Has this been mentioned yet?
French betting authority investigates Lyon's Champions League win
The Guardian, Thursday 8 December 2011 21.09 GMT
Mark Clattenburg has emerged as the key figure in Uefa's investigations of Dinamo Zagreb's extraordinary 7-1 home defeat by Lyon in the Champions League on Wednesday night.
Uefa is waiting for the Premier League referee's report into the controversial match, during which his fellow Englishmen Mike Mullarkey and Peter Kirkup were running the lines. Lee Probert, another elite English referee, was fourth official, and Kevin Friend and Andre Marriner were the by-line assistants. The conclusions in Clattenburg's report will influence whether Uefa takes its inquiries into the events any further after the result permitted the French team to progress to the last 16 of the competition at the expense of Ajax.
Dinamo had been down to 10 men after Clattenburg sent off Jerko Leko 28 minutes into the game. What made the result all the more remarkable was that at the end of normal time in the first half the Croatian side had been 1-0 up.
The French Autorité de Régulation des Jeux en Ligne (Arjel) on Thursday carried out checks to establish if any suspicious betting took place around the match but reported that it found nothing out of the ordinary in the total amount gambled online with French operators, the number of bets, their spread, or in how odds evolved during the game.
Uefa's betting fraud detection system (BFDS), which monitors betting patterns in every match in its competitions, has been consulted for evidence of any irregular betting patterns around the match. However, Uefa indicated on Thursday afternoon that it had found no instances to justify an inquiry on betting grounds. Its president, Michel Platini, said he had "no doubts whatsoever about the integrity of the match or the competition".
A spokeswoman for Uefa said: "We look at every match automatically through the BFDS system then it becomes another matter if anything is found," said a spokeswoman for Uefa.
"We always also look at the reports from officials because they are briefed on any issues relating to match fixing. If there's anything suspicious – which is rare – it will be mentioned by them. But we are still waiting on those reports."
Lyon confirmed Arjel is undertaking inquiries in a statement that said: "Olympique Lyonnais are aware of the checks being conducted this morning by Arjel, which are completely in tune with the procedures of the governing body for online betting.
"The club totally approves of this action that is undertaken whenever a sporting result is considered unusual and we regret that comments have not been confined to the sporting aspect of an incredible achievement both for Olympique Lyonnais and French football as a whole."
The Ajax coach, Frank de Boer, said Uefa should investigate the Lyon match if it was suspected anything unusual had gone on. "If there was something unusual, Uefa should investigate what happened in Zagreb," De Boer was quoted as saying by ESPN Soccernet.
Bernard Lacombe, Lyon's sporting director, offered a more emotional perspective on the inquiries. "It's total rubbish, people should stop saying such things," he said. "Did they open an investigation at half-time when it was 1-1? I don't give a damn what the Ajax manager says. Apparently we are also responsible for the refereeing of the match in Amsterdam."
Dinamo, who have parted company with their coach, Krunoslav Jurcic, also issued angry denials of any wrongdoing in the game. "It is tendentious, outrageous and malicious to declare the recent Champions League match [between] Dinamo [and] Lyon in Maksimir suspicious," the club said. "Dinamo again strongly condemns all insinuations in the media, both foreign, and domestic, of favouring any results. If the insinuations in the media continue, GNK Dinamo will take all legal measures to protect their rights."
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