Bet on his team – stop
Former national team star and current coach Jeff Mathias Zachrisson, 31, will be suspended from handball for the rest of the year.
Sportbladet tells what happened.
– I bet we’ll win the match. One straight on Jeff. This came as a real shock, he says.
At 15 noon on Friday, the Swedish Handball Federation issued a press release stating that a captain in the Handball League had been suspended for “illegal betting”.
“The Disciplinary Board has indicted the leader for violating Clause 1: 2 of the Sports Punishment Rules, which is about betting unauthorized according to the Sports Regulations. The leader will be suspended from 05-20-2022 until 12-31-2022. There is no suspicion of criminal activity”They wrote.
“Straight like…”
enter now Mathias Zachrisson Assistant coach Jeff comes forward and tells what happened.
– What I did was bet that we would win the match. One straight on Jeff. Apparently you were not allowed to do this, play on a positive result. This came as a real shock, he says.
The match he bet on was Guif-IFK Kristianstad on February 13, 2022, which Guif won 27-24.
Zachrisson was informed of the suspension this morning via an email from the union.
I know there have been some notable cases of football betting, but I didn’t think it could be because you played with your team in the Handball League. One in a row in his team as well … There is a big difference between betting, for example, yellow cards in football or that the opponent will win. Only then does this manipulation enter the picture. When the guild found out what had happened, they conducted an investigation and found no patterns or suspicions of tampering.
will resume
Zachrisson sighs deeply.
If I knew it was forbidden, of course I wouldn’t do it. But the eight-month suspension feels brutal. I don’t immediately think I’m alone in placing a small bet on my team, he says.
Earlier this year, Handbollskanalen published a series of articles telling the Swedish Handball Federation that they had conducted a survey that showed that one of the three participants in the SHE and Handball League had played in their own match.
Zachrisson now has three weeks to appeal the ruling.
– I will do it and hope it will change, he says.