The German media is abuzz with new allegations that the Champions League Final from the 2006-07 season was fixed by Kiel. Kiel won the final two game aggregate series against their arch rivals Flensburg. Allegedly both former coach Noka Serdarusic and current general manger Uwe Schwenker made payments to officials. Other games are also being called into question with Spain’s Leon Ademar complaining about unfair officiating in their matches against Hungary’s Veszprem this season.

I’m quite frankly struggling to make heads or tails of what’s going on. My German is non-existent and the automatic translations make it somewhat garbled as to who the sources for the accusations are. It appears that the information is second hand and related to Rhein Neckar Lowen’s decision not to hire Serdarusic as their new coach. (i.e., RNL decided they weren’t going to hire a cheater)

More information is sure to come out and Handball-World has done a story in English on the matter. Additionally, the EHF issued a press release indicating that they are monitoring the situation and will discuss it at meetings being held Monday in conjunction with the quarterfinal draw.

And guess who could play who next round? Well, there’s a 33% chance that Kiel will play Flensburg. The next round should be interesting as should be the post-draw interviews at efhTV www.ehftv.com

Handball-World (English):THW asks public prosecution for investigations – Schwenker takes holiday to defend himself http://www.handball-welt.de/o.red.c/news.php?LID=&GID=1&auswahl=19296
EHF: EHF reaction to “Manipulation charges”: http://www.eurohandball.com/article/12160
Handball-World (German): HBL-Präsident Witte zu den neuen Vorwürfen gegen den THW: "Nur neue Gerüchte": http://www.handball-world.com/o.red.c/news.php?GID=1&auswahl=19280
Der Spiegel (German): MANIPULATIONSVORWÜRFE IM HANDBALL: http://www.spiegel.de/sport/sonst/0,1518,611876,00.html
Handball123 Forum Discussion on the topic:
http://handball123.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1206&start=325