Players from Victorian Premier League club the Southern Stars, based in Melbourne’s south-east suburbs, fronted a committal hearing earlier this week against two former players and former coach Zia Younan, who are facing allegations of match fixing.
Two Britons, David Obaze and Nicholas McKoy, who joined the club last year, are facing police allegations that they obtained financial gains from conduct that influenced betting outcomes. Police claim that they were rewarded with cash, accommodation and rental vehicles.
Captain Ramazan Tavsancioglu told the Melbourne Magistrates Court that he was not privy to any match fixing at the club.
“No player goes out there to lose a game,” Mr Tavsancioglu said. “Everyone has a bad day at the office … but it wasn’t consistent enough for one player to be singled out from another.”
In his police statement Tavsancioglu said the club’s poor season last year was very depressing.
“During the season we only won one game, that was against Northcote,” he said.
“I was a bit depressed about the number of games we lost, as a captain I would wear a lot of the blame for the losses, I felt as though I was letting the team
down by us not winning any games.”
“We trained really hard week in, week out and everyone was fighting for a position in the team, then come game day it was like the players were hiding.”
He said did not suspect his coach of match fixing.
His teammate Andrew Viola also gave evidence in court.
In his police statement Viola said that he was frustrated by decisions made by the club.
“I felt that the English players and the European players seemed to be playing all the time towards the end of the season.”
“It didn’t matter how they were performing, it appeared that they were always picked and always playing … I felt upset when I was being taken off when clearly some of these players were performing to a lower standard than myself, however they remained on the field.
“I felt disheartened and a little disengaged towards soccer.”
Source: ABC News