MOSCOW, August 18 (RIA Novosti) - The president of the Russian soccer governing body downplayed Friday a potential match-fixing scandal, which has already involved the police.

Mikhail Grishankov, the first deputy chairman of the Russian Parliament's lower house Security Committee, sent a letter to the Interior Ministry, asking it to inquire into the July 16 game between Spartak (Moscow) and Tom (Tomsk), which was allegedly fixed by referee Pavel Kulalayev.

"Mikhail Grishankov did indeed write a letter, but it is not true that a criminal investigation was launched," Vitaly Mutko, the president of the Russian Football Union, said.

Match-fixing has become more frequent in soccer recently. Last year in Germany, a referee and five other defendants were tried for bribery just eight months before the country hosted the World Cup.

Mutko said he did not mind when law enforcement interfered in soccer, and in some cases it was justified. "Our [Russian] Criminal Code has articles on bribery, for instance," he said.

He said that should it be proved that Kulalayev took bribes, a criminal investigation will definitely be launched.