“That was their favorite combination on the betting tickets” + How much money Gabi Matei bet and won from fixing a match
Article by Justin Gafiuc – Published Friday, February 27, 2026, 00:33 / Updated Friday, February 27, 2026 00:48
Gazeta obtained spectacular details from the file built by prosecutors around the betting cell from the third league team CS Păulești. The heads of the network, the impresarios Claudiu Blaga and Alexandru Cristescu, would have come to the Prahov team from the very beginning with the plan to rig games in order to obtain some winnings on bets, a strategy accepted from the start by Gabi Matei, Marius Sanda and Raul Papp, the main “agents” on the lawn. All of them would have decided to specifically force a certain combination on the tickets, apt to give them a generous share
The “Păulești case” exploded following the investigation carried out by the Prosecutor's Office attached to the Ploiești Court, where the entire operation is coordinated by Sorin Popa, the institution's first prosecutor. Thursday brought the first punctual decisions: impresarios Claudiu Blaga and Alexandru Cristescu received arrest warrants for 30 daysGabriel Matei and Marius Sanda – investigated under judicial control, and Raul Papp – investigated in a state of freedom.
However, beyond the information released so far in the public space, the investigation contains a series of spectacular elements, which would indicate the way in which the plan to rig matches in order to obtain betting profits was born and grew at CS Păulești. The newspaper continues to present incredible details from the file that caused Romanian football to panic.
Targeted scheme: “More than 3.5 goals are scored, the opponent wins, one of the teams does not score. Paulesti!”
Alexandru Cristescu (left) and Claudiu Blaga are the people who set up the whole scam in the Păulești changing room. Photo: Justin Gafiuc (GSP)
GSP sources indicate that, when they decided to get involved in CS Păulești, the two heads of the network, Blaga and Cristescu, started from the start with the project of knocking matches!
“When Gabi Matei was brought to the team, in the summer of 2025, they held a precise dialogue with him in the sense that they want to build a strong team and even access promotion, but, in order to attract additional funds, it is necessary to rig certain games from time to time. The player agreed from the very beginning,” say people familiar with the investigation.
And the gang from Păulești, which ended up including several footballers interested in participating in the carousel, also fixed a favorite betting mode, so as to collect generous odds.
“There was a favorite combination with three milestones on the same ticket: more than 3.5 goals are scored, the opponent wins, one of the teams does not score, i.e. them. It is the way in which, on various combinations, they collected odds of 150 on a single bet ticket”, complement the GSP sources.
Matei's business: 400 lei bet, 40,000 won
The only match investigated and in which the band from Păulești achieved its goal was the 0-4 defeat suffered away against Victoria Traian, on December 6, 2025, in the 16th round. Then, after 0-1 at halftime, the people of Prahoven scored three more goals in the second half and thus self-validated their betting tickets.
“Gabi Matei played 400 lei on this game and won around 40,000 lei”, GSP sources claim. It is the match in which Marius Sanda, the other player retained in the first phase for 24 hours, scored an anthological own goal, at 0-1, when he sent the ball towards his own goal, the goalkeeper was out, and the ball went into the net, exactly according to the model suffered by Bănel Nicoliță at the “Santiago Bernabeu” in the famous confrontation between Real Madrid and Steaua in the Champions League.
Marius Sanda, the own-goal man from Păulești, is an ardent Dynamo supporter, here in a frame with Dan Nistor / Photo: Facebook @ Marius Sanda
Otherwise, on September 26, Păuleștiul only lost 0-2 away to Blejoi, a score that made them miss the classic betting target. “They still needed to score at least two more goals, but there were too few players to work with and they didn't manage to lose properly.” GSP sources also state.
Also, at 0-1 with Sepsi 2, “the footballers were afraid to act negatively when they saw that coach Fadi Haddad refused to participate in the table”.
The technician of Jordanian origin also submitted his resignation after that game, invoking the criminal requests from the Blaga – Cristescu couple, from whom he had received the suggestion to make the team crooked, so as to facilitate the failure in the terms necessary to reach the betting targets.
Gabi Matei never gave me the impression that he could be involved in such matters. If I think about the way he talked in the dressing room at the beginning of the games, how he prepared and tried to motivate his teammates in a positive way during the games, I had no reason to doubt his honesty. Whoever is wrong, let him pay according to the deeds he commits
Vasile Vasile, president of CS Păulești
The secret of descents in the country: people from the betting gang's entourage
The masked people descended on multiple addresses in 6 counties and Bucharest in the “Păulești operation”
Additional clarifications are also coming about the scope of the raids from the day the arrests were launched: 34 searches in 6 counties (Prahova, Vâlcea, Argeș, Cluj, Ilfov, Dâmbovița) and in Bucharest, 21 people summoned for questioning.
GSP sources indicate that it was about people from the entourage of businessmen and footballers, who, having direct access to information about match-fixing strategies, played various betting tickets in the sense indicated by those who were going to make the counter. There are people in that extended group who currently have the status of witnesses in the investigation, but there are significant chances that some of them will become defendants, with proposals for preventive arrest, depending on the progress of the investigation.
