Ante Sapina Jailed For Role In Major Match-Fixing Scandal

Ante Sapina, who orchestrated the fixing of almost twenty matches between 2008 and 2009, has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison by a German court after being convicted of fraud. Sapina was accused of fixing matches in the Oberliga (the German fifth division), the Champions League and World Cup qualifiers, making this Europe’s largest-ever betting scandal. With the criminal case over, civil cases from clubs and individuals looking to recoup damage are now expected to pop up.

This isn’t the first time Sapina has been jailed for match-fixing - in 2005 he was sentenced to three years in prison after a series of match fixes involving now-disgraced referee Robert Hoyzer that was supposedly worth in the region of €2M. The 2005 scandal affected the 2nd Bundesliga, the DFB-Pokal and Regionalliga, but now it seems that Sapina has set his sights a little higher by going after the Champions League (assumedly meaningless group stage games) and international football.

Although German authorities seemed to take a hard line with regards to the 2005 fixes, allowing Sapina to go straight back to fixing matches after his first jail term implies (at the very least) a failure to pay proper attention to him upon release. One presumes that they won’t make the same mistake when Sapina gets out of jail in late 2016. Match fixing is a major worry in leagues with less money available to the players, and allowing this to happen again is a bit of an embarrassment for all concerned.