Charges were brought against 13 referees after collusion about the results of FC Torpedo matches

The results of 22 matches involving the Torpedo football club in the National Football League (FNL) were influenced by collusion with the referees, after these facts were revealed, 13 football referees were charged. This was announced on February 27 by the official representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia Irina Volk.

"During the investigation, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia have identified new episodes of illegal activities of the leaders of the Torpedo Moscow football club and sports referees. <...> Illegal actions were committed by collusion and subsequent transfer of funds," the department's Telegram channel says.

As a result of illegal actions, the results of at least 22 matches held in the Moscow region, as well as other regions of the Russian Federation, were affected. Charges were brought against 13 football referees under Part 4 of Article 184 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Unlawful influence on the result of an official sports competition").

All the defendants were given a preventive measure in the form of a written undertaking not to leave. The punishment under this article provides for imprisonment for up to seven years.

Torpedo was launched: the RFU expelled the club from the RPL for attempting to bribe the referee

For the first time in the history of Russian football, a corruption scandal has led to a change in the composition of the participants in the Premier League.

Yesterday it was reported that criminal cases were initiated against nine football referees after the investigation of the case against the former leadership of FC Torpedo. Among the defendants are RPL referees Egor Egorov, Ivan Saraev and Vladislav Tselovalnikov, as well as First League referees Yuri Karpov, Maxim Perezva, German Kovalenko, Kirill Silantyev and Oleg Sokolov. Igor Zakharov, an ex-referee of the First League, became another defendant.

In December last year, Judge Egorov was detained in the Moscow Torpedo case when he was trying to fly out of Russia. In June, FC co-owner Leonid Sobolev was also detained. A criminal case was opened against him, as well as the director of Torpedo, Valery Skorodumov, after they tried to bribe the referee by offering him 1 million rubles for winning the match. In October, Sobolev was released from jail, having previously changed the measure of restraint. He confessed in the case of bribery of arbitrators.

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