Arab Times

Etuhu found not guilty of match-fixing by Swedish court

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STOCKHOLM, Dec 6, (Agencies): Former Premier League soccer player Dickson Etuhu was found not guilty by a Swedish court on Thursday of attempting to fix the result of a 2017 league match between IFK Gothenburg and his former club, Stockholm’s AIK.

Etuhu was charged with trying to bribe his former AIK teammate, goalkeeper Kenny Stamatopou­los, to fix the result of the game.

The match, which was due to be played on May 18, 2017, was subsequent­ly postponed when Stamatopou­los informed his club about the alleged approach.

Midfielder Etuhu, 36, played at the 2010 World Cup for Nigeria and had a lengthy career in England for Manchester City, Preston North End, Norwich, Sunderland, Fulham and Blackburn Rovers before moving to play in Sweden.

The Stockholm district court, which heard testimony from the Etuhu and Stamatopou­los last week, said in its judgment that there was not enough evidence to support a conviction.

“To discuss a crime only in general terms is typically not punishable,” the court said in its judgment.

Italian soccer champions

challengin­g for an eighth consecutiv­e title with superstar

on-board, will be included in the benchmark FTSEMib stock index later this month, the Milan stock exchange said.

Rumours about the move pushed Serie A champions Juventus up by around 10 percent on Wednesday before the bourse announceme­nt was made in the late evening.

The stock will be included in the index, which groups 40 top shares in all, from Dec 27, it said.

Juventus first listed in December 2001 and remained little traded until the arrival of Ronaldo from

for this season. The shares were around 0.64 euros mid-year and jumped as high as 1.80 in September only to fall back.

At Wednesday’s close, the stock was quoted at 1.2 euros, giving the iconic club a market capitaliza­tion of around 1.1 billion euros ($1.25 billion).

UEFA has signed Visa as a sponsor of women’s soccer through 2025, giving the European body deals with three payment corporatio­ns.

UEFA says the seven-year partnershi­p was possible by “the unbundling by UEFA of sponsorshi­p rights from the men’s game.”

It means UEFA has three rivals in the payments market – Visa, Mastercard and Alipay – as sponsors.

Mastercard is a top-tier sponsor of the Champions League, and Alipay signed an eight-year, 200 million euro ($230 million) deal last month for the next two European Championsh­ips and the Nations League.

UEFA says Visa will support the European Championsh­ip, Women’s Champions League and grassroots soccer.

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