{"id":362961,"date":"2026-03-24T18:13:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T18:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/362961\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T18:13:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T18:13:12","slug":"czech-republic-football-embroiled-in-match-fixing-scandal-ahead-of-playoff-with-ireland-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/362961\/","title":{"rendered":"Czech Republic football embroiled in match-fixing scandal ahead of playoff with Ireland \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Czech Republic football has been embroiled in a match-fixing scandal ahead of their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/republic-of-ireland-mnt\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/republic-of-ireland-mnt\/\">World Cup playoff game against the Republic of Ireland<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Dozens of individuals have been arrested from the Czech First League, lower divisions and youth competitions in connection with betting and influencing results, according to iSport, <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">One of the suspects is Jan Wolf, the mayor of the city of Karvina, who owns the club that are eighth in the first division. Karvin\u00e1 league footballer Samuel \u0160igut is also involved, it is reported.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"c-image audio_image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773413929666-59caff44-ed1f-4cb5-b305-12a2ab9f8913.jpeg\"\/>How Troy Parrott factor will influence Ireland v Czech Republic<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The Czech football association said it was the initiator of the case and had been conducting an internal investigation and was co-operating with Uefa.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThere is absolutely no room for all these activities in sports and the Czech football environment,\u201d Czech Republic FA chairman David Trunda said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cFrom the beginning of our activities, we have wanted the FA\u010cR to act transparently. I will do everything to ensure that the betting mafia disappears from the football environment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cUnfortunately, we could not influence the timing, which is why we are here today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A Balkan betting group known as Gypsy has gained strength in recent years in the Czech Republic, according to Aktu\u00e1ln\u011b.cz, trying to infiltrate clubs in lower leagues with financial problems<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The Czech Republic sports minister Boris \u0160\u0165astn\u00fd has said he was \u201cclosely monitoring\u201d the police crackdown. \u201cInfluencing competitions in connection with betting is the bane of sport,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Czech football is no stranger to scandal as the former head of the association Miroslav Pelta <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/sport\/soccer\/2026\/01\/19\/czech-republic-puts-faith-in-miroslav-koubek-to-relight-their-fire\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/sport\/soccer\/2026\/01\/19\/czech-republic-puts-faith-in-miroslav-koubek-to-relight-their-fire\/\">was charged with fraud<\/a> and sentenced him to 5\u00bd years in prison in 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In a separate case, the vice-chairman Roman Berbr was convicted of embezzlement and received a three-year suspended sentence and an \u20ac82,000 fine.<\/p>\n<p>Listen to our new America 2026 podcast<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"America 2026 podcast logo\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/FDOWJOOS65ERJFNBIXFO3MAET4.jpg\"  width=\"800\"\/>America 2026 podcast logo <\/p>\n<p>Former Ireland international Kevin Kilbane and journalist Paul Howard are teaming up for America 2026, a new podcast about the World Cup from The Irish Times.<\/p>\n<p>Follow now on your podcast app, and look out for us on YouTube.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Czech Republic football has been embroiled in a match-fixing scandal ahead of their World Cup playoff game against&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[56982,61,60,1842,112,4018],"class_list":["post-362961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-czech-republic","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt","tag-sports","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}