The Maranhense Football Federation (FMF) gathered detailed material on the investigation regarding the attempted manipulation in the match between Bacabal 2 to 1 São José, for the third round of the Maranhense Championship. The sports organization said the suspicion had been confirmed and obtained the confession of the person responsible for the offer to player Keven.
Vice President of Legal Affairs Márcio Araújo da Silva chaired the investigation of the case by the FMF and received support from the Civil Police. Initially, the deadline for completing the procedures was ten days, but the federation finalized its report in just five.
Delegate Paulo de Tasso Silva, from the Civil Police Station of São José de Ribamar, collaborated with the deposition of statements, in addition to the collection of information by Vice President Márcio Araújo da Silva, who came under the name of Jorge Luís Costa Honorato. According to the final FMF document, he “confessed to being part of the scheme”, but presented himself only as an intermediary.
The report points out that “according to what was found by the testimony of Mr. Jorge Honorato, who deliberately confessed to the attempt at cooptation, this only served as a “middle-man” for the realization of the” indecorous proposal “devised by Mr. Josildo da Silva, for which R $ 1,000.00 (THOUSAND REAIS) for intermediation, therefore, the total offer involved was R $ 3,000.00 (THREE THOUSAND REAIS), of which R $ 2,000.00 (TWO THOUSAND REAIS) for the player (Keven) and R $ 1,000.00 (THOUSAND REAIS) for the intermediary (Jorge) The athlete, upon hearing the proposal, immediately rejected it, mainly because he never went through this in the midst of football. After the fact, the player Keven Alleson blocked the contact with Mr. Jorge Honorato and no longer maintained contact with him ”.
FMF found out that player received a proposal to commit a penalty
From the testimonies obtained by the Civil Police and reports from other people involved, the Maranhense Federation found that the case was related to bets placed on websites and applications that work with various possibilities in a sporting event, and not only with the scoreboard.
“At that time, Mr. Jorge Honorato, at the behest of Mr. JOSILDO DA SILVA DOS SANTOS, his “football partner”, according to his testimony, offered the amount of R $ 2,000.00 (TWO THOUSAND REAIS) to Mr. Keven so that he could take a penalty in the match between Bacabal Esporte Clube vs São José de Ribamar Esporte Clube, which would be held on the following day, February 27, 2021, valid for the Maranhense Championship of Professional Football Series “A” of 2021. A “ proposal ”would be only in relation to the performance of a deliberate act for the committing of a penalty, regardless of the result of the match, if victory or defeat of any of the teams, or even tie, considering that it was a scheme with the intention of to get an advantage on football game betting sites ”, appears in the entity’s report.
In addition, the FMF revealed that Jorge Honorato has a record in the organization linked to the affiliated team Esporte Clube Nova Cidade, which does not have professional football. However, the name indicated by Honorato as the creator of the manipulation scheme, Josildo da Silva dos Santos, is not part of the entity’s records.
The match between Bacabal and São José
In the match between Bacabal and São José, valid for the third round of the State Championship, the player Keven did not make a penalty and also scored a legal goal for his team, only that there was a penalty by the representation of São José. Defensive midfielder André touched the ball with your hand inside the area.
However, the penalty was not converted into a goal because goalkeeper Laert managed to save. But, this move, according to the federation’s investigation, has nothing to do with trying to manipulate the scoreboard of the confrontation, because Jorge Honorato did not mention any other conversation except involving defender Keven. Names of officials and other professionals from both teams were not linked to the case.
“After some depositions made at the Civil Police Station, in São José de Ribamar, as well as via a virtual communication application, by the Legal Vice-President, there was a confession of the attempted co-optation by one of those involved, but the athlete refused to participate. Nothing has been proven in relation to the involvement of club officers and athletes in this episode, ”said the FMF in an official statement.
Betting regulations would help curb match manipulation
The investigative process should be intensified from now on with the transfer of the entire report to the Civil Police, Justice and the Public Ministry. Despite this, the Campeonato Maranhense continues normally and the player Keven is free to continue training at São José.
However, the lack of regulation for sports betting allows national sport to be at the mercy of this type of practice today. Adequate legislation and effective monitoring work tend to contribute to curbing and minimizing these cases.
Sportradar is an example of a company that helps to follow everything that happens in the betting market in sporting events and is a partner of the São Paulo Football Federation helping to clarify similar cases in matches in the State, as there was in the Paulista A3 2020 Championship.
 gathered detailed material on the investigation into attempted manipulation in the Estadual's game.){kind=link}