BRATISLAVA, November 29, (WEBNOVINY) — The former high official of the Slovak Football Association, Vladimir Wanke, will go to prison. The Supreme Court confirmed the verdict of the Special Court in Pezinok from April 7, 2009, which sentenced Wanke to three years and fourth months for soliciting a bribe. Wanke was also sentenced to a 2,000 euro fine. Both the defendant and the prosecutor appealed against the initial verdict, but the Supreme Court rejected both appeals on Monday.
Vladimir Wanke was arrested on March 6, 2007 in his office at the Slovak Football Association (SFZ) in Bratislava as he accepted a ten thousand Slovak crowns bribe (EUR 330). Wanke requested a so-called ‘revenue stamp’, allegedly a code name for a bribe, for speeding up registration of the transfer of football player Andrej Masarovic from an Austrian club to SK Eldus Mocenok. The key witness was the at that time SK Mocenok owner Stanislav Szabo, who participated in the investigation as a agent provocateur, handing over the bribe and recording the entire meeting on a camera. Vladimir Wanke was a long-standing Chairman of the SFZ League Commission, Sports Director of the Association, Head of the SFZ Register and since 2007 also a acting Secretary General after Dusan Tittel’s term ended in 2006.
SITA