Brussels (AFP)

Belgian police raided the premises of Sporting Charleroi and KRC Genk on Wednesday as part of a large investigation launched at the end of 2018 into transfers of suspected fraudulent players, the Belgian federal prosecutor's office told AFP.

It is about the investigation known as of "Belgian Footballgate", sometimes also nicknamed "Operation clean hands", and more precisely of "section of this file on the transfers of players", underlined Wenke Roggen, spokesperson of the parquet floor .

However, she did not specify which transfers were in question. The searches were carried out by the judicial police of Limburg (north).

On its website, Sporting de Charleroi, which finished third in the last championship (shortened due to Covid-19), assured that "the search, which lasted an hour, went perfectly".

"Concerned about the good conduct of the investigation," the club said it had "fully cooperated in providing investigators with documents relating to certain transfers of players".

Sporting de Charleroi is directed by the French businessman of Iranian origin Mehdi Bayat, who has also been the president of the RBFA, the Belgian Football Federation, for the past year.

Mehdi Bayat is also the brother of Mogi Bayat, ex-leader of the same club and central figure of "footballgate", who broke up in October 2018.

One of the most powerful player agents in Belgium, Mogi Bayat, was charged in this case and briefly imprisoned in the fall of 2018.

He is suspected of having "manipulated" several transfers in order to increase the amount of his commissions, with the complicity of agents, clubs or companies based in France, England and Luxembourg.

Another players' agent, Dejan Veljkovic, was also implicated in the file. He accepted the status of repentant at the end of 2018 for a suspended prison sentence, and is now collaborating in the investigation.

In February 2019, a series of searches and hearings had been carried out, targeting people close to Mr. Veljkovic's entourage as well as those of the KRC Genk and Sporting Lokeren clubs. Genk, quadruple champion of Belgium (the last time in 2019), was already in the crosshairs of the investigators.

In total, around twenty people (agents, referees, players, managers) have already been charged in the investigation led by an investigating judge from Tongeren (north-east). In addition to the questionable transfers, a second part concerns two matches allegedly rigged in March 2018.

© 2020 AFP