Match officials for East Bengal's AFC Cup game arrested

Lebanese match officials for today’s AFC cup group stage tie at Jalan Besar between East Bengal FC and Tampines Rovers, namely Ali Sabbagh, Ali Eid and Abdallah Taleb have been taken into detention by the Corrupt Practices Investigations Bureau (CPIB) for detail investigations as the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) confirmed these events.

According to the reports, officers from the CPIB turned up at the booked hotels of the match officials and were taken for interrogation. The match officials were in Singapore since Tuesday and they were also present at yesterday’s pre-match briefing.

Though it is not clear whether the match officials are arrested because of doubt about tonight’s match being fixed or for some other incident.

According to sources, a new set of match officials from Malaysia and Thailand have been summoned in to officiate tonight’s Group H match – one which is a do or die for the home team, Tampines Rovers, to stand any chance of making past the group stage.

The tainted trio will be replaced by Mahapab Chaiya (Thailand), Sabri Mat Daud and Azman Ismail (Both from Malaysia).

More details to follow…