MOSCOW, November 28 (R-Sport) – Russian match-fixing investigators have ruled that Anzhi Makhachkala's 2-1 league win over Amkar Perm was clean in a preliminary probe.
Suspicions were raised when some bookmakers began refusing to take bets on Monday's game, which Guus Hiddink's team won 2-1 on an Oleg Shatov goal in injury time.
"We had to react because everyone was placing bets on Anzhi like crazy,” said Anzor Kavazashvili, the head of the Russian FA's committee on match-fixing.
“Today the members of the committee and the inspector of the match unanimously reported that there were no grievances against the teams as they had showed a competitive game from the beginning to the end.”
Anzhi chairman Konstantin Remchukov called claims the match might have been fixed "stupid."
Arranged matches have been notoriously common in Russian football, especially in the financially stricken decade following the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union, when opportunities to make a fast buck were rarely passed up.
Kavazashvili said that a consultant of the committee, referee Vladimir Levitin, still had reservations about the game that he will be able to air at a meeting on Thursday.
“If there is a slightest clue, we will continue to investigate," Kavazashvili said, adding the matter would be resolved Wednesday.
The win brought second-placed Anzhi within three points of Russian Premier League leaders CSKA Moscow.
Hiddink announced on Tuesday he would retire from coaching at the end of the season, regardless of whether the team achieves its aim of Champions League qualification.
