "corruption and blackmailing belong to everyday practice in the Czech league." "The roots lie in the CMFS, whose officials only watch illegal practices and fail to take any steps against them," Klusacek then said. "And not only referees are to be blamed for [illegal practices]. ... Even players are being bribed." However, Klusacek failed to submit proof for his statements and nothing was done. Referee Josef Krula made controversial calls in the game between Viktoria Zizkov and Sparta Praha in December 1999. The calls made the difference in favor of Sparta, which went on to win the game. Afterward, Viktoria coach Zdenek Scasny accused Krula of showing bias for Sparta. The club's officials denied any collusion with referees. But Scasny -- who had just joined Viktoria from Sparta -- told reporters, "I wasn't too surprised that the referee blew his whistle for Sparta. I experienced that myself." Another upset occurred in November 1999 when second-division FC Lazne Bohdanec's owner Jiri Novak put the club up for sale, protesting allegedly scandalous refereeing. The biggest corruption scandal came to light after FK Svarc Benesov owner Miroslav Svarc openly declared in the summer of 1995 that bribing referees was an everyday practice in Czech football. However, no concrete proof was submitted and the scandal faded away. However, Hunal said that the allegations of corruption have tainted his image. "I've got a bad label that I can hardly get rid of now," Hunal said. "I and my entire family were taken through mud. I had to live without [playing] soccer for about three months. ... Now that I play in Teplice, people still respond negatively to me and so I'm still under pressure. I need to live with that. So far, I've managed."
Frantisek Bouc's e-mail address is
fbouc@praguepost.com
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