Oldham Athletic have sacked Colombian forward Cristian Montano after his arrest last week for involvement in a national match-fixing scandal.
The 22-year-old was one of six players arrested following an investigation into spot-fixing by the National Crime Agency.
Montano, who signed a two-year contract with Oldham in 2012, has been released after tarnishing the club’s reputation.
“After a thorough investigation carried out by Oldham Athletic Football Club relating to the conduct of Cristian Montano and following lengthy discussions with our team of legal advisers at CM Solicitors, a decision has been made by the Club Board to dismiss the player forthwith,” Oldham said in an official statement.
“Notwithstanding and without prejudice to the ongoing criminal investigation, it is our view that the player’s conduct, in not only bringing the name of Oldham Athletic but also the Football authorities into disrepute, amounts to very serious breaches of club discipline, and therefore constitutes gross misconduct.
“Oldham Athletic take matters such as this extremely seriously and believe it was essential to act as swiftly as possible in conjunction with our legal advisers to investigate and deal with this matter decisively once they became aware of the allegations and irrespective of any other investigations and proceedings by other Agencies.”
Montano’s involvement was discovered when he featured in a secretly filmed video, showing him apologise to fellow player Sam Sodje for not getting cautioned in the first half of a League One game against Wolverhampton Wanderers on October 22.
The suspects have been bailed until April but Oldham have decided to terminate Montano’s contract with immediate effect.
Manager Lee Johnson made his feelings clear on the scandal ahead of last Tuesday’s Johnstone’s Paint Trophy tie against Chesterfield.
“There’s no place for any kind of match fixing. It’s too beautiful a game for that. We’ve got to stamp it out. We have to remove people from the game that could ruin it,” he wrote in the match programme’s notes.
Oldham said later on Monday they had been made aware of further legal proceedings against the South American, in matters unrelated to football.
Image courtesy of Sky Sports via YouTube, with thanks.
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