Football clubs “Wings of the Soviets” and “Krasnodar” accused the sports website Sports.ru of “purposefully discrediting” Russian football. The joint statement of the clubs appeared in response to the publication of material in which opinions are expressed about whether the match between Krasnodar and Krylya Sovetov was fixed.
Sports.ru accused of discrediting Russian football
Football clubs “Wings of the Soviets” and “Krasnodar” accused the sports website Sports.ru of “purposefully discrediting” Russian football. A joint statement on the websites of the clubs appeared in response to the publication of material in which opinions were expressed about whether the match between Krasnodar and Krylya Sovetov was fixed.
The game between Krasnodar and the Samara club took place on April 13 and ended with the victory of Krylia Sovetov with a score of 3:0. On April 14, the Sports.ru website published the article “Knew about the fixed match between Krasnodar and Krylia in three days.” All about the main scandal of the tour.” It provides opinions about the match of four people – the co-owner of “Wings” Andrey Pashkov, the owner of “Krasnodar” Sergei Galitsky, the executive director of the Premier League Sergei Cheban, as well as a man with the nickname Dimitrovich, who sells information about fixed matches on the Internet. Of all four respondents, only Dimitrovich called the match fixed.
“A 19-year-old blogger by the name of Voronin, who only recently left the school bench, referring to the words of a certain “Dimitrovich”, makes unfounded accusations,” the clubs said in a statement.
The statement notes that Sports.ru is owned by German Tkachenko, who owns the sports agency Prosports Management and advises Anji Makhachkala. The statement says that Krasnodar and Wings of the Soviets do not understand the purpose for which Dimitrovich's statements appear on Sports.ru. “It seems to us that it is high time for the competent authorities to figure out who is hiding behind this Internet nickname – a lone swindler or an organized group of scammers,” the authors of the statement continue.
Krasnodar and Wings of the Soviets noted that they are going to apply to law enforcement agencies, as well as file a lawsuit for defamation and protection of the business reputation of the clubs. Who can be the defendant in this lawsuit, the statement does not specify.
Blogger Dimitrovich wrote on his Twitter that he was not afraid of a lawsuit and promised to provide information about Krasnodar. The blogger said that in the Krasnodar Territory there is a “football group” that influences the results of the club's matches. Some of the Krasnodar players, according to Dimitrovich, turned to this group, offering to surrender the match for a lot of money.