MADRID, Spain (AP):

A SPANISH judge has sent German prosecutors information suggesting that Russian mobsters fixed a UEFA Cup semi-final game last season between Russian teams Zenit St Petersburg and Bayern Munich, a leading Spanish newspaper reported yesterday.

El País said a probe by Judge Baltasar Garzon has turned up a taped telephone conversation of suspected Russian gang member Gennady Petrov mentioning that 50 million of an unspecified currency had been paid to Bayern.

Final score

Previously, in a call in May, one of Petrov's aides, Leonid Khristoforov, boasted to Petrov that he knew the result of the match in St Petersburg would be 4-0 in Zenit's favour. The final score was in fact 4-0, with Zenit winning. Bayern and Zenit had drawn 1-1 in the first leg in Munich.

Zenit went on to win the UEFA Cup, beating Rangers 2-0 in the final in Manchester, England.

"Bayern Munich knows nothing about this suspicion and neither does the Munich prosecutor's office," the German club said in a statement yesterday. "We are going to try to get as much information we can."

Contacted by The Associated Press, the National Court acknow-ledged that there was a probe into Petrov and other suspected gang members, but would not comment on the El País report.

Not investigating

Christian Schmidt-Sommerfeld, spokesman for the Munich prosecutor's office, said it still hadn't received anything from Spain, so he could not comment on the case. He said he has no information and is not investigating.

Petrov was one of 20 people arrested in Spain in June in raids ordered by Garzon. The detainees are suspected members of the Tambov gang, which is considered one of the world's most powerful Russian mafia groups. Petrov is said to be the head of the Tambov group.

They were accused of laundering proceeds from crimes that include contract killings and arms and drug trafficking.

The suspects lived in luxury in Spain and allegedly used bogus companies to launder money from criminal activities in Russia and other former Soviet countries.

El País said that in another conversation, another detained suspect, Vitaly Izguilov, talked of making money on the transfer of one of Zenit's players. The other person in the call mentioned the transfer of four players, but it was not clear if this concerned the Russian league champions.