Members of a Russian criminal gang arrested in Spain have said they used tens of millions of euros in bribes to “buy” the UEFA Cup won by Zenit St Petersburg this year.

Zenit beat Glasgow Rangers 2-0 in the final in May, after trouncing favourites Bayern Munich 4-0 in the return match of the semi-final in St Petersburg.

The newspaper ABC said Gennadios Petrov, head of a powerful Russian underworld gang, and one of his cohorts said they used between 20 and 40 million euros to “buy” the semi-final and the final, according to a telephone conversation intercepted by Spanish police.

Spanish police launched an investigation, but have been unable to determine if the gang had contacted players and officials from Bayern and Rangers or if the two were merely bragging.

Petrov was among around 20 people arrested in June when Spanish police broke up the Tambovskaya-Malyshevskaya gang, one of the largest Russian underworld networks in the world.

Authorities also froze bank accounts containing a total of 12 million euros (17 million euros).

The gang, which has its origins in St Petersburg, used Spain as a base for its top leaders and for money-laundering its gains from illegal activities in Russia and other former Soviet states, according to police.

Petrov was arrested at a luxurious villa in Majorca. It was not clear from the newspaper report how the gang planned to benefit from offering the bribes.

Zenit, on Tuesday were beaten 2-1 at home by Real Madrid in the Champions League group stage.

AFP