FC Torpedo Moscow`s management is under investigation, one referee has been arrested, and the Russian Football Union (RFU) fined the club 5 million rubles. Football circles consider this an unprecedented case and do not rule out that the investigation could affect other teams.
Moscow football club Torpedo has been removed from the list of participants in the Premier League. The decision was made by the Russian Football Union. The official reason is “attempting to organize fixed matches”. A football referee is facing criminal charges.
“Veterans don`t remember” – the incident with Torpedo can be described with this common phrase. Situations where participants in a particular match are suspected of match-fixing occur every season. But for the first time in many years, the investigation has led to a decision to expel a club from the upcoming RPL season, which starts next week. By decision of the RFU, Torpedo was also fined 5 million rubles.
It began in June when Torpedo`s owner Leonid Sobolev and club director Valery Skorodumov were sent to a pre-trial detention center in a case concerning illegal influence on sports results. Three Torpedo matches in March, April, and May against Rodina, Ural, and Shinnik clubs came under suspicion.
Referee Maxim Perezve was allegedly offered a reward for good results for Torpedo, with sums ranging from 250 thousand to 3 million rubles. However, the referee refused. The RFU ultimately banned Sobolev from holding football positions for five years and Skorodumov for ten. And on July 8, RBC reported, citing sources, that football referee Bogdan Golovko was detained – he did not award a penalty against Torpedo in the match against KamAZ. Torpedo was promoted from the First League to the RPL based on the results of that match, and now it has been expelled from there even before the season began, says sports commentator for Viju+Sport TV channel Alexey Andronov:
“There simply couldn`t have been any other options, considering such a history. If it was just one referee, you could talk, as the defense of Torpedo`s management claimed, about slander and libel. But a large tangle is already being unraveled there, and perhaps it will affect not only Torpedo. This is not the first case in our history. Even in the 90s, there was a team called Iriston (Vladikavkaz) that was also caught. From my point of view, Torpedo should be dropped to the level of a physical culture collective, that is, completely outside professional football, and start from scratch – as happened, for other reasons, for example, in Scotland with the team Glasgow Rangers, which was moved to the fourth division after bankruptcy. Otherwise, it looks strange: does that mean you`re not fit for the Premier League, so go back to the FNL [First League] and continue in the same vein there? Well, it`s somehow ambiguous.”
Referee Bogdan Golovko is 33 years old, born in Volgograd. He officiated matches in lower leagues and only once made headlines after a scandal in Grozny. At that time, Golovko refereed a Russian youth championship match between Akhmat and Spartak, and those dissatisfied with his work attacked the referee directly on the field. In the Torpedo and KamAZ match, there were two controversial moments in Golovko`s work, both related to unawarded penalties against the Moscow club. The commission upheld the referee`s first decision, but the second one proved controversial. Golovko is now detained and faces up to seven years in prison. Although the charges could still be adjusted, says managing partner of Gagarin Law Firm Igor Simonov:
“In this case, I don`t recall it being specifically from game practice – meaning players on the field, referees, and so on. We have an article that is not very often applied – `exerting unlawful influence on the results of an official sports competition or spectacular commercial contest`, Article 184 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The legislator decided to specify more concretely – commercial bribery was not sufficient for qualification, they added specifics. Again – bookmakers and so on, here we understand that large sums of money often depend on the results, so maybe someone decided: we need to give the referee money and make money on the tote. The fact itself – there is such responsibility. If it`s an organized group – up to seven years. If he is alone – it`s the first part, up to five years. We`ll see what it turns into.”
Torpedo`s further fate is unclear – a decision will still be made. It is unlikely that the club will remain in the First League. The lawyer for Torpedo owner Leonid Sobolev told RIA Novosti that if the club is expelled, it will be disbanded altogether. The Russian Football Union only informed Business FM that currently, the decision to expel Torpedo from the RPL “does not imply the impossibility of the club participating in other competitions”.
Rupert Blackwood 
Clement Ashworth