Buriram United chairman Newin Chidchob yesterday insisted his team had nothing to do with an alleged match-fixing attempt and lashed out at the Football Association of Thailand for hiring foreign referees to officiate domestic games.
FAT president Worawi Makudi revealed this week that the Asian Football Confederation had informed him that Japanese referee Yoshida Toshimitsu told the AFC that he was offered bribes to favour one of the finalists in last year's FA Cup showdown between Buriram and Army United.
The FAT is looking into the claim as Worawi is in Kuala Lumpur to attend a conference on match-fixing.
"Both sides [Buriram and Army] have spent huge sums to create their teams and we are not crazy enough to do such a thing," said Newin whose club defeated Army 2-1 in the November match.
Newin said he was against using foriegn referees in Thailand's domestic matches.
"They come and return home and do not have to shoulder responsibility," said Newin. "On the other hand, if Thai referees make an error, they could be punished."
He said he supported any attempt to find people who were involved in match-fixing.
"But in my opinion, Worawi should be the first person to take the blame because he hired foriegn referees [Toshimitsu and his assistants] to officiate the match," said Newin.
Reports say Toshimitsu was suspended at international level by the AFC for a controversial decision he made during a 2006 World Cup qualifying match between Bahrain and Uzbekistan.
According to various reports at that time, Toshimitsu awarded a penalty kick to Uzbekistan. Server Djeparov sent the ball into the net but there was another Uzbek player in the box.
According to the rules, the penalty had to be retaken, but the Japanese referee instead gave a free-kick to Bahrain.
After Uzbekistan's protest, Fifa ordered the match to be replayed, a decision many observers said was another error.