IT was the moment thousands of fans stared at the screen in disbelief.
Petar Milosevski, of Malatyaspar and Macedonia, had just committed a goalkeeping gaffe of Grobbelaar proportions. His attempt to save Wayne Rooney's 53rd minute equaliser made the most incompetent Scottish keeper seem like Lev Yashin. Milosevski acted as if he was involved in a game of tig and appeared to withdraw his hand from the ball's path, much in the way one would avoid a hurtling meteorite.
Apparently, though, it was a case of soccer suicide rather than foul play. Bookmakers, who are on the alert after several alleged gambling scams involving Albanian teams, reported yesterday there had been no unusual betting patterns on the match
Skulduggery was alleged, however, by Armenia's football federation who have asked UEFA to investigate an alleged attempt by Greek officials to bribe Armenia to throw Saturday's Euro 2004 qualifier which Greece won 1-0 victory to stay top of group 6.
Federation spokesman Suren Bagdasarian said that last week the manager of Armenia's under-21 team received a call from Ervand Sukiasian, a former Armenian international now living in Greece, who allegedly claimed he had been ''ordered'' by the president of the Greek federation to offer money for Armenia to lose.
The manager, Karen Arutunian, told federation head Ruben Airapetian about the call. Airpateian then brought Bagdasarian and other officials to the federation office and made a call, which he tape recorded, to Sukiasian in which the former player offered $1m for a Greek win.
Bagdasarian said Tom Restall, the UEFA official monitoring the match, has agreed to stay in the country to investigate. Hellenic football federation president Vasilios Gagatsis was unavailable for comment.
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