FIFA to investigate friendly

FIFA will launch an investigation into Wednesday’s friendly between Bulgaria and Estonia, which finished 2-2 with all four goals from penalties.

The game was staged in the Turkish resort of Antalya by the Thailand-based sports agency Footy Sport International, and suspicions have been aroused by some irregular betting activity on the match, prompting FIFA to launch the probe.

Latvia defeated Bolivia 2-1 at the same venue earlier on Wednesday, and all three goals in that game also came from the penalty spot.

Also causing confusion is the choice of officials for the Bulgaria-Estonia match, with reports from the Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) and Estonian Football Association citing the referee as Hungary’s Krisztian Selmeczi.

But Hungarian referees’ boss Laszlo Wagner said the man who actually refereed the game was another Hungarian official, Kolos Lengyel.

Estonian FA spokesman Mikhel Uiboleht said on Thursday that his organisation had been warned about the possibility of the match being interfered with.

“The friendly was organised by an agency with whom we will not work anymore,” Uiboleht said.

“We received information of possible manipulation even before the game as the same agency also organised the match between Latvia and Bolivia and there was the same scenario there.”

Bulgaria coach Lothar Matthaus said the experience of playing Estonia was one he was not keen to repeat in the near future.

“I do not want more matches like the one against Estonia,” Matthaus said.

“It is very hard to motivate the players in such a gloomy atmosphere especially when they play before some 100 spectators.”

“From now on, I hope that Bulgaria will play friendlies against big teams and I am ready to assist with my contacts for the fixing of such matches.”