The Court of Sports Justice of Ceará (TJD-CE) provisionally suspended two athletes from Guarani de Juazeiro on suspicion of participating in a game manipulation scheme with criminal groups. Player names have not been announced. The matches in which the facts would have happened were promoted on July 5, by Taça Fares Lopes.
The competition is promoted in the second half of the year by the Ceará Football Federation (FCF) to grant a calendar to teams in the state that are not in any national competition or so that traditional teams, such as Fortaleza, can give athletes a game pace. Guarani de Juazeiro faced Iguatu for the second round and was defeated by 6-0.
The company Sportradar, partnered by FCF to monitor sports betting and cross-check data that recognizes possible manipulation of results, sent the organization a study on the possibility that the two Guarani players “are practicing acts contrary to sports fairness with blatant indications of involvement in sports betting”.
What the players may have accomplished is being kept under wraps. The summary of the confrontation, signed by the referee Francisco Willame da Silva Ferreira, indicates that five of the six goals happened in the second stage, in just 21 minutes.
In addition, only Guarani players were punished with yellow cards in the match: five in total and two in stoppage time.
Manipulation scheme may be investigated by the Public Ministry of Ceará
The board of the Ceará Football Federation (FCF) forwarded the Sportradar documentation to members of the TJD-CE, who decided on the temporary suspension of two athletes.
The case will now be investigated by the court’s attorney, and the data can be sent to the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Ceará so that it can be dealt with in the civil and criminal spheres.
Operation Maximum Penalty
In recent months, especially after the investigation by the Goiás prosecutor’s office, there have been several cases of players suspected of involvement in a manipulation scheme.
In all, the Public Ministry of Goiás has already denounced at least 17 people in Operation Maximum Penalty. The STJD (Superior Court of Sports Justice) punished several players, with penalties that reached the banning of football.
