A former Serbian gangster has claimed he tried to fix a Manchester United Champions League tie in 2002.

Sir Alex Ferguson's men won the match against Zalaegerszeg TE of Hungary at a canter, taking a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes. It finished 5-0, after goalkeeper Sasa Ilic was sent off.

United had in fact lost 1-0 away to the minnows - who now play in a regional second division - but romped to victory at Old Trafford thanks to two goals from Ruud van Nistelrooy, and others from David Beckham, Paul Scholes and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

But speaking to The Sun, a former gangster known only as Karesz, has revealed he was the middle man and translater for a crime network that spread across Europe making tens of millions of pounds of fixed matches.

He said: 'I arranged a meeting at a cafe in Zalaegerszeg. I sat at a different table until the business was taken care of.

'Huge best were going to be lauid that ZTE were to lose by a minimum of three goals.'

There is no suggestion that United were aware of any wrongdoing, and a spokesman said: 'We are unaware of any such allegations.'

'Karesz' added that more than 10 criminals met monthly in the Hungarian capital of Budapest to plot their next fix.


The revelations come after crime agency Europol announced the results of an investigation into match fixing, in which they claim 380 matches spanning 15 countries have been considered 'suspicious', while 425 officials and players may also have been involved.

It was also reported that Liverpool's 2009 victory over another Hungarian side, Debrecen, at Anfield had been successfully targeted by a far eastern betting ring.

Debrecen goalkeeper Vukasin Poleksic was allegedly paid to ensure there were more than two goals in the match — something he failed to engineer. Liverpool won the game 1-0 and had seven shots on target — including one from Fernando Torres that Poleksic palmed into the path of Dirk Kuyt for the winner

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