The Georgian Football Federation thanked the Ministry of Internal Affairs for its work and cooperation in the ongoing investigation of suspicious matches in the national championship. The GFF released statement on its official site.

“The Georgian Football Federation has been actively cooperating with the Ministry of Internal Affairs for a long time. During the year the GFF has sent official letter to the MIA several times and asked to check information received from UEFA about the suspicious matches in the national championship.

Several weeks ago heads of the GFF met heads of the MIA Anti-corruption Agency and the issue about the investigation of the fixed matches was raised.

The MIA asked for two weeks for the investigation.

The Georgian Football Federation is thankful to the MIA for its work and cooperation. The investigation is under way and hopefully, everybody who is involved in this corruption will be responsible” – says the statement.

Today the officers of the MIA Anti-corruption Agency detained 8 Georgian referees on the fact of commercial bribery: Otar Khetsadze, Irakli Urushadze, Mamuka Urushadze, Teimuraz Khuchua (all national category), Aleksandre Guntadze, Zviad Askarogli (first category), Onise Molodinashvili (national category assistant) and Tornike Gvantseladze (FIFA referee).

According to the official site of the MIA, the investigation established that the detained referees made agreements with citizens on the number of red and yellow cards in return for 2500 to 5000 USD.

The Georgian Football Federation is holding a press conference on the mentioned issue.