By Steve Goldby
February 15 2005

Early this morning, a press release was issued from an unnamed state prison in Berlin, Germany. The statement named Middlesbrough Football Club as another victim of the biggest footballing scandal to hit Europe for many, many years. Cast your mind back to the summer of last year and Boro's friendly match in the east of Germany against Hansa Rostock. The match was played to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Rostock's stadium. For us, it was good preparation for our first venture into Europe.

We were beaten 3-1 on the day in front of a partizan crowd of locals and thirteen Boro fans. Michael Reiziger made his debut for us and injured his shoulder in the process.

The referee that day was Robert Hoyzer and it was he who issued the aforementioned press release from his prison cell in Berlin.



25-year old Hoyzer was arrested on Saturday morning for allegedly fixing German Cup and Bundesliga matches for a Croatian mafia betting organisation. Hoyzer has now admitted to having manipulated four games in German Cup, second and third division matches that he refereed in 2004.

The public prosecutor has stated that Hoyzer is facing a prison sentence and it was claimed yesterday that he is under suspicion of fixing more matches than he has admitted to.

This morning, Hoyzer also admitted to fixing the friendly between Hansa Rostock and Middlesbrough on 31st July.

This news has only just broken in the last hour or so and I need to check a lot of the details with someone who has a better grasp of the German language than I. As soon as more is known, it will be published here.