Russian football players asked to fix matches

Moscow: At least one in 10 football players in Russia, which would host the World Cup in 2018, has been approached at some point of time to fix a match, the FIFPro international players' association has said.

The statistics was released as part of FIFPro's "Black Book", a report into football problems based on an anonymous survey of over 3,000 players in Eastern and Central Europe.

Of 177 players in Russia who answered, 10.2 percent said they had been approached to consider match-fixing, FIFPro said.

Russia was placed fourth in the list of 12 countries surveyed, behind only Kazakhstan, Greece and Bulgaria.

In total, 43.2 per cent of players in Russia said they were aware of match-fixing in their division, ranking Russia behind only the Czech Republic, Kazakhstan and Greece, FIFPro said.

Russia reported low levels of bullying and violence against players compared to other countries, according to the report.

The Russian Coaches and Footballers' Trade Union was quoted in the report as saying that many players were afraid to speak out.

"In private discussions, the players were more outspoken about match-fixing but were hesitant to mention it in writing. Many foreigners were afraid to speak about violence within their clubs and very few clubs were helpful," the union said.

In November last year, Russian football was rocked by video footage of veteran striker Spartak Gogniev being beaten by men in police uniforms at a Premier League reserve team fixture.

Gogniev suffered concussion and several broken ribs.

Montenegrin striker Nikola Nikezic fled Russia in 2011 after claiming that officials at FC Kuban had beaten him and threatened him with a gun for refusing to end his contract early.

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