Still fixing it

YOU go to a game, expecting it to be an entertaining affair but somebody from the back says this, “This game is going to end 2-1,”

The next thing you know, the game ends at 2-1. This happened in my hometown and I didn’t want to believe it all. I thought he was just placing a bet but he had his earphones on and gave live updates. And he even said, “I paid player number 23 and he will do the job for us,”

Shocked but I couldn’t do anything! The next day, I met a player and he told me it’s common in Malaysian football. The experienced centre-back, who used to play for the national team said many fixers have tried to pay him but because of his religious beliefs, he avoids them.

But he had something to tell us…

“Fixers will bravely come to you and ask you to fix the match. Some of them have agents in the stadium during a match.

“If the stadium is not full, In four corners of the stadium, you will see four different man with earphones on, wearing four different caps. If the game is packed, then they will meet the players personally and fix it.

“These are international syndicates, who want to help betting syndicates around the world. The target our leagues because it's not popular and they know the stadiums are not full all the time,” said the player who has since retired from the game.

Sadly match-fixing has constantly raised its ugly head in Malaysian football. It reached a peak in the mid 1990s when a whole slew of talented players were exiled from the game.

Recently, 17 players from Kuala Lumpur’s 2013 Premier League side were fined RM5,000 each by the FAM disciplinary committee.

On December 2013, FAM imposed life bans on five KL players and three team officials, including a kitman, for match-fixing. The eight were also fined RM20,000 each.

Has it stopped?

The Star Online spoke to players, a coach and an investigative journalist, who have encountered such situations and they gave their take on match-fixing, which is rampant in Asia. According to these sources, Malaysia and Singapore are still severely affected by it.

“It has been rampant for many years in Malaysian football. Everyone knows that, few people will say it publicly,” said Investigative Journalist Declan Hill who wrote a book on match-fixing titled The Fix: Organised Crime and Soccer.

According to former Kelantan and Johor coach Steve Darby, the match-fixing scene in South East Asia is massive and he has reported so many cases but never got a reply from the bodies.

“Firstly Asia is massive! An anecdotal evidence would suggest it is an ongoing problem and I think it goes in cycles and we are in a heavy cycle due to the profit margins and the use of internet gambling.

“The problem is “proof”. There are games I know that have been fixed but cannot legally prove it. I have also reported fixes to governing bodies but never got a reply,” said Darby, who is now the assistant coach for Mumbai FC in the Indian Super League which starts next month.

Darby has been working in Asia for more than 20 years and has coached Asian clubs and national teams, this seeing his fair share of dubious games.

“Yes I have encountered games where we won due to fixing which is hard to spot as you think your team is just playing well. Games we have lost due to “mistakes” by players and in one case an International match where the referee was in control of the fix and not the players.

“You feel angry as all the work you do all week is wasted if the game is fixed and its quite possible for a coach to lose his job due to fixed results," he said.

He said that the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has produced booklets on match fixing but questioned whether it reached the football players and officials.

“Do they reach the players? Are they in the language a player can read? Vissai Ninh Binh FC were recently kicked out of the V league for fixing but they were allowed to continue in the AFC Cup.

“I was coach of Kelantan when we played in the proven fixed game against them. We had two players red carded. I offered full support to an AFC manager to an investigation but was never contacted once the game was over,"

A Vietnamese footballer who played for Vissai Ninh Binh FC was jailed for two-and-a-half years for fixing an AFC Cup match.

Eight other members of the Vissai Ninh Binh FC team were given suspended sentences of up to 27 months yesterday for manipulating the result of the match against Kelantan in March 2014.

A bookmaker was also jailed for 30 months at the trial in northern Ninh Binh province.

Most major syndicates bet on foreign matches, but the domestic V-League has faced a slew of allegations of corruption and match-fixing since its debut 2000-2001 season.

“A few years ago I reported match fixing attempts to FAM and supplied photographs of players being approached. Again no response.

“Also whilst in Singapore I reported a death threat from a match fixer and again, there was no response.

“Vietnam does come down hard on match fixing as the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) realises that the fixing was killing the V-League,” he said.

One player, who plays in the Malaysian Super League said he encountered a situation where a referee scolded a player for missing few sitters.

“In 2012, the referee came to my teammate and me and all of a sudden, he scolded my teammate for missing a few one on one chances. The coach should be doing that, not the referee. The referee has since been caught by Singapore cops for match fixing,” he said.

In 2012 Malaysian ref Shukri Nor, was charged together with  businessman S. Thanasegar for attempting to fix a game.

The 40-year-old Thanasegar, a former Malaysian footballer who was once of those implicated in the mid 1990s scandal, was charged with intentionally helping to arrange a meeting between Shukri and a Singaporean, where they allegedly conspired to fix a football match.

The alleged meeting took place in a hotel room in Penang on May 19, 2012, where the Malaysian referee received a sum of S$200 (RM510) and was offered up to S$5,855 (RM14,900) if the desired outcome for the match between LionsXII and Sarawak FA, played in Singapore on May 22, 2012, was achieved.

When asked if there are any ways to curb match-fixing, Darby said there is no simple answer to it. However, he believed that education is the long term answer.

“It should include values and ethics but this must be combined with harsh punishments such as life bans for proven fixers. They should not be allowed in the game at all and that includes administration or the media.

“Match fixing is not new! Even sides such as Liverpool and Manchester Utd have been involved in the early part of the century and English first division players in the 60s. Also Italy has a terrible history of arranged results at the end of the season. So it’s a world problem not just an Asian problem,” he said.

Hill said it is easy to stop match fixing but it all depends on the football officials.

"There have been lots of words but little practical action if you ask me. We just have to see if the football officials really want to stop it,"