Michal Paták, a referee in the Czech Republic, has caused controversy with a highly unusual decision during a recent match. The incident occurred during the first half of a game when Paták awarded a penalty to the home team in a rather questionable manner.
The Czech Football Association (FAČR) has announced that it will file a criminal complaint against the unknown perpetrator. FAČR Chairman Petr Fousek will also submit a complaint to the association’s ethics committee, and the case will be discussed at the next executive committee meeting.
Video footage clearly shows that Jakub Pařízek of České Budějovice fouled Filip Koutecký in the penalty area. To everyone’s surprise, Paták, who had been removed from the list of referees for professional competitions since 2016, awarded a penalty kick. Miroslav Horák converted the penalty in an unusually long stoppage time, resulting in a 2-0 lead for the home team. Dynamo Prague’s B-team eventually lost the match 2-1.
Fortuna, the main sponsor of the competition, has informed FAČR about an unusually high number of suspicious bets placed on the game. The company will inform the Ministry of Finance and file a criminal complaint.
The exact nature of the bets has not been disclosed in the press release. On the other hand, in the early stages of the match, the referees disallowed two Dynamo Prague goals for alleged offside, although the video evidence suggests that no rule violations occurred.
„Today, I spoke with Fortuna’s CEO David Vaněk. We not only have similar indications regarding the mentioned match, which FAČR is monitoring as part of its Integrity program, but we also share the view that it is unacceptable to damage football in such a disgusting way,“ said Fousek.
„FAČR will not only join the criminal complaint, but I will personally initiate a complaint to FAČR’s ethics committee due to the circumstances and the gross influence on the match. I also expect that the disciplinary committee and the refereeing commission for Bohemia, including records, reports, videos, and other evidence, will assess the case. Given the importance of the case, we will also include it in the agenda of the next executive committee meeting,“ Fousek added.
FAČR has been cooperating with the international company Sportradar, which also monitors betting on matches. The association will have an official report on the matches in the coming days, containing a comprehensive analysis of the bets. This report will be provided to the relevant disciplinary bodies of FAČR for further investigation.
The match, which falls under the jurisdiction of the refereeing commission for Bohemia (ČK), will be discussed by its decision-making committee this evening. Although the lists of referees and delegates of ČK do not fall within the competence of FAČR’s executive committee and the refereeing commission for professional competitions (first and second league), Fousek stated on Monday that he expects uncompromising conclusions.
It can be assumed that Paták will be permanently removed from amateur competitions as well. The 47-year-old referee officiated as the main referee in 185 matches during his 13 seasons in the top league and served as an assistant referee at the 2016 European Championship in France. In July of that year, he was removed from the list of referees for professional competitions by the refereeing commission led by Michal Listkiewicz due to several controversial decisions. He then joined Příbram as a sports director.
„In the past two years, we have been striving to restore trust in Czech football, and we have made progress in this area. However, this case does not contribute to our goal. It also shows that there is still a lot of work to be done to eliminate these disgraceful acts from football, so we will take further measures. It is unacceptable for one influenced match in the third league to discredit Czech football as a whole,“ concluded Fousek.
