SV Grodig’s Match Fixing Scandal

When writing my last column for Red Issue the subject matter centered around Austria’s SV Grodig, a small provisional Football Club who now compete in the Austrian Bundesliga after an astonishing rise through lower league football. It’s the stuff of dreams and the type of story that fascinates us football fans but that dream recently turned into a nightmare!

To give you the background on this story and why I wrote such a column my Austrian wife Miriam grew up in the area and I found myself following the fortunes of the club from afar. Up until only one month ago Grodig occupied the giddy heights of second place in the Bundesliga after a fearless start to the new season. Austria’s big boys Red Bull Salzburg was well and truly in their sights then suddenly and without warning the wheels fell off. Their story started to make international news but for all the wrong reasons. This football club whose average gate is 1300 fans was embroiled in a match-fixing scandal.

I first became aware of the story while sitting at my desk in Doha preparing for another busy Champions League show on Al Jazeera Sport. Imagine my surprise when glancing through the Guardian online website that SV Grodig’s name should pop up alongside the eye-catching headline “The Austrian footballer who stood up to match-fixers – or did he” The piece goes into detail about Grodig’s Dominique Taboga who allegedly reported to his club that he was being blackmailed for more than seventy three grand by a gang of criminals after turning down their offer to fix matches. That wasn’t all, it was also reported that the player was held at gun-point and made to confess his match-fixing involvement on camera by the gang. SV Grodig stood by their man!

Then it all turned ugly. Three gang members were arrested including former SV Grodig and Austria Vienna star Sane Kulijic. Fast forward seven days and Taboga surprisingly confessed that he paid the gang twenty five grand and retracted his earlier claim he had been held at gun-point! Kulijic’s lawyer claimed Taboga was paying back money that Kulijic had lent him when Taboga had fallen on hard times! Taboga under pressure from all who had recently supported him then confessed that he had attempted to incite four team-mates into throwing games last season! You will not be surprised to learn that SV Grodig sacked him with immediate effect!

Having spent a week in Austria at the beginning of December it was impossible not to notice the story dominating all news outlets from the local papers to Austria’s number one rated channel ORF. It was an unwelcomed topic of debate amongst all the locals and I found myself engrossed in the story. I decided a trip to the Untersberg Arena was a must to see how the scandal had affected the club overall. It just so happened that Grodig were hosting reigning Champions Austria Vienna the very day I secured two tickets for my wife and I. Upon arriving at the ground which can only be described as a coming together of scaffolding and advertising hoardings Miriam and I were approached by three different television reporters looking for a quick interview. We respectfully turned down their offers. This really was big news!

The attendance for the game was a poultry 1400 with 200 making the trip from Vienna. The chants from the Vienna end for ninety minutes consisted mainly of the word “pfui” which means “dirty” but there was nothing dirty about Grodig’s style of play that cold Saturday afternoon. Against all the odds and with a pinch of good fortune Grodig won the game 1-0 thanks to a goal from Stefan Nutz on 63 minutes. Take into consideration Vienna held Porto in their penultimate game in the Champions League the previous Wednesday this made Grodig’s victory that little bit more special. While all the good stuff was done on the pitch off the park the problems continued with the club terminating the contract of defender Thomas Zundel who admitted meeting the alleged match-fixers with Taboga even though he stands by his claim he never took part in any match-fixing. The playing squad was now being stretched to its limit!

To bring this column to its conclusion Grodig lost their very next match against FC Wacker Innsbruck 5-3 with three of their key players all receiving red cards. With the squad down to its bare bones their head coach Adi Hutter was forced to call upon untested reserve players for their critical game against SV Josko Reid at the Untersberg Arena last Saturday. With temperatures plummeting after the area was hit by snow storms the inexperienced Grodig side somehow found the inner strength to overcome all the odds and once again and record a famous 3-0 victory thanks to goals from Tadej Trdina and a brace from Austrian Bundesliga top-scorer Philip Zulechner who netted his 14^th and 15^th goals of the season. Those goals and the all-important three points kept Hutter’s side in contention quite remarkably for a Champions League qualifying berth.

It remains to be seen though what will become of the match-fixing scandal with the story continuing to develop daily. I for one sincerely hope the club come through it and continue their remarkable rise to the top. At the time of writing Dominique Taboga and Sane Kulijic are both in jail awaiting trial.