Red Star and Paris Saint-Germain have denied reports in a French newspaper of an attempted fix of their Champions League match in Napoli’s group.
The French champions won 6-1 at the Parc des Princes in the last matchday, and currently sit one point behind Carlo Ancelotti’s side.
According to a bombshell report in L’Équipe though, the National Finance Prosecutor [PNF] were alerted by UEFA about a possible fix days beforehand.
Red Star and Paris Saint-Germain have denied reports in a French newspaper of an attempted fix of their Champions League match in Napoli’s group.
The French champions won 6-1 at the Parc des Princes in the last matchday, and currently sit one point behind Carlo Ancelotti’s side.
According to a bombshell report in L’Équipe though, the National Finance Prosecutor [PNF] were alerted by UEFA about a possible fix days beforehand.
An informant, who remains anonymous but is said by the sports daily to be considered credible, allegedly informed the governing body that a Red Star director was preparing to place a €5m bet on his side to lose by five goals.
The sum would have been bet across several websites, and was expected to return tens of millions of Euros.
To ensure that the match would go to plan, the newspaper reports, several of the Serbian side’s players were to be in on the deal.
The PNF attended the match in question, L’Équipe claims, and eyebrows were raised at the 6-1 scoreline.
There is no material evidence that the match was fixed, and PSG would be expected to beat Red Star at home, perhaps heavily.
“This is the first I’m hearing of this,” Dragan Dzajic, honorary President of Red Star, told L’Équipe when the allegations were put to him.
“I haven’t heard anything about it, it’s not possible and it’s not true!”
The allegations also implicated PSG, as the informant claims a meeting was planned between the two club Presidents to discuss the alleged fix, though it never actually came to fruition.
While UEFA refused to comment, the Ligue 1 leaders denied the story in the strongest possible terms.
“It is with the greatest amazement and indignation that we learn of the information you are sharing with us today,” PSG said in a statement to the newspaper.
“At no time was any member of our club asked to discuss matters other than those strictly related to the organisation of the match; namely meetings, visits and official lunches which take place for every Champions League match.
“At this time, Paris Saint-Germain would like to make clear our attachment to the fundamental principle of sport, the integrity of competitions, and consequently the refusal of any practice that could question that integrity.”