An operation is investigating the involvement of Juventude player Ênio and other individuals in an alleged match-fixing scheme. The Special Task Force to Combat Organized Crime of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Rio Grande do Sul (GAECO/MPRS) is responsible for the operation, which takes place this Tuesday (20), in Caxias do Sul.
According to reports, two search and seizure warrants are being served, one at the athlete’s residence and the other at the Alfredo Jaconi Stadium. There, the player’s personal locker was searched.
In a statement, the athlete’s advisors said that they remain at the disposal of the authorities as one of the main interested parties in fully clarifying the case.
“Since the matter became public, Ênio has maintained his stance of effectively contributing to ensuring that the truth becomes official and becomes generally known. The athlete’s sole objective has always been and continues to be to perform his profession in a dignified, loyal and honest manner”, the statement said.
Recently, the company that represents the player, RCF, also issued a statement in which it stated that there was no concrete evidence to support the suspicions about the athlete.
The objective of the operation is to gather evidence that Ênio would have received an advantage — financial or non-financial — to purposefully provoke the application of yellow cards in at least two Juventude matches.
The suspicion is that people close to the athlete placed the bet knowing this information beforehand.
Understand Ênio’s case and his relationship with Juventude
The suspicions are that the case involves a yellow card received by the player in the match against Fortaleza. The match ended with Juventude’s 5-0 defeat, on the 10th of this month, in the Série A of the Brazilian Championship.
According to reports, sportsbooks received an abnormal volume of bets for the athlete to receive the card. In addition, a similar case was recorded by bookmakers on another occasion.
This time, in the first round of Série A, in the game against Vitória. On that occasion, Juventude beat the Bahian team 2-0, at the Alfredo Jaconi stadium, in Caxias do Sul. The athlete also received a yellow card that raised suspicions in the monitoring and integrity mechanisms.
At the time, a document was sent to the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF). The CBF then distributed the document to bodies such as the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Attorney General’s Office of the Superior Court of Sports Justice (STJD) and state federations.
