Hamburg - In the fight against criminal structures in international football, the anti-corruption unit of the UEFA have alerted the Association of incidents involving Macedonian coach Nikola Ilievski. On 16 December the coach had testified before the International Court of Sport (Cas) in Lausanne for the Uefa in the proceedings against the Macedonian Club FK Pobeda Prilep.

Macedonian side FK Pobeda has been charged with match fixing in UEFA Champions League match versus Armenia's Pyunik, in which FK Pobeda lost. The Macedonian side appealed the allegations. though Uefa saw enough evident to suspend FK Pobeda for eight years from all European competitions, team suspended, the former team captain and the president have been excluded for life. The club, whose president denies the charges, had appealed to the CaS against the ban.

UEFA's witness Ilievski, who had started only in November a new job as coach of first division side Metalurg Skopje, was dismissed immediately after his return from Lausanne, though he and his team had won all three league games. For Uefa it is clear that the coach had been fired because of his testimony in court and is under pressure in his homeland.

Before the procedure Ilievski had refused to submit his testimony by telephone and with a distorted voice in the courtroom, as it was preferred by two other UEFA witnesses. Ilievskis Reason: Because he had been sitting in the trip to Switzerland in the same plane as the president of FK Pobeda, this way his anonymity was not guaranteed anyway.

UEFA has done an amateurish mistake by putting the witness (Ilievski) in the same plane as the president of FK Pobeda.