Birkirkara player investigated following match-fixing allegations

A Birkirkara FC player is being investigated by the competent authorities over “suspicious behaviour”, the club confirmed on Sunday.

In a statement following a news report by maltawinds.com which claimed that former Birkirkara FC coach Drazen Besek and goalkeeper Miroslav Kopric were involved in match-fixing, the four-time Maltese champions issued a statement to clarify that “one of its players” was being investigated by the competent authorities after the club’s committee received information about the player’s suspicious behaviour.

The club did not disclose the identity of the player currently under investigation.

“The committee would like to appeal for caution, and to let the competent authorities carry out their investigations,” it said.

Citing “informed sources”, maltawinds.com claimed that the Birkirkara goalkeeper was arrested for questioning on Friday evening, and that the case has been passed on to the police for investigation. The report claimed that members of the Birkirkara FC committee had caught Kopric “red handed with two mobiles in his vehicle with several betting contacts in them  [sic]” and other players as well as manager Drazen Besek are involved in the operation.

While insisting that the article was “fraught with inaccuracies, assumptions, speculation and outright lies,” the club’s committee said it has “utmost trust and faith in its [current] coach Nikola Jaros, and will support him fully in any legal action he deems appropriate to take in order to protect his good name.”