Former Czech soccer head gets 6-year prison term for fraud

PRAGUE (AP) — A Czech court convicted a former head of the country’s soccer association for fraud on Friday and sentenced him to six years in prison.

Prague’s Municipal Court also fined Miroslav Pelta 5 million Czech crowns ($220,000) and banned him from an executive position in corporations for five years.

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

The two denied wrongdoing and appealed.

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

Prosecutors said the reason for the raids was investigating 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, attempting to cause damage worth almost 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 over the scandal though she was not a suspect.

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