why in the world would you admit to trying to bribe a referee on a radio show. how dumb can a person be to do that. 
BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) -- Colombian football was hit by a new scandal on Tuesday when a former referee told a radio station he had tried to bribe a match official to swing the result of a game at the weekend.
John Fernando Mosquera said he had offered 15 million pesos ($6,700) to referee Eder Vergara before Sunday's Colombian championship match between Once Caldas and America but was turned down.
"I work with a gambler but I'm not involved with any club," Mosquera, who had a brief first division refereeing career which ended in 2002, told Caracol radio.
"I offered Eder Vergara 15 million pesos because I was going to get a commission, but he didn't want to accept," said Mosquera, adding that America would have been the favored team.
Mosquera, who repeated his admission to a television station, said he did not think he had done anything wrong.
"This isn't serious," he said. "I haven't killed anyone and I haven't robbed anyone."
Mosquera's interview came less than 24 hours after Juan Pablo Forero, president of the Colombian Football Federation's refereeing commission, said that Vergara was one of two referees who had told him they had been offered bribes in the last week.
Forero said that Vergara was taken off the game along with both linesman and instead refereed the Pereira-Real Cartagena fixture. Meanwhile, Once Caldas beat America 2-1.
Forero named the other official as Hernando Buitrago, who said he had been offered a bribe before last Thursday's derby between America and local rival Deportivo Cali.
Buitrago took charge of the game, which ended 0-0, and was isolated in a hotel room without telephone access in the hours before the match.
Colombian football has a long history trouble, stretching back to 1948 when the country attracted some of the world's top players with its so-called pirate league, which was outlawed by soccer's governing body FIFA.
The most infamous incidents include the murder of referee Alvaro Ortega in 1989 and of Colombia defender Andres Escobar five years later.
Ortega was killed by two gunmen after officiating at a match between Independiente Medellin and America, prompting the government to suspend the championship.
Escobar, who scored an own goal in a game against the United States in 1994 World Cup, was shot dead shortly after returning home to Medellin.
His killer Humberto Munoz Castro was sentenced to 43 years in jail but was released in October for good behavior after serving only 11 years, a decision described by Escobar's father Dario as disgusting.
John Fernando Mosquera said he had offered 15 million pesos ($6,700) to referee Eder Vergara before Sunday's Colombian championship match between Once Caldas and America but was turned down.
"I work with a gambler but I'm not involved with any club," Mosquera, who had a brief first division refereeing career which ended in 2002, told Caracol radio.
"I offered Eder Vergara 15 million pesos because I was going to get a commission, but he didn't want to accept," said Mosquera, adding that America would have been the favored team.
Mosquera, who repeated his admission to a television station, said he did not think he had done anything wrong.
"This isn't serious," he said. "I haven't killed anyone and I haven't robbed anyone."
Mosquera's interview came less than 24 hours after Juan Pablo Forero, president of the Colombian Football Federation's refereeing commission, said that Vergara was one of two referees who had told him they had been offered bribes in the last week.
Forero said that Vergara was taken off the game along with both linesman and instead refereed the Pereira-Real Cartagena fixture. Meanwhile, Once Caldas beat America 2-1.
Forero named the other official as Hernando Buitrago, who said he had been offered a bribe before last Thursday's derby between America and local rival Deportivo Cali.
Buitrago took charge of the game, which ended 0-0, and was isolated in a hotel room without telephone access in the hours before the match.
Colombian football has a long history trouble, stretching back to 1948 when the country attracted some of the world's top players with its so-called pirate league, which was outlawed by soccer's governing body FIFA.
The most infamous incidents include the murder of referee Alvaro Ortega in 1989 and of Colombia defender Andres Escobar five years later.
Ortega was killed by two gunmen after officiating at a match between Independiente Medellin and America, prompting the government to suspend the championship.
Escobar, who scored an own goal in a game against the United States in 1994 World Cup, was shot dead shortly after returning home to Medellin.
His killer Humberto Munoz Castro was sentenced to 43 years in jail but was released in October for good behavior after serving only 11 years, a decision described by Escobar's father Dario as disgusting.
