Illustrative photo – Match of the 3rd round of the Czech football cup MOL Cup: Dukla Prague – Slavia Prague, October 19, 2022, Prague. From left, Jiří Hrubeš from Dukla and Ondřej Lingr from Slavia.
Prague – The Ethics Commission of the Football Association of the Czech Republic fined Dukla Prague 400,000 crowns for attempting to influence two matches of the First Football League in 2018. According to the commission's verdict, the then executive director of the Prague club Michal Šrámek tried to influence the match on the Slovácko pitch and the home duel with Brno through the former FAČR vice-chairman Roman Berber. The association announced the punishment on its website today.
Advertisement'; }
“Given that the decision was made today, we will not comment on it yet. Our original opinion, which we published earlier on the website, is still valid,” Dukla's press spokesman Jiří Doležel said when asked by ČTK.
In August, the chairman of the board of directors of the club, Bohumil Paukner, stated that the team from Julisky will possibly demand compensation through the court. “If anyone from Dukla violated this principle of ours (fair play) and acted behind my back, behind the back of the club owner, without our knowledge and against our will to play football with clean hands, Dukla will not hesitate to sue such a person and will request financial compensation for damage to reputation,” said Paukner in a statement on the club's website.
“However, such guilt would first have to be irrefutably proven. If this does not happen, Dukla will proceed in the same way against any legal entity, which damaged Dukla's good name,” Paukner declared.
The Ethics Commission of the FAČR started proceedings with Dukla, which has been playing in the second league since 2019, in August, originally due to the possible influence of three duels in the top competition. The case is connected with a large-scale affair surrounding Berbro, in connection with which the commission has already imposed several penalties. In December 2021, it expelled Vyšehrad from the third league, where official Roman Rogoz, another of the actors in the case, worked.
Berbr, along with two dozen other people, faces prosecution on suspicion of corruption and influencing the results of the second and third leagues.
Castle Chancellor Vratislav Mynář received a two-year ban from football and a fine of 50,000 crowns in November for violating the regularity of the top competition. Mynář was guilty on three occasions, each time during the match against Slovácko. According to the Seznam Zprávy server, Berbra asked for help, which, according to the investigators, related to the support or protection of 1. FC Slovácko from the referees – in the sense that they would not harm the club.
In December, Slavia sports director Jiří Bílek was suspended for ten months. According to the ethics committee, he committed a disciplinary offense by supporting Rogoz in influencing the Slavist B-team's match with the Příbram reserve in the third league. The Slavia official was fined 30,000 crowns and the Vršovice club 250,000. Slavia stated that it will immediately appeal the decision.
So far, the last club punished for trying to influence matches in the top league was Olomouc in 2011. The Hanáci were fined four million crowns and lost nine points in the table for trying to bribe Bohemians Prague players with the sum of 300,000 crowns before a match in May 2009. If Olomouc wins, it would qualify for the European League.
