UEFA referee official steps aside in Czech match-fixing case

A member of UEFA's referees committee stepped aside from her work because her husband is a suspect in a match-fixing investigation, the European soccer body said Wednesday.

A member of UEFA's referees committee stepped aside from her work because her husband is a suspect in a match-fixing investigation, the European soccer body said Wednesday. Dagmar Damková is a former top referee in women's soccer and married to Roman Berbr, who resigned Monday as vice president of the Czech Republic soccer federation while implicated in fixing games.

UEFA said in a statement to The Associated Press that Damková "spontaneously decided to step aside from her duties (while) the investigation into her husband is ongoing in the Czech Republic." She has not been linked to the corruption case that focuses on men's games in lower divisions of Czech soccer. Czech police raided the soccer federation headquarters last week as part of a corruption and match-fixing investigation targeting 20 people, including referees.

Damková is the only woman on the five-person UEFA panel that oversees preparing match officials and selecting them for international competitions. UEFA said Damková's work involves selecting officials for women's international games and competitions but not in men's soccer.

She also sits on the FIFA referees committee after a career in which she handled women's soccer finals in the 2008 Olympics, the 2009 European Championship and the 2011 Champions League. FIFA did not immediately respond to a request to confirm if Damková also stepped aside from working with the world soccer body.

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