Hungarian prosecutors said Friday that Dan Tan, a notorious Singaporean alleged match-fixer wanted around the world, was charged in absentia along with 44 others suspected of manipulating football matches.

The 45 including Tan Seet Eng, better known by his pseudonym Dan Tan, were indicted on Thursday after a four-year probe into the alleged manipulation of 32 games across Hungary, Italy and Finland.

The others, all Hungarians, include former players, players still active, referees, club owners, managers and coaches.

Geza Fazekas, spokesman for Hungary’s chief prosecutor’s office, told AFP on Friday that four separate trials would be held due to the large number of people and matches involved.

“The main trial will involve the organisers and ringleaders, those who were liaisons with the Asian syndicate,” he said.

“The (36,000-page) report has been filed with the Budapest court now, so we estimate trials should begin within months, probably no later than September.”

European police body Europol said in February that hundreds of games worldwide had been targeted by match-fixers linked to crime syndicates in Singapore.

European and international arrest warrants have been issued by Hungary’s prosecutors for the elusive Dan Tan, but he remains at large.

The suspects face sentences ranging from two to 16 years in jail if convicted.

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The other three trials will deal with cases where players in Hungary acted independently of the Asian syndicate, or where a large number of players from the same club were implicated, for example the REAC club in Budapest, 14 of whose players or former players have been charged.

Describing the syndicate’s methods, a statement Thursday from Imre Keresztes, Hungary’s chief prosecutor, said the goal of the match-fixing ring was to select matches worldwide in which there was a “realistic chance” of manipulating the result via bribing referees or players, in particular defenders.

Large quantities of low-level bets, usually around 100 euros, would then be made in betting shops around the world.

The 32 games under suspicion include Hungarian league and cup matches, domestic and international youth matches which took place in Hungary, three top league games in Finland, and one in Italy.

Two international friendly matches between clubs are also being investigated.

Michel Platini, the president of European football’s governing body UEFA, on Friday said match-fixing and betting was “the main problem” facing football.

“We are not dealing with petty criminals looking to make ends meet,” said Platini at the UEFA congress in London.

“It seems that we are in some cases dealing with mafia-type organisations that use some games, and therefore our sport, to launder dirty money.

“One game rigged is one match too many as it strikes at the soul of our sport, the very essence of the game.”

Platini also called for the creation of a Europe-wide organisation to police sport.

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Singapore legend Aleksandar Duric has warned match-fixing poses a major threat to the development of Asian football as he prepares to wrap up one of the sport’s most extraordinary and prolific careers.

The 42-year-old striker, a former Olympic kayaker who travelled from war-torn Bosnia to score nearly 400 goals in Singapore’s S-League, said Asia’s rise was being compromised by corruption.

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“We saw so many cases in China and South Korea – it’s getting out of hand. Something needs to be done drastically because sooner or later you’re going to have a big problem,” he told AFP in an interview.

“If you lose the trust of the fans… that’s the biggest problem. And once it comes into the fans’ heads, we’re going to lose all the fans – and what’s the point of playing in empty stadiums?”

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Singapore prosecutors on Tuesday said a local businessman arrested on suspicion of trying to fix a football match by offering free sex to the referees was part of an international syndicate rigging the sport.
Eric Ding Si Yang, 31, was arrested on Saturday for allegedly supplying prostitutes to induce three Lebanese referees to fix an AFC Cup match on April 3 between Singapore-based club Tampines Rovers and India’s East Bengal.
“There is evidence to suggest the involvement of international syndicates for the offences committed by the accused,” Singapore state prosecutors said in a written submission opposing bail.
But despite prosecution objections, District Judge Kamala Ponnambalam granted the businessman bail, set at Sg$150,000 ($121,000).
Singapore has a long history of match fixing, and syndicates from the wealthy Southeast Asian island have been blamed by European police for orchestrating an international network responsible for rigging hundreds of games worldwide.
The suspect, described by local media as a nightclub owner who drives an Aston Martin sports car, had his passport confiscated and is required to report regularly to Singapore’s anti-corruption agency while on trial.
Investigators said referee Ali Sabbagh and his fellow Lebanese assistants Ali Eid and Abdallah Taleb accepted the sexual favours but were abruptly pulled out before the match started.
The Lebanese are being held in suburban Changi Prison pending their bail hearing on Wednesday.
All four suspects are charged with corruption — three counts in the case of Ding — and are the first to be arrested since Singapore came under pressure in February to crack down on match-fixing.
The prosecution said Ding was a “high flight risk” because he has homes in Singapore and Bangkok, where his Thai wife and their daughter live.
“The forfeiture of bail money in the event of an accused’s abscondment is a calculated loss which the syndicate can easily recover through illegal soccer betting at IBC bet in Singapore in merely a single game,” the prosecution said.
“Past cases also suggest a strong potential for such syndicates to interfere with the judicial process by getting witnesses to turn on the stand, or even to abscond altogether.”
In granting bail, the judge stipulated that Ding must call an investigating officer from the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) daily and report to the agency every Monday.
If convicted, Ding and the Lebanese face a maximum prison term of five years or a fine of up to Sg$100,000 ($81,000), or both, for each count of corruption.
Singapore’s Sunday Times said Ding was a football tipster for its sister tabloid The New Paper, which is popular among sports fans, from 2006 to 2012.
He spends most of his time in Bangkok but has stakes in a restaurant and nightclub in Singapore and is known to have a passion for fast luxury cars, it added.

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Since the Europol announcement on their crackdown of an international match-fixing ring some two months ago, there has been a lot written about a Singaporean by the name of Dan Tan Seet Eng, the man supposedly behind a network of global football match-fixers.
Dan Tan’s alleged involvement in this and the uncovering of his identify is complicated and perhaps best explained by BBC in their investigative article here.
Various sources have confirmed that Dan Tan is still in Singapore, though the local press remain relatively silent over his whereabouts. Only “official” statements have been released thus far, including the fact that he is “assisting the police with investigations”.
Over the Good Friday long weekend, a scathing article on Singapore football and fans was published by respected British newspaper the Independent.
The lengthy article (of about 2,000 words) did not reveal much additional information, but it contained some comments from two very renowned media personalities.
‘Until you clean up your act, you’re out’ – Declan Hill
One of them was investigative writer Declan Hill. Hill has spent numerous years researching and writing about match-fixing globally and is perhaps best known for his book, The Fix. It contains much information on how match-fixing operates globally and also has interviews with numerous people, including some names very familiar to Singaporeans.
Hill asserted that FIFA and Interpol should apply pressure on Singapore to hand Dan Tan over to Europol without question. He went on to suggest that our national team should be banned from international tournaments until we “clean up our act”. He alluded to how English clubs were banned for five years in European club competitions after the Heysel football disaster in 1985 as a good example of what Singapore should follow.
As a de facto spokesperson against global match-fixing, Hill has every right to call for tough, if not extreme measures to force Singapore into handing over Dan Tan to the Europol. However, he has clearly missed the point about what is just and fair.
The English (self-imposed) ban on European competitions was a direct reaction to something caused by their fans in the first place (hooliganism). There were also considerations of fan safety after the loss of 39 lives inside Heysel Stadium on that fateful day in 1985.
Surely, it cannot be justified to punish our footballers and fans for the alleged actions of a countryman who has no documented connections to the local football set-up. This would be akin to being directly punished for the crimes of a relative or family member.
In the same article, it was highlighted that our S-League had been “struck by several bribery scandals”. It also mentioned statistically the number of local match-fixing cases and the number of people convicted.
What the article failed to mention was that arguably, more action has been taken by local authorities than any of our counterparts regionally. The fact that we have unravelled more match-fixing cases should mean that we have more efficient surveillance and a stronger anti-corruption culture, rather than the fact that our local league is more tainted than others.
Match fixers and sports bettors have placed bets at IBC bet in Singapore
Yazid Yasin’s involvement in assisting the authorities to stop an attempted fix last year was also briefly highlighted but the article did not give him the credit he was due. People tend to ignore the fact that whilst 680 matches were reportedly investigated for match-fixing across Europe, not a single prominent footballer there had come forward voluntarily to prevent a fix (at least there were no prominent reports of such).
What Yazid has done in Singapore should in fact be publicised and all European footballers should be encouraged to follow his lead and go to the authorities when approached by fixers.
‘In Singapore they don’t have a sports culture, they have a sports-betting culture.’ – Neil Humphreys
What was more disappointing to read was Neil Humphreys’ comments on our culture.
Humphreys is of course a well-respected and renowned media personality on our shores. Amongst other stuff (several books and a TV show), he makes a living out of talking and writing about the Premier League in the local media.
To hear that he actually thinks that there is no “sports culture” in Singapore is indeed very disparaging, especially when I personally look up to him and am a fan of many of his works.
It is apt for Humphreys to make comments on Singapore – after all, he has been living in Singapore for more than a decade now. In the spirit of free speech, it is also fair for Humphreys to express his personal opinion on issues, but it is upsetting when such generalisations are made about our culture.
There is no denying that there is a certain element of a betting culture that exists in Singapore. This is however not a “Uniquely Singapore” phenomenon. Such a culture exists in many other Asian countries as well. Let’s not forget that Macau rakes in the largest casino revenues annually, not Singapore.
Moreover, to say that we have NO sporting culture somewhat undermines the work of all the local professional athletes and the efforts of thousands of fans who turn up to cheer their teams week-in-week-out without making bets of any sorts.
Neil – all generalisations are dangerous, including this one. Even if ALL the global match-fixers are Singaporeans (which is impossible), that does not make ALL Singaporeans corrupt footballers and gambling addicts without love of the game.
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