Arrest of Moji Bayat and Several Coaches, Referees, and Football Managers in Belgium

Belgian police have raided club offices to seize documents, resulting in the arrest or summons of several prominent figures in Belgian football. Clubs such as Brugge, Anderlecht, Standard Liège, Gent, Genk, Ostend, Kortrijk, and Lokeren, which operate at the top level of Belgian football, have faced police action. Michel is also a historic club playing in a lower division. Ivan Leko, the head coach of Brugge, is the most notable figure reported arrested by The Independent. The team, which is currently at the top of the Belgian league, was the champion last year and is also competing in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League this year. Moji (Morteza Gholi) Bayat, an Iranian-Belgian player, has been arrested on charges of what has been termed 'match-fixing and money laundering.' Herman Van Holsbeeck, the former manager of Anderlecht, and Dejan Veljkovic, a well-known agent, are also among those arrested. Several referees have also been detained, including Sebastian Delfrye and Bart Verhaeghe, who officiated the last game between Liège and Brugge. Bayat is a prominent agent and former manager of Charleroi. His brother Mehdi is the current manager of the club; the nephews of Abbas Bayat, the former manager of Charleroi, are also involved. They are descendants of Morteza Gholi Bayat, the Prime Minister of Iran in 1944. Bayat has held various positions including Minister of State, Minister of Finance, Governor of Azerbaijan, Member of Parliament, and CEO of the National Oil Company. The Bayat family (Abbas, Moji, and Mehdi) has been successful in business from France to Belgium. They have previously recruited players from Iran such as Mohammadreza Mahdavi, Daryoush Yazdani, Alireza Emami Far, Kaveh Rezaei, Omid Noorafkan, and Ali Gholizadeh for Charleroi. Bayat told Belgian reporters that during the eight years he has been an agent, he has generated millions of euros in profit for the Belgian league's economy and has played a role in developing football in the country. This year, he broke the internal transfer record in Belgium with the transfer of Kaveh Rezaei from Charleroi to Brugge. Other significant transfers include Lukasz Teodorczyk from Anderlecht to Udinese, Anthony Limbombe from Brugge to Nantes, and Samuel Kalou from Gent to Bordeaux, as well as Thomas Foket to Reims. A potential conviction of Bayat or the involvement of his brother in this case could impact Iranian football and halt the trend of Iranian players transferring to Belgium. Mehdi Bayat commented on his brother's arrest to Walfoot, stating, 'I do not know what happened. This issue has nothing to do with Charleroi. We do not collaborate with Moji, and our club is not among the ten clubs that were inspected.'