Bolivia cancels top football competitions amid corruption scandal
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September 5, 2023
Bolivia's top two professional football tournaments were canceled on Tuesday amid investigations into alleged match-fixing.
The Bolivian Football Federation (FBF) confirmed the decision after meeting with representatives of all 17 top-flight clubs and nine regional football associations.
The participants voted overwhelmingly in favor of declaring the current editions of the national league and the domestic Simon Bolivar Cup void.
"It has been decided to cancel the round robin tournament and the professional cup... serious indications have been found that both tournaments have been vitiated," FBF president Fernando Costa told a news conference.
On Monday, the FBF filed a report with La Paz prosecutors in which it alleged that players, officials and referees were involved in a sprawling corruption ring that rigged matches.
Costa said the FBF planned to stage an abridged tournament until the end of the year, in which places for international competitions such as the Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana would be decided.
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All 17 clubs of Bolivia’s first division took part in the meeting, and 14 agreed to stop the two competitions. Two clubs were against it and one abstained.
The majority of top-flight Bolivian clubs also fired the three members of the country’s refereeing commission — Alejandro Mancilla, Wilson Estrada and Juan Carlos Cardozo.
Some Bolivian club executives said in separate statements that some of their players were also caught in the scheme, without revealing their names.
Fernando Costa, the president of country’s soccer body, said on Aug. 30 there was “a web of corruption” in Bolivian soccer that included referees, players and club executives, but did not give names.
Local media published on Monday several recordings that were interpreted as confirmation of his charges.