Home   >   News   >   Two arrested over match-fixing allegations

Two arrested over match-fixing allegations

By on November 28, 2013
The National Crime Agency has arrested two men over alleged match-fixing

The National Crime Agency has arrested two men over alleged match-fixing

Two men have been arrested over alleged match fixing in low English football leagues following a mass investigation into match fixing in English football by the Daily Telegraph.  Singapore national Chann Sankaran, 33, and forty-three year old UK and Singapore citizen Krishna Sanjey Ganeshan were both charged with conspiring “to defraud bookmakers by influencing the course of football matches and placing bets thereon”, joining the six men already charged with match-fixing by the National Crime Agency.

The pair will remain in custody after fears over a large scale match-fixing scheme in non-league football in England, which could become a reality in the Football Conference and international football.

One match fixer was secretly recorded by the Telegraph saying “I do Australia, Scotland, Ireland, Europe, World Cup, World Cup qualifier,” and claiming to have an influence on certain referees and a large impact on how an entire African national teams plays.  The fixer’s reportedly pay every controlled player around £50,000 to guarantee a minimum number of goals in a match, therefore making huge profits in the Asian betting market.

Former Bolton Wanderers forward Delroy Facey is understood to have been a part of the fixing schemes, which have now entered a country which was used to be thought of as untouchable regarding match-fixing.

Fifa vice-president Jim Boyce has called for the “cancer” of football to be stamped out, aligning with what Fifa president Sepp Blatter has said: “Match-fixing is a very serious problem and is one that has to be tackled at the very highest level. Anyone found guilty will be banned for life,” Boyce said.

“Fifa has many investigators working throughout the world to try to erode the game of this cancer. It has got to be stamped out.”

Despite the plain evidence of match-fixing entering the UK, the Scottish and Irish football associations both indicated they were yet to find of match-fixing in their respective countries.

The Scottish FA said: “We await communication from the relevant authorities to establish if there is any evidence to substantiate this allegation.

“We have an early-warning system in place to monitor suspicious betting patterns and no issues have been raised in that regard.”

Meanwhile the Irish FA said: “We have regular contact with this issue with Uefa, Europol and Interpol and none of them have indicated any Irish connection at this stage.”

A potential solution for the match-fixing would be to follow the advice of the chair of the Sports Betting Group, Tim Lamb, who suggested the government fund an agency to fight football-related corruption.

“Why do we spend £6m on anti-doping when, in the eyes of some sporting grandees, this is a bigger threat?” Lamb said. “If governing bodies had more money available to help them with their anti-corruption programmes, the football authorities might have picked this up before the press or the police. Player education has been a hugely important factor. In this case, there has clearly been no education or insufficient education to remind them of the need to resist temptation.”

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.