UEFA Slap Europa League Officials with Life Bans

UEFA have handed referee Andranik Arsenyan and assistant Hovhannes Avagyan lifetime bans for attempting to manipulate the outcome of a Europa League game.

The Armenian officials took care of the FC Inter Turku vs. Vikingur Europa League qualifier in July and have now heard of their punishment from the UEFA Control and Disciplinary Body (CDB).

An official statement from UEFA read: “In a hearing at the FFA, denture referee Arsenyan and assistant referee Avagyan admitted having tried to manipulate the outcome of the second-leg fixture, which ended 1-0 in favour of Víkingur.

“The UEFA betting fraud detection system (BFDS)… had detected suspicious betting patterns around this encounter, and this prompted the start of an investigation by UEFA, to which the FFA contributed closely.

“UEFA is pleased with the excellent cooperation of the FFA, the local authorities and the betting operators during the investigation process.”