Football rip-off: DJK Pasing fights for 7000 euros from fraudulent provider

Football rip-off: DJK Pasing fights for 7000 euros from fraudulent provider

In Munich football, a fraud scandal caused excitement. The local association DJK Pasing had booked a trip for its B-youth to Antalya in Turkey, which was to take place at the end of February 2025. Instead of the hoped-for training camp, however, the club got a bitter surprise when the travel provider MatchDay shortly before the booking canceled and the payment of around 7,000 euros canceled remedied. Roberto Kuri, the youth leader, expresses serious concerns in this context and speaks of a possible fraud.

It seems that DJK Pasing was not the only club that has had bad experiences with Matchday. According to reports, other clubs such as SV Dettingen, TuS Osdorf and SpVgg Kaufbeuren have also experienced similar problems. SpVgg Kaufbeuren, who also had to cancel her training camp in Turkey in February 2023, would have even suffered a loss of 25,000 euros. Tobias Siebert, board member of the Kaufbeurer, is planning legal steps against Matchday, since the company cannot be found at the address given.

suspicious practices and the role of insurance

The allegations against Matchday are diverse. Kuri describes that communication with the provider was very sloppy. You have been waiting for a promised payment request by email to this day. In fact, the responsible persons of the association had put a great advance of trust in this booking. Kuri admits that it was naive to transfer the payment to a Turkish bank without having a legal basis.

The fact that the R+V insurance, which originally acted as a partner of Matchday, has terminated cooperation with the travel provider due to several insolvency. In some cases, they have refunded down payments, but associations that have booked at Matchday after June 20, 2023 can no longer hope for this support.

A look at the causes

corruption in sport is not completely new; The problem runs like a thread through the history of football. According to bpb , one of the central challenges is often considered necessary in order to be able to exist in the competition. Such machinations undermine confidence in sport and lead to a significant loss of trust among supporters.

Back to the specific case: DJK Pasing has in the meantime organized a new trip to Croatia, financed by a Gofundme campaign. This initiative shows that the community holds together and cannot be brought down. Kuri and Siebert hope that other victims will become aware of the scandal and the Bavarian Football Association stimulates an internal survey.

In times when the pressure on sporting successes is high, the degree of trustworthiness of an industry is also put to the test. It remains to be seen whether those responsible in the area of ​​sports organizations position themselves more against corruption and fraud and what measures are taken to prevent such incidents in the future