This Monday, 21st, Altos informed that it will no longer have the side Anatoliy Negoda and midfielder Dmitriy Andriyakhin for Série C of the Brazilian Championship. The Brazilian football team reported that this withdrawal occurred after becoming aware of the banning of the two players for carrying out sports betting in Russia.
According to GE.com, athletes arrived in Teresina recently to start training at Altos. Still without signing formal contracts, the duo took pictures with their official uniforms at the team’s Training Center. However, the discovery of the suspension of Negoda and Andriyakhin from Russian football caused problems in the final stage of negotiation.
According to the president of Altos, Warton Lacerda, the team preferred not to sign Russian athletes. Players are banned for five years for placing more than 500 bets each, a crime under Russian law. The midfielder stated that he did not know about this punishment.
“I contacted the company (which intermediated the negotiation and transfer) and I understood that, at this moment, it would not be possible for the players to stay here”, said the Brazilian leader.
Russian law prohibits athletes from placing bets on official competitions
In Russia, article 24 of Federal Law No. 329-FZ prohibits sportsmen from engaging in gambling at bookmakers and sweepstakes by betting on official sporting events. The five-year ban from the Russian Football Union was applied to the two athletes when they defended Metallurg Vidnoye, from the Russian league’s third division.
“My ban is only in Russia. In our country there is a law that the athlete cannot have an account on a sports betting site of the same modality that they operate, we used to play sports predictions in major clubs or minor leagues, but not in our teams because it would be wrong. But there is a law that didn’t allow it, so we were penalized for lack of knowledge”, explained Dmitriy Andriyakhin.
The Russian Football Union formalized the athletes’ removal on December 6, 2021. “Two football players from the Metallurg Vidnoye team were suspended from football activities for five years for gambling. Dmitry Andriakhin and Anatoly Negoda placed more than 500 bets ”, reads the message from the federation published on social networks.
