IFK Goteborg Chairman resigns over corruption scandal

Adjust font size:

Chairman Bengt Halse has stepped down from his post in the wake of the investigation into the club’s alleged tax irregularities. The 62-year-old has not personally been blamed for the possible wrongdoings but has been severely criticized for not admitting that he was aware of a ‘gift’ the club’s financial administrator Jan Nilsson gave star forward Peter Ijeh when he signed in 2003.

Nilsson claims that he was acting as a private person - and not an employee of the club - when he provided Ijeh with €131,000 in connection with the forward moving from Malmo, but the Swedish tax authorities are now investigating. "There is a limit for everything," said Halse. I don’t know whether my stepping down will be temporary or whether I will never return. This has hurt my wife and kids and they haven’t done anything." He added that he thought that the tax authorities should have more important things to do than chasing football clubs. "They are going after mosquitoes with the heavy artillery," he said.