UEFA announced today that they have begun an investigation into irregular betting in Asia involving European clubs competing in UEFA competitions this season. Serbia was name as one of the countries they would be looking into. They have stated that they are looking into matches involving club teams only and have not made any mention of any matches involving countries taking part in Euro 2008 qualifying.

What is interesting in this development were some of the other countries mentioned: Croatia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Georgia and Lithuania on top of Serbia. The significant country here is Lithuania in regards to a Serbian involvement. During this past summer's UEFA Champions League qualifying, Serbian champions FK Red Star Belgrade played against Lithuanian Champions Levadia from Tallinn in the second round of qualification. In the first match Red Star won the match 1:0 in Belgrade but it was the return leg in Tallinn that might be where some irregularities occcured.
Levadia took the lead in the 33rd minute only to have Red Star come back only minutes later to tie the match. What became suspicious was when Levadia retook the lead in the 2nd half on a very clumsy move by Red Star keeper Randjelovic. On a free kick from the centre circle, a Levadia player punted the ball towards the net and the Red Star keeper who had his back to the play allowed a very clumsy goal. This seemed very odd as no keeper in his normal frame of mind would be in that awkward, back to the ball position. Levadia ended up winning the match 2:1 but Red Star did manage to advance on the away-goals rule.

In order to determine if any type of match-fixing or manipulation did occur you have to look at the certain betting options. In this case:

1) Were Levadia underdogs in the match (if they win, a nicer payout)?
2) In betting on live matches, were there a lot of bets being placed in the 2nd half when the score was at 1:1?
3) What was the payout on the match if the score was to end 2:1 for the home side?

At this moment, the information on that is not made public and it also varies often from betting houses.

While this is only speculation, hopefully more news will become public as time goes by.

In a make-up game from a a few months ago, Red Star Belgrade traveled to Kula and managed to score two goals in the last ten minutes to leave with 3 points. The match which was delayed earlier in the season due to Zvezda's involvement in Europe was played in front of only 1,000 people.

Both teams had their chances to take the victory but it wasn't until the 81st minute when Milovanovic scored and the match was sealed when Jestrovic was brought down in the box and later converted his penalty in the 86th minute.

The victory moves Red Star into 2nd place with 27 points, one better than 3rd place Vojvodina but two points behind league leaders Partizan.

---

In the coming weeks, we hope to have a Guide to the Meridian Super Liga which will give everyone a bit of information the twelve clubs that are taking part this season.

 

The last match of Euro Qualifying was only a few days ago but on the thoughts of most Serbian Soccer fans is what is going to happen to our national team, more specifically, who will be coaching Serbia next August when World Cup Qualifying starts?

At this moment Javier Clemente is still our coach. Regardless of the fact that he did not qualify us for Euro, he did not have a bad campaign. He only suffered two losses, both on the road (in Almaty and Brussels). Both were bad losses, but you're not always expected to win on the road and they were close scorelines, even if Serbia did not play particularly well in either match.

By the end of Next Week, we will know where the FSS stands on Clemente. If Clemente stays as the coach, then this topic ends now. He'll be the coach until a series of loses occurs, he gets a better offer elsewhere or he fails to qualify for the World Cup.

If he's gone, you can be certain no successor will be announced right away. Considering Serbia has nothing to play for in the coming months, I could see a care-taker manager being name as a coach, merely to scout and prepare the squad for the those upcoming qualifying matches in August.

The FSS will not have an easy time trying to hire a new coach. If they try to go the foreign route as they did with Clemente, they might have a hard time getting a coach will to take this middle-class side, and having to deal with the Serbian Media that expects more than they realistically know our team can produce. Should they decide to hire a domestic coach, they suffer the same problem, as the media will criticize much more the decisions of that coach, regardless of stature.

The canidates at this moment are fair short and when the time comes we'll talk more about them. There is the likely that Clemente will stay. They could go the former player route and have Sinisa Mihaljovic take the job. There is a experienced coaches like Bora Milutinovic and Radomir Antic. Or a surprise choice such as Ljubisa Tumbakovic (former Partizan coach). This all is determined what the board decides next week and until then it's all speculation.

Today in Durban, South Africa the draw for the 2010 FIFA World Cup Occurred and Serbia we're drawn in Group 7 (or Group G if you like) with France, Romania, Lithuania, Austria and The Faroe Islands.

While the group doesn't seem too bad, you have to realize that it is the only group in Qualification that has three teams which will be competing in Euro 2008 (France, Romania and co-hosts Austria). This fact could pose a problem for Serbia as their direct competition will be getting more practice while Serbian players sit at home and watch the tournament on television.

To be honest, this is not the toughest group Serbia could have gotten , but definitely not the easiest (the easiest group by far is Group 2/B with Greece, Israel and Switzerland). France has shown it is beatable, twice losing to Scotland in Euro Qualification and not are not that great on the road. Romania will be the toughest side here, as I stated in my pot previews, but thankfully the match in Romania will be within normal traveling distance for Serbian fans. Lithuania and Austria are question marks. For World Cup 2006 Qualifying, Serbia and Montenegro played Lithuania and did well, but that was four years ago and things change. As for Austria, not too much is known about their side, but their performance in Euro will dictate how people will approach them. Another bonus here is that there are a lot of Serbs who live in Austria and traveling from Serbia is only takes about a day, so the match will be well represented. The Faroe Islands are essentially filler, and actually will not factor when the groups end (only the top 5 teams will determine the 8 best 2nd place teams for the playoffs).

If Serbia is to advance they have to stay undefeated at home. Ignoring the 6th place team (Faroe Islands), they will need to get maximum points against Austria, Lithuania and either Romania or France. They can afford only one draw at home and even that might be too much. If Serbia can get maximum points at home, then they can risk suffering two draws in Romania and France and still advance, but help from other teams will need to occur.

The actual match schedule was not announced at this time so it's difficult to say how the road to S. Africa will occur. If Serbia can avoid playing in Lithuania in the Early Spring or Late Fall, then they stand a good chance of ensuring three points there. Whoever has to play them at those times of year will have it tough and could be beneficial for Serbia's chances. Other than that,  you can almost ensure that our last match will be either against Romania or France which could be the determining factor on who goes on.
Serbia will probably not qualify directly, but the results go their way, I could honestly see them sneaking into the playoffs in 2nd place. Who misses out is still a question mark as both France and Romania are good, but neither is better than the other. Serbia isn't a bad side and could theoretically play spoiler if they can't qualify themselves.

In a meaningless Euro 2008 qualifying game that was rescheduled a week ago due to heavy snow in Belgrade, Serbia defeated Kazakhstan 1:0 to bow out of qualifying Group A in third place. Our national team finished juts 3 points behind second-placed Portugal, and four points behind first-placed Poland, both of which advanced automatically to next summer's tournament. The lone strike of the match was an own goal by Ostapenko in the 77th minute.

The previous away defeat to Kazakhstan and home draw against Finland thus proved to be the key let-downs for Serbia in this qualifying cycle. The away draw to Armenia and away defeat to Belgium will also be remembered in this context.

There is some hope that FIFA will alter the seedings for tomorrow's World Cup 2010 qualifying draw to take into account Serbia's result, and bump the country into the second pot. However, the "White Eagles" trail Israel - the lowest-ranked team from the second grouping - by 32 points, and it is unlikely that the narrow win over Kazakhstan will provide the necessary leverage. At the most, it could make Serbia the highest-ranked team in the third pot, the same position it held prior to the Euro 2008 qualifying draw.

Stay with Soccer Serbia for World Cup draw coverage and analysis tomorrow!