ROUND-UP:A SPANISH JUDGE has sent German authorities recordings that allege Russian mafia figures tried to fix last season's Uefa Cup semi-final between Bayern Munich and Zenit St Petersburg, judicial sources said yesterday.

Russian champions Zenit crushed Bayern 4-0 at home in the second leg to win 5-1 on aggregate before going on to beat Rangers in the final.

Spanish newspaper El Paissaid the Operation Troika investigation against the Russian mafia led by investigating judge Baltasar Garzon had uncovered evidence the second leg might have been fixed.

"The judge has sent to the German attorney general part of the conversations that were intercepted in Spain during the investigation into Russian plots in our country," judicial sources said.

Bayern Munich said yesterday they had no information about the reports. "Bayern know as little about this as the Munich prosecutor's office," the club said in a statement.

Zenit were not immediately available for comment.

A Uefa spokesman said his organisation "was aware of the report". "We are waiting for the Spanish judge to share the facts with us," the spokesman said. "But until then, these are only reports. Uefa takes a zero tolerance approach to this issue."

Last week European soccer's governing body launched a gambling investigation unit after it emerged 25 Uefa Cup matches were being studied because of irregular betting patterns.

Uefa said it had started reviewing 10 matches from the current season and 15 from last season, all from preliminary rounds of the Uefa Cup. Those games, Uefa believe, could have been affected by irregular betting, a growing problem in soccer and other sports such as tennis.

Meanwhile, the Polish government must reinstate the country's football association by next Monday or risk being suspended from World Cup qualifiers, world governing body Fifa said yesterday. A Fifa spokesman confirmed that if Poland was in breach of statutes after the deadline, the World Cup qualifiers against the Czech Republic on October 11th and Slovakia on October 15th may not take place and their opponents could be awarded a 3-0 win.

• Finn Harps yesterday appealed to their fans for additional support in their final three home games after the club revealed a cash crisis has forced it to cut wages. It is understood the players have been asked to accept a 50 per cent reduction in wages until the end of the season.