Mobsters Fixing Sporting Events... You Don't Say

A mildly successful soccer blog is passing along information found in an American-based sports publication that a leading Spanish newspaper is reporting that a Spanish judge has sent German prosecutors information suggesting Russian mobsters fixed last seasons UEFA Cup semifinal between Zenit St. Petersburg and Bayern Munich.

Okay, that's borderline plagiarism, but we couldn't resist piling on a couple of more parties given the opening paragraph of this report here in SI.com (a CNN Network Site).

The report is pretty thin on details but it mentions a taped conversation in which a "suspected" Russian mobster mentions a payout of 50 million of "an unspecified currency." A) Really, the SI link is so thin on info that if I quote (or paraphrase) much more of it, it will be reprinted here in its entirety. B) Let's hope for the sake of the fixee that the currency wasn't Zimbabwe Dollars, as about the time of the fixing was trading around ZW 250 million to $1 US.

Although maybe 20 cents is about right for a UEFA Cup semi.