• Banik Most directors suspect players of match fixing • Banik have lost nine games in a row

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The Czech second division club Banik Most have been criticised by the world players’ union over plans to make its players take lie detector tests after a run of nine successive defeats.

In a statement, Fifpro said: “Fifpro is totally opposed to the use of a lie detector test and strongly recommends all players not to cooperate with this test.”

According to Fifpro, the players were suspected of having been involved in match fixing.

“Banik Most’s club directors … are treating their players as potential suspects, even though there appears to be no clear evidence,” said Fifpro. “Fifpro wants to stress that players are often the victims of match fixing. Professional footballers could be involved but match fixing rarely starts with the players.”

Fifpro added that the use of lie detectors was not efficient in any case and said it understood that the players had not been paid their salaries for March.

“Many scientists have criticised the use of the lie detector,” said Fifpro’s legal director, Wil van Megen. “They are not convinced that this tool is the most accurate to determine whether someone is telling the truth or lying.

“It is a fact that players are more vulnerable to approaches by match fixers when their salaries are not paid and are consequently encountering financial difficulties,” he added.

“Therefore Fifpro strongly advises the directors of FC Banik Most to solve that problem first, before it starts portraying its own players as criminals.”

Banik, who spent three years in the top division between 2005 and 2008, are one off the bottom of the table and facing relegation.