Cases of alleged match-fixing in the second division have alerted teams fighting relegation.
Colombia.- Five teams are battling to avoid relegation in the Liga BetPlay in Colombia: Patriotas,
Jaguares, Envigado, Boyacá Chicó, and Fortaleza
. Recently, there have been suspicions that external actors might be trying to influence the average in Colombian football.
For this reason, yesterday, Tuesday, November 5, the club Boyacá Chicó issued a statement mentioning the possible involvement of players in "betting against the team".
See also: Colombia will have the first public policy on responsible gaming in Latin America
“The club has received information that is being analyzed about possible bets against the institution by some players of the professional squad,” the statement said.
It also states that once the directors have full certainty about the veracity of the evidence, they will report to the competent authorities to initiate legal proceedings against those responsible.
“The corresponding disciplinary procedures will be initiated, ensuring the right to due process, with the presentation of evidence and testimonies,” adds the statement from Boyacá Chicó.
It is worth noting that this is not the first case in which a club from Boyacá has denounced possible manipulations of results or the intervention of sports betting in Colombian professional football. The president of Patriotas, for example, had already pointed out similar situations after the exclusion of a player from the squad.
In that case, alleged match-fixing in games of Patriotas against Jaguares, Fortaleza, and Águilas Doradas were mentioned, in which some players from the Boyacá squad might have influenced. However, no official resolution of that investigation has been announced so far.
Additionally, several coaches from the second division have pointed out that this category is particularly vulnerable to the influence of betting, due to the low salaries of the footballers, which leads some of them to accept proposals from third parties in search of additional income.
At the end of 2023, the president of the Major Division of Colombian Football (Dimayor), Fernando Jaramillo, acknowledged that there are alerts about match-fixing. “We have had alerts about matches in the B tournament and actions have been taken to start investigation processes,” the executive indicated.
