Cases
Thursday, February 1, 2018
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UEFA is following a strict zero-tolerance policy, and serious sanctions (including lifetime bans from football) have been imposed in cases where players, officials or referees were found guilty of breaching these provisions.
Close cooperation involving the exchange of information between public authorities and sports bodies is essential. Indeed, it is vital that criminal investigations can benefit from a good insight into the unique features of the sports sector and sports betting markets. This would be of assistance in the detection and prosecution of serious crime.
At the same time, disciplinary measures taken by the sporting authorities (often using information made available as a result of a state criminal investigation) can serve as an effective deterrent for those in the sporting community. The effective application of sporting sanctions will generally depend on the existence of a close working relationship between sports bodies and state authorities, so that intelligence obtained in the context of criminal investigations is readily imparted to sports bodies for the purposes of their own disciplinary procedures.
All in all, there seems to be a consensus calling for the establishment of appropriate means of sharing information between sports disciplinary services and public investigatory and prosecuting authorities. Close collaboration and direct communication between the different parties is paramount.
Based on the mutual cooperation between UEFA and Europol, other law enforcement agencies around Europe and the daily reports of the UEFA betting fraud detection system – which UEFA manages with the collaboration of the international company Sportradar – listed below are some of the most important cases prosecuted by UEFA and forwarded to the UEFA disciplinary bodies in the last years:
| Case | Decision | Year |
| FK Pobeda | Club: 8 year ban from UEFA competitions President: life ban | 2009 |
| Tomislav Šetka | One year and six months suspension | 2010 |
| Novo Panić | Life ban | 2010 |
| Oleg Oriekhov | Life ban | 2010 |
| Vukašin Poleksić | One year and six months suspension | 2010 |
| Olympiacos Volou FC | One year of ineligibility in UEFA competitions | 2011 |
| SK Sigma Olomouc | One year of ineligibility in UEFA competitions | 2012 |
| Kevin Sammut | Life ban* | 2012 |
| Fenerbahçe SK | Two years of ineligibility in UEFA competitions | 2013 |
| Beşiktaş JK | One year of ineligibility in UEFA competitions | 2013 |
| FC Metalist Kharkiv | One year of ineligibility in UEFA competitions | 2013 |
| Vasile Mungiu | Life ban | 2013 |
| Andranik Arsenyan & Hovhannes Avagyan | Life ban | 2013 |
| Eskişehirspor | One year of ineligibility in UEFA competitions | 2014 |
| Sivasspor | One year of ineligibility in UEFA competitions | 2014 |
| KF Skënderbeu | One year of ineligibility in UEFA competitions | 2016 |
| Luke Montebello | One year suspension | 2018 |
| Ryan Camenzuli | One year and six months suspension | 2018 |
| Llywelyn Cremona | One year suspension | 2018 |
| Samir Arab | Two year suspension | 2018 |
All these cases have been confirmed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), in the case in which the party lodged an appeal against the previous decision rendered by UEFA.
*In the case of Kevin Sammut, the CAS reduced the sanction to 10 years.