Fixing the World Cup

THE richest sporting event on the planet is just two weeks away and the crime syndicates will be waiting. With up to one billion viewers expected to watch
the World Cup final, no other sports event generates more revenue. Or more illegal revenue. Geelong-based writer NEIL HUMPHREYS, the author of the
best-selling novel Match Fixer, explains why Asian gangsters will be rubbing their hands together as the World Cup approaches.

Question: Your book, Match
Fixer, suggests that Asian
gangsters and crime syndicates
are constantly trying
to fix soccer matches. Will
they try their luck at the
World Cup?
Humphreys: Of course.
My sources have told me
that bank accounts have
already been set up in South
Africa and money has been
wired across from Asia. The
World Cup is a multi-billion
dollar illegal betting industry
in Asia. There is too
much money involved not to
try.
The World Cup has 500
million people watching
every game, at least 22
players involved, a referee,
three referee’s assistants
and a vocal crowd. How do
they fix a game with the
entire planet watching?
It’s easier than you think.
I’ve been told that Singaporean
match fixers alone
(other Asian countries have
their own fixers) have been
attempting to fix matches
since the 1994 World Cup.
It’s usually just two guys in a
plane with a briefcase full of
money. It’s often not less
than US$100,000, but it’s
probably more now. They
hang around the training
camps, mostly the poorer
African and Asian nations,
and go for the coach or the
goalkeeper as a rule. They
might tap outfield players
playing in lower, poorer
domestic leagues too. The
goalkeeper is obviously the
best option.
But a goalkeeper can’t
stop his side from scoring at
the other end, right?
The Asian syndicates
don’t gamble on the result.
They back the number of
goals scored. It’s a common
practice because it’s easier
to fix. Like a spread bet, they
will bet on, say, four and five
goals in a match to cover
their outlay, but they also
take six, seven, eight goals
or more and if those bets
come off, they hit the jackpot.
It sounds like a bad James
Bond plot. Surely, this
doesn’t happen often?
It happens all the time. My
source, a retired match fixer
himself, told me that at any
given time two match fixers
are in the air, heading to the
Middle East, Africa or the
lower leagues of Europe. In
November 2009, the German
soccer federation launched
a probe against players,
coaches and referees found
guilty in a match-fixing
scandal that swept across
Europe. A Chinese football
team called Liaoning
Guangyuan went on the run
last year after fixing games.
Their coach was arrested by
Interpol last November and
charged. Some players are
still on the run. All of these
cases can be traced back to
Asia. Asia is the engine that
drives global soccer corruption.
Have you ever seen a fixed
match?
Several times. As a
journalist in Singapore, I’d
be told by other journalists
that tonight’s game was
fixed and I’ve seen friends
rush out to place bets. Sure
enough, I’m at the game and
there are four or five goals in
the last 15 minutes. In Asian
betting, nine goals plus is
the jackpot. It can be odds
of up to 50-1. And it’s easy to
explain, too, the losing team
just collapsed, demoralised.
I’ve written match reports
saying as much, only to find
out later the team was fixed.
I felt bloody ridiculous.
Does it ever lead to violence?
When I was a rookie reporter
in 2000, an English
midfielder called Max Nicholson
stepped out of his
Singapore condo and half a
dozen guys in masks bashed
him with hockey sticks.
That was the original inspiration
for my book. He was
hospitalised and his team
lost the next game which is
what the gangster wanted.
The match fixer subsequently
went to prison
and he’s the guy who now
tells me through his lawyer
— how the current match
fixers operate.
A r e S o c c e r o o s o r
A-League matches fixed?
To my knowledge, no. And
here’s the good bit. The
Asian match fixers generally
know it’s not in the Aussie
DNA to lay down and throw
a match so they don’t
usually try. Whether the
Socceroos opponents in
Asia have ever been approached
is harder to say.
Will we be watching fixed
matches at the World Cup?
I sincerely hope not. It will
only be the lesser, poorer
nations — the Africans, the
Asians — who will be approached
at their South
African training camps. I’m
told they will be approached.
It’s up to them
whether they take the
money or not. If there are
heavy defeats in the group
stages following a surge of
betting across South-east
Asia, then you won’t need
Columbo to figure that that
they’ve taken a briefcase
stuffed with cash.
■ Neil Humphreys’ Match
Fixer is available in most
bookstores.

This article was provided to the Round Ball by Neil Humphreys and is taken from the Geelong Adevertiser