Police to appoint team to investigate match-fixing

By REBECCA ANNA STOIL
Police Chief Insp.-Gen. Moshe Karadi announced Thursday that he would appoint a special investigative team to examine the evidence that has been gathered recently with regard to soccer-game fixing. The team will be led by Asst.-Cmdr. Haim Ifargan, and will be staffed by members of the National Unit for Economic Crimes. Police are currently investigating two cases of match-fixing - the case involving Hapoel Kfar Saba goalie Oshri Levi, and a second case involving a number of players from Hapoel Beersheba. A third potential match-fixing scandal is currently being probed by the Israel Football Association, and police have not yet decided whether a criminal investigation will be opened. In at least one of the cases under investigation, police believe that organized crime figures had a pivotal role in fixing the matches.