By IANS,
Zagreb : Croatian police have arrested 22 people suspected of rigging football matches, including two national team players, local reports said Wednesday.
The capped NK Croatia Sesvete and Varteks Varazdin midfielders Jasmin Agic and Miljenko Mumlek were arrested along with other players, coaches and businessmen suspected of fixing the matches. Among the arrested were two Slovenian professionals.
The Jutarnji List daily said the ring, allegedly led by the former junior coach Vinko Saka, took 150,000-300,000 euros for each match they were to fix.
Facing certain relegation from the Croatian premier division, Sesvete allegedly intentionally dropped seven matches out of the last eight.
Saka had in the past coached youth selections of the country’s best-known team, Dinamo Zagreb, but neither Dinamo, nor any other of the top sides have been named in connection with tainted matches.
Croatian police said Tuesday they were cooperating with police in Germany and other European countries over suspicions of match-fixing abroad.
German prosecutors last year opened a match-fixing probe in Europe and have listed Croatia as one of the countries where incidents had occurred.
Police spokesman Krunoslav Borovec said the sting against match- rigging was launched in 2009 and that Croatian authorities were cooperating with their counterparts in Germany.