The Lithuanian Amateur Football Association said on Friday it has fired Giedrius Janonis, a suspected leader of an organised crime group known as Kamuoliniai.
“The Lithuanian Amateur Football Association [...] has decided to terminate the employment relationship with the project manager Giedrius Janonis,” it said in a statement.
The association said it made the decision “in light of the position of the Lithuanian Football Federation (LFF) on the reputation requirements for the employees of associations, leagues, and clubs belonging to the Lithuanian football community, and in accordance with the UEFA, FIFA, and LFF statutes”.
The statement came after the media reported on Thursday that Janonis was employed as a project manager by the Lithuanian Amateur Football Association.
Read more: Suspected gang leader in employment of Lithuanian Amateur Football Association – media
The LFF said on the same day that it did not favour the employment of convicted persons by associations that are part of the Lithuanian football community.
Janonis spent several years in custody until July when a Kaunas court released him on a bail of 30,000 euros but placed him under intensive supervision for six months and took his documents. The court also set bails for other defendants, Deividas Čereška and Genadijus Borisovas.
The criminal case in Kaunas Regional Court consists of 424 volumes of documents and evidence on crimes allegedly committed by the gang between 1999 and 2018.
Charges include the organisation and leadership of an armed criminal group, murder and attempted murder, bodily injuries, extortion, and other very severe crimes and serious offences characterised by brutality and the use of physical violence.
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