The Betplay Dimayor 2024-II League reaches its final stage. This Thursday the eight teams that will play in the quadrangles of the Colombian first division soccer championship and those that will be relegated to League B will be defined. The day, exciting for thousands of fans, will not be free of controversy. The tournament has a long shadow over it due to the suspicions brought to light in recent weeks that some players from teams such as Envigado, Boyacá Chicó or Patriotas are fixing matches in illegal betting schemes. The claims have increased pressure for Dimayor, the private organization that manages professional football, to resolve doubts and ensure the legitimacy of one of the oldest competitions on the continent.
The most recent case was revealed just a week ago. Boyacá Chicó, in the first division since 2023, officially announced that it was carrying out an internal study of alleged bets “by players belonging to the professional squad.” The announcement came a week after a high-profile match against Deportivo Independiente Medellín, in which the Boyacense team was harshly criticized for its poor performance after being eliminated from the Cup despite having a three-goal advantage. It is suspected that the footballers played against the team. “Once the study is carried out, the disciplinary processes will begin,” he says.
Another recent scandal affects Envigado from Antioquia, which at the beginning of October reported to the Dimayor and the Attorney General’s Office that Leyder Marcelo Robledo, a footballer who arrived on loan from Real Cartagena, fixed one of the few matches he managed to play before. of being removed from the squad. The team’s stay in the first division is at stake this Thursday.
Víctor Delgado, legal director of the Central sports agency, indicates that illegal betting is a problem that has been growing for several years. “The legalization of online sports betting [Colombia fue el primer país de Latinoamérica en hacerlo, en 2016] “The risk of bettors’ interference in the results has increased,” he says by phone. Remember that responsibilities will be transferred, in principle, to the players. “Most likely they have signed clauses in their employment contracts not to engage in any illegal activity and match-fixing is a clear crime of fraud,” he adds.
Although two affected teams have publicly demonstrated their rejection, an atmosphere of distrust has been created. Javier Hernández Bonet, one of the most reputable sports journalists, maintained in the program he directs on Blu Radio that “no one is believing in anyone.” “Before they said ‘these journalists do invent, how they strain the atmosphere’, but those who don’t like [que se hable del tema] “They are the ones who do not provide a solution to the problem.” The communicator suggested that the fixing involves important matches, such as the league final in the second half of 2023, between Independiente Medellín and Junior de Barranquilla. “Although no charges were made, there were players whose contracts were terminated due to distrust,” he said.
Investigations underway
One of the most recent exemplary sanctions was announced in August. The Dimayor Disciplinary Commission sanctioned Carlos Augusto Rivas, former Patriotas player, with two years of inability to play professional soccer and to access any stadium in which an official match is played. According to the investigation, the athlete fixed a match in January, when his team lost 2-0 against Fortaleza, another of the teams tainted by the scandal. Rivas tried to convince some of his colleagues to manipulate the result, according to the investigation.
Added to this measure is the case of Unión Magdalena—a second division team—which removed eight of its players who are being investigated by the Prosecutor’s Office for this crime.
The owner of Boyacá Chicó, Eduardo Pimentel, has denounced that in many cases there is foreign intervention. “A person offers 1 million dollars in an A, B or C match in any country in South America and Colombia is one of the preferred countries,” he told the newspaper. The Time. Expert Delgado emphasizes that this is a transnational crime. “If it is confirmed that there is a network of organized characters who bribe or pay players to do or not do actions in a match in order to favor a bet, we will be talking about a criminal enterprise,” he points out.
Against this backdrop, Dimayor has hired the services of multinationals that monitor sports federations and soccer leagues, such as Genius Sport or Sportsradar. “The organization and its affiliates recognize a new threat in sport and are looking for allies to combat this scourge that affects us all,” says Fernando Jaramillo, president of the organization. The Time.
Illegal betting on football is a global problem that is expanding in such relevant leagues as the Premier League (England) or Serie A (Italy). It is also an issue that has affected several renowned footballers, such as the Brazilian Lucas Paquetá, a West Ham player, accused in May by the English Football Association of intentionally exposing himself to yellow cards. Another notorious incident was that of the Italian Sandro Tonali, now at Newcastle. The Italian federation sanctioned him with a 10-month ban without playing in what is known as Betting Casewhich involved several players from the national team blue.
