The elite player was sentenced in 2021 to four years' suspension from all organized sports due to breaches of the match-fixing regulations. The player was suspended after being deemed to have deliberately received a yellow card in a football match in exchange for a loan of 300,000 kronor.
Trained with elite team
The suspension will expire on February 2 - but it has recently become known that the player participated in a training session with a Swedish elite team.
"The player's acceptance of the association's invitation to participate in the training was due to a mistaken understanding that such participation was permitted within a month of the suspension's expiration, as is the case for an athlete suspended for doping", the lawyers write.
"It is clear that both parties lacked the intention to circumvent the rules. The whole thing is based on an unfortunate misunderstanding."
The Association reported
The Swedish Football Association chose to report the incident to the disciplinary committee. The player now risks being suspended for an additional four years, the same length as the original suspension.
"Our position is that it would be both unjustified and disproportionate to extend the player's suspension due to a careless one-time incident unrelated to match-fixing, which occurred when approximately two of the 208 weeks of the suspension period remained", the lawyers write.
The match-fixing also led to the elite player being convicted in the Court of Appeal for accepting bribes and sports fraud. According to the verdict, the player received money for taking the yellow card, something that several people had bet on.
