Former Czech Republic soccer boss receives prison term for fraud again

By: The Associated Press Posted: 5:21 AM CDT Tuesday, Sep. 3, 2024

PRAGUE (AP) — The former head of the Czech Football Association was convicted of fraud again on Tuesday and sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison.

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PRAGUE (AP) — The former head of the Czech Football Association was convicted of fraud again on Tuesday and sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison.

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This article was published 03/09/2024 (761 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PRAGUE (AP) — The former head of the Czech Football Association was convicted of fraud again on Tuesday and sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison.

Prague’s Municipal Court also fined Miroslav Pelta 5 million Czech crowns ($221,000) and banned him from any executive position for five years.

The court issued the verdict in a retrial of the case after it handed Pelta similar sentences in 2021 and 2023. An appeals court canceled those rulings and returned the case back to the original court.

FILE - The chairman of Czech Football Association Miroslav Pelta addresses the media at a news conference in Prague, Czech Republic, March 21, 2017. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek, File)

In the same case, the court also sentenced Simona Kratochvilova, a former deputy education minister, to six years in prison, banned her from working in public offices for six years, and fined her 2 million Czech crowns ($88,000).

The two pleaded not guilty and still can appeal.

The case dates to 2017 when police raided the association headquarters and the offices of FK Jablonec, a provincial soccer club partly owned by Pelta.

Prosecutors said the reason for the raids was an investigation of suspected fraud involving Pelta in connection with state subsidies.

The court said Pelta used his personal relationship with Kratochvilova to influence who would receive state subsidies worth 176 million Czech crowns ($7.8 million). Pelta resigned from his post a month after he was detained in May 2017.

Also, Education Minister Katerina Valachova resigned because of the scandal though she was not a suspect but a witness.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer