The dark rumour about Bayern's 0-4 in St Petersburg. On 1 May 2008, FC Bayern München lost the UEFA Cup semi-final second leg 0-4 to Zenit St Petersburg. It was Bayern's heaviest European defeat since the 1980 UEFA Cup semi-final at Eintracht Frankfurt (1-5). But unlike in May 1980 at Frankfurt's Waldstadion, the match at the Petrovsky Stadium in St Petersburg had a whiff of something fishy.
Spanish prosecutors investigated on suspicion that the match — which the Russians won through goals from Pavel Pogrebnyak (2), Konstantin Zyrianov and Viktor Fayzulin (first leg: 1-1) — involved bribery. The National Court in Madrid confirmed shortly afterwards that an investigation had been opened. The German champions responded with a cautious written statement. "FC Bayern München are no more aware of this suspicion than the Munich public prosecutor's office.
We will endeavour to obtain any relevant information on this matter." The match, according to Spanish newspapers El País and ABC shortly afterwards, was said to have been sold for €50 million. Their claim and the Spanish judiciary's assumption were based on wiretapped telephone conversations between Russian mafia bosses in Spain. The head of an influential criminal enterprise allegedly boasted to a colleague of having bought Zenit's semi-final success "for 50 million." The currency was not specified.
The suspected mafia boss was arrested in Spain in the spring of 2008. The investigators, however, appeared to be on thin ice. "It is not even clear whether the 'purchase' of a football match abroad constitutes a criminal offence under Spanish law," the newspaper ABC rowed back shortly afterwards. It was not until 2010 that the truth emerged: the match-fixing allegations, which both Bayern and eventual UEFA Cup winners Zenit St Petersburg denied, came from a fraudster.
Robin Boksic was his name, and he was an employee of UEFA chief investigator Peter Limbacher. His boss had, as DIE ZEIT and STERN reported on 15 September 2010, fallen for false information that was later also mentioned in a FIFA dossier. And the Croatian Boksic had since been exposed as a con man...