On September 24, former Valencia CF president Paco Roig revealed that during his tenure, he had attempted to manipulate matches by bribing referees, but the referee in question ended up working against his team.
Roig recounted the situation: “In the first round of the 1996-97 UEFA Cup, Valencia faced Bayern Munich. In the first leg at home, Valencia won 3-0. Despite having a significant advantage, playing away in Munich was very tough. To be safe, I had the idea of bribing the referee for the second leg.”
Roig continued: “At the time, this was quite common. An intermediary approached me and said, ‘The referee for this match, Nikolay Levnikov, is a scoundrel, but fortunately, I have a good relationship with him and can help take care of everything, provided you give me 3 million pesetas, which I did.’
Roig recounted the events of the match: ‘Just three minutes into the game, Ziege scored for Bayern. Later in the match, the referee awarded Bayern a penalty, but fortunately, Klinsmann missed it. Although we lost 0-1 away, we still advanced due to our 3-0 win in the first leg. Look at what the referee did to us; he was such a scoundrel.’
Former Valencia President: Fixing Football Matches Was Common, I Tried But the Referee Took the Money and Worked Against Us. Author：Sports UEFA.Please indicate the source when reproduced：https://www.sportsuefa.com/football-world/former-valencia-president-fixing-football-matches-was-common-i-tried-but-the-referee-took-the-money-and-worked-against-us.html
