Football-Regionalliga Nordost: Public prosecutor's office investigates suspected manipulation

The suspicion of manipulation in the Football Regionalliga Nordost is widening and is now also occupying the judiciary. As the prosecutor Neuruppin the Magdeburg "Volksstimme" confirmed, she has initiated a case for suspicion of match-fixing.

So far, only investigations by the responsible for the League Northeast German Football Association (NOFV) were known. The association had initiated investigations against the sports director of Germania Halberstadt, Andreas Petersen.

The 58-year-old father of Bundesliga player Nils Petersen is suspected of having bribed players of another team. Petersen is said to have contacted two players of the opponent before the league match at SV Babelsberg 03 on 30 November 2018 (3: 1) with the intention "to withdraw their commitment," as the then -NOPF President Rainer Milkoreit had called it.

Bribery or just "a joke"?

Babelsberg reported the incident to the NOFV, which began investigations. Andreas Petersen had harshly rejected the manipulation allegations. "That's a huge nonsense and a fool," he said. "You want to entice your opponent, to confuse something, a joke." He is 31 years clean in the football business and will always stay clean, Petersen told the MDR.

However, the scale of the scandal could be much greater. A Chinese sports marketer is said to have made according to concurring media reports on November 30, 2018 the attempt to win the regional league leaders Chemnitzer FC for cooperation.

To "refinance" the entry should the company according to Bild newspaper "safe victories" have proposed what the association representatives as a paraphrasing for match-fixing. The CFC ended the negotiations and informed the NOFV and the prosecutor.

The spicy thing about it: That sports marketer is official cooperation partner of Germania Halberstadt. The company, which has its headquarters in Qingdao / China and a German branch in Wernigerode, was initially not reachable for an opinion.

In the case of Germania Halberstadt, the prosecution Neuruppin has meanwhile requested to take over the proceedings by the competent public prosecutor in Magdeburg. This was confirmed by a spokesman for the "Volksstimme".