24 February 2010

Uefa, football’s governing body for Europe, has confirmed it has banned for life a referee from Bosnia Herzegovina, Novo Panić, and suspended two others after information received during ongoing investigations by German police into match-fixing across Europe. Michel Platini, Uefa’s president, has spoken today on the cases today, saying: “I promised strong and positive action against anyone we find in the game guilty of any form of corruption or match-fixing.”

A statement on the Uefa website addressing the bans says: “Novo Panić, a referee from Bosnia and Herzegovina, has been banned for life from any football activities. Tomislav Šetka, an assistant referee from Croatia, has been suspended until 30 June 2011. Oleh Orekhov, a referee from Ukraine, has been suspended provisionally for 30 days. His case will be examined on 18 March. Decisions are all subject to appeal within three days of the sending of the reasons for the decision.

“In another case, the Control and Disciplinary Body ruled that no action is to be taken against the Bulgarian referee Anton Genov following investigations related to irregular betting patterns.

“The decisions taken by the Control and Disciplinary Body are sporting ones instigated by UEFA, allowed under the UEFA Statutes and governed by the UEFA Disciplinary Regulations, edition 2008. As such these are therefore separate sporting decisions unrelated to the ongoing police investigation and criminal proceedings being conducted by the Bochum police authorities.”