The Disciplinary Committee of the Bulgarian Football Union (BFS) has fined two former top division clubs for match-fixing, following concerns raised by European football’s governing body, UEFA. ‘On the basis of Article 46, paragraph 6, b. A and B of the Disciplinary Code 2014/2015, the Disciplinary Committee punished PFC “Marek” Dupnitsa with a fine of BGN210,000 [€107,400]’, read a 21 July statement from the BFS, which also announced that its Disciplinary Committee had ‘punished PFC “Haskovo” city with a fine of BGN10,000 [€5,100]’ for the same offences.

The statement said that the Disciplinary Committee of the BFS had decided to fine the clubs after the BFS’s integrity expert had received information from UEFA that the clubs had ‘pre-arranged’ a number of football matches, however did not go into further detail. It is understood that UEFA became suspicious after tracking betting patterns. UEFA has an agreement with Sportradar until 2019, which provides information from over 30,000 matches across Europe per season to the UEFA Betting Fraud Detection System. This allows UEFA to monitor the top two divisions in each of its 54 member associations.

Marek Dupnitsa (also known as Mapek Dupnitsa) and Haskovo were both relegated from Bulgaria’s top division at the end of last season, and it is understood that both clubs are in debt. Marek was fined BGN10,000 (€5,100) in October last year for match-fixing in the top division and in May 2015, the BFS denied it a licence to compete in European competition due to its outstanding debts.

In April, the BFS alerted police to allegations of match-fixing in its second division. Officials from five clubs other than Mapek Dupnitsa and Haskovo were called to give evidence.