Attard Football Club will start their season with nine points docked after a former committee member pleaded guilty to trying to fix one of the team’s matches.

Rudgear Scerri, a 21-year-old from Qormi, pleaded guilty last January to match fixing charges after he was accused of trying to fix a match between Attard FC and Kalkara FC on 5 December 2020.

Searches of Scerri’s house were carried out and “between €20,000 and €30,000” in cash were discovered after police had an anonymous tip-off that Scerri was trying to bribe players to throw the game.

Scerri was fined €50,000 and handed a suspended sentence, however the courts are expected to pronounce themselves on an appeal filed by the Attorney General, wherein the AG asked that the courts consider sentencing Scerri to effective jail time for the offence.

The Board to Adjudicate Charges related to Bribery and Illegal Betting in Football has now found Attard FC guilty of breaching association rules themselves over the case.

In the case against the team, the Board noted that “although the charges brought against Rudgear Scerri by the MFA have not been determined and have been put off at the prosecution’s request, the judgement given by the Court of Magistrates, and the guilty pleas filed by the accuse are more than enough evidence for the prosecution to prove the charges brought against the Club.”

Attard FC therefore will start their upcoming season with a 9-point penalty.

They have also been fined €1,000 and handed a five-year suspension from international competitions.

They can however appeal the sentence against them.

Attard will be playing in the National Amateur League in the 2021/22 season after failing to secure promotion to the Challenge League through the competition’s play-off route.