Phnom Penh Crown academy coach Bouy Dary yesterday claimed he will seek legal advice along with the other three backroom staff and seven players indefinitely suspended by the club for alleged match-fixing, before holding a press conference to respond to the allegations made in the club’s shock announcement on Sunday.

The long-serving youth coach told the Post by phone yesterday: “I don’t want to make any comment now. I will think about taking legal action and I cannot make any comment more than this because I am afraid of making the problem worse. I want to work legally and I will answer with legal principle because I don’t want any confusion.”

Dary added that he would appear to the public soon to respond to the accusations and take questions from the media.

“I will hold a press conference and I will answer all the questions. I have to make comments and respond to the issue, but now it’s not the right time to say anything,” he said.

Meanwhile, Crown head coach Sam Schweingruber yesterday stood by earlier statements that voice recordings and other evidence had revealed an internal plot led by the youth coach to push him out via a series of intentionally poor performances.

“The seven first team players suspended by the club were lobbied by the four Crown officials to behave with improper conduct,” the Swiss coach, who has been at Crown since 2012, told the Post.

“I find it heartbreaking, because we used to train and overcome many problems together, but after everything we went through, they still acted wrongly.”

Asked about Dary’s planned press conference, Schweingruber said: “We don’t worry about it, because we have the voice recordings outlining the plot to influence games and also possess other strong evidence, so if they want to hold a press conference, we are not worried but welcome it.”

Schweingruber yesterday declined to allow Post reporters to listen to the recordings, saying they were now in the hands of Crown owner Rithy Samnang, though some might eventually be made available to the public.

“I think the owner will shortly be presenting [the recordings] to the football federation, if he hasn’t already. This is up to the owner, as my focus is fully on coaching the team.”

On Sunday, seven players – Yuk Akary, Thong Da, Sary Matnorotin, Ngoy Srin, Sos Suhana and San Usaphea – and club officials Dary, Nguon Chansothea, Tes Sophat and Soeu Siha, were given indefinite suspensions by the five-time champions for the alleged match manipulation.

Sources with knowledge of the Crown controversy have told the Post that the Football Federation of Cambodia might take a closer look at the case since manipulation of results by players or officials of a registered club would be a breach of the federation’s code of conduct. It is likely that FFC scrutiny may follow in the coming days.