Mogi Bayat

This Iranian/French player manager, was arrested this morning in Belgium. Together with 2 top referees, Ivan Leko the coach of Belgian title holders Club Brugge and the ex-manager of RSC Anderlecht, Herman Van Holsbeeck. In total 44 adresses were swept for evidence of money laundering and matchfixing. Some other people were arrested too, but not everything is already clear.
There were also 13 search warrants granted in Croatia, France, Cyprus, Slovenia and Serbia.
9 of the top 16 clubs in the top league of Belgium, the Jupiler Pro League had a visit from detectives this morning.

Belgian football got a beating this morning, and a big one. But this really does not surprise me at all.
Mister Mogi Bayat ruled Belgian football like a tiran. Almost 90 % of the coaches and players active in Belgium use him as a manager to discuss contracts and transfers. He had a chokehold on Belgian football, and that can never be a good thing. He did transfers that no other manager could accomplish, and the money that was transferred was in some cases exuberant in comparison to the talent of the player. No wonder things got out of hand.

Match Fixing

There is were it all goes really wrong. In return for some transfers some match fixing deals were supposedly contracted. I have no proof of that, but people following Belgian football will definitely have had their doubts about some results in the past.
Now is the question, which players were involved, for what extent and what will be the consequence?

I am sure lawyers will make this a though game, and hopefully the sport will provail. But I have my doubts about the outcome of this. It is not a good day for football, but hopefully the future is bright!

Mogi Bayat

Ivan Leko

Sincerely,

Pele23