#5 The 2013 English match-fixing scandal
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Much like doping, match fixing is scarcely talked about in football (particularly in England) despite it being a constant topic of concern in other sports. So it came as a massive shock to England in 2013 when the biggest match-fixing scandal in the nation's history was revealed.
After investigations by The Sun and The Daily Telegraph, six people were arrested for their involvement in a “suspected international illegal betting syndicate”. Former Reading F.C and Portsmouth F.C player Sam Sodjie was one of the main figures behind the investigation, who claimed that he could organise players in the Football League Championship to intentionally get booked in exchange for cash. He said that he himself had received a red card for punching a player in exchange for £70,000 while playing in Ligue 1.
The former player also claimed that he would be fixing matches at the 2014 FIFA World Cup and could also fix English Premier League games. He added that he had paid £30,000 to a Championship player to receive a yellow card.
As part of a separate investigation by The Telegraph, seven people were arrested after a series of undercover meetings with a Singaporean match-fixer revealed that two English football matches were the targets of a betting scam, where the fixer would tell players how many goals needed to be scored in the game.
The fixer said that the rigging of the results would see gamblers in Asia make hundreds of thousands of dollars as a result of the information. In order to rig the games, the fixer said he “controlled” certain teams in Europe and would “buy” referees to influence the results.
To prove that he wasn’t lying, the fixer accurately predicted the amount of goals that would be scored in a match the next day, while also accurately predicting what minute a certain player would receive a yellow card.
Following the investigation, two Singaporean businessmen were given five years in prison for trying to fix a match between AFC Wimbledon and Dagenham and Redbridge, while player Michael Boateng received 18 months. Former Premier League striker DJ Campbell was also one of the first six people arrested, but did not receive any punishment.
While no Premier League clubs were involved in the scandal, the identities of some clubs involved in the match-fixing have not been revealed due to an ongoing investigation. It is believed that the cases may be part of a larger match-fixing syndicate throughout Asia, with the biggest revelations possibly still to come.
