Players suspended in match-fixing scandal

Nine Swiss League players – seven professionals and two amateurs – have been suspended for at least one year for their part in fixing matches.

The Swiss Football Association said on Friday that it was the first federation to sanction players using information from a Europe-wide probe into match-fixing and illegal betting launched by police in Germany last year.

Several players from lower-tier clubs Thun and Gossau were given open-ended suspensions. They are Pape Omar Fayé (FC Thun), Mario Bigoni, Marc Lütolf und Darko Damjanovic (FC Gossau).

Eldar Ikanovic, formerly with Thun, was given a three-year ban.

Boze Gudelj (Fribourg) and David Blumer (Wil) received two-year suspensions and an athlete who played for Wil 1900 and Vaduz last season got a one-year ban.

The Swiss association said Damjanovic had also recruited players to fix matches. The others accepted money or agreed to help manipulate the outcome of games.

Another amateur, playing for Slavonija Bern, was suspended for his role solely in recruiting others to throw matches. The investigation against two others was dropped due to a lack of evidence.

Most of the sanctioned players have already been released from their clubs or suspended.

swissinfo.ch and agencies