Brazilian clubs are taking internal measures after new developments of Operation Penalty Maximum II, promoted by the Public Ministry of Goiás regarding the match fixing in Brazilian football. Santos announced the removal of Eduardo Bauermann and Fluminense also chose not to temporarily use defender Vitor Mendes.
The player even traveled to Belo Horizonte (MG), where the team faces Cruzeiro this Wednesday, 21:30 (Brasília time) in Mineirão, for the fifth round of the Brasileirão. However, he will not be related to the confrontation due to his alleged involvement in the case.
In an official note, the club from Rio de Janeiro announced that the player is “preventively removed from club activities”. Hired this season, he is a reserve for the team commanded by Fernando Diniz, but he frequently enters the games and scores a goal with the tricolor shirt.
On loan to Flu, Vitor Mendes is linked to Atlético Mineiro and is one of the players mentioned in prints of conversations obtained by the investigation of the Public Ministry of Goiás (MP-GO), in Operation Penalidade Máxima II.
He is quoted in conversations that point out that he would have pocketed an amount to receive a yellow card last season, when he was at Juventude, in a clash against Fortaleza in the 27th round of the Brazilian Series A. Juventude ended up relegated to the second division. The information was first released by “Rádio Itatiaia” and confirmed by GE.
Vitor Mendes took the yellow card in the game in question and would win R$ 35,000 from bettors. The MP has proof that the athlete received a PIX of R$ 5,000 on October 21 from the company “BC Sports Management”, whose partner is Bruno Lopez, arrested in custody, appointed as one of the leaders of the gang. There are still prints of messages in which the player would be charging the remaining payment of the agreement.
Understand the case of match fixing in Brazilian football
The Public Prosecutor’s Office of Goiás made a new complaint about match-fixing in Brazilian football matches. Authorities are currently investigating games from Séries A and B of the Brasileirão 2022, as well as matches from this year’s state competitions. In total, there are 20 confrontations analyzed by the Public Ministry.
The new complaint was made based on the search and seizure of equipment in previous phases of Operation Maximum Penalty and has already been accepted by the Justice, which has already made 16 investigated people defendants. But, it is important to mention that football teams and bookmakers are treated as victims.
Cases investigated include betting on issues such as yellow cards, red cards and penalties. Bruno Lopez de Moura, a gambler arrested in the first phase of the operation, is considered by the MP as the leader of the gang in the match-fixing scheme.
The following players were targets of a recent search and seizure operation: Victor Ramos, from Chapecoense, Kevin Lomónaco, from Bragantino, Paulo Miranda, ex-Juventude, and Eduardo Bauermann, from Santos, Igor Cariús, from Sport, and Moraes, ex -Youth and now at Atlético-GO, and Gabriel Tota, formerly at Youth and currently at Ypiranga-RS.
Now, the names of Fernando Neto, formerly of Operário-PR and currently at São Bernardo, and Nikolas, from Novo Hamburgo-RS, and Jarro Pedroso, from Inter-SM, have been included. The Public Ministry of Goiás demands the condemnation of the group involved in the match-fixing, in addition to the reimbursement of BRL 2 million to the public coffers for collective moral damages.
