Moses Swaibu, 24, a former Conference South footballer from Croydon, south London, is accused of conspiracy to defraud and will appear at Cannock Magistrates’ Court in Staffordshire on Tuesday.

He is the fifth person and third player to be charged in connection with the National Crime Agency probe into an alleged illegal betting syndicate.

The other two players who are facing charges are Michael Boateng and Hakeem Adelakun, both 22, who are footballers with Conference South team Whitehawk FC. They are also accused of conspiracy to defraud.

Chann Sankaran, a 33-year-old Singapore national, and Krishna Sanjey Ganeshan, a 43-year-old with dual UK and Singapore nationality, are charged with the same offence.

It is alleged that they were all involved with an international betting syndicate that tried to fix matches that members would gamble on.

The allegations emerged following an investigation by the Daily Telegraph during which undercover reporters discussed the possibility of influencing the scores and outcomes of lower-league English games for sums from £50,000.  Read More

A mysterious man, known to him only as “James”, turned his head with this offer: Fix football matches for a year, and you will make more money than you would as an AFC (Asian Football Confederation) referee for 10 years.

Sabbagh, 34, first met “James” at a cafe in Beirut last June through Hadi El Kassar, a fellow Lebanese referee.

During this meeting, “James” claimed to run a company which organised international friendly matches.

He said he was prepared to pay officials for their flights, accommodation and expenses at the same rate as Fifa.

They exchanged e-mail addresses and mobile numbers, through which Sabbagh deduced that the man he met was Singaporean.

He was right. “James” was identified in court papers as an alias allegedly used by Eric Ding Si Yang, 31, a Singapore businessman who was also a football tipster with The New Paper from 2006 to last year.

After exchanging several e-mail messages with Ding, Sabbagh realised he was dealing with a match-fixer.

But Ding allegedly reassured him that “he will not be forced to fix any match, and that it would be totally up to him”.

In August last year, Sabbagh finally caved in and agreed to do “jobs” for the Singaporean

He began giving him details of the international matches he was refereeing and the names of the linesmen assisting him.

Ding allegedly made his move in September, asking Sabbagh to “allow at least three goals” for an AFC Cup match between Kuwait SC and Jordan’s Al Wehdat. In return, the referee would get US$5,000. Sabbagh rejected the offer, allegedly earning a rebuke from Ding when the match ended 0-0.

In February this year, Ding allegedly tried his luck again.

This time, Sabbagh informed him that he would be officiating two more AFC Cup matches: the March 6 tie involving Iraq’s Duhok and Yemen’s Al Shab Ibb in Iraq, and the April 3 encounter between Singapore’s Tampines Rovers and India’s East Bengal in Singapore.

A month later, the duo spoke over the phone, where Ding took a keen interest in three AFC Champions League matches that Sabbagh was scheduled to officiate in South Korea, Qatar and Iran.

Ding allegedly said “he expected a lot of goals to be scored” in those matches.

During this conversation, Sabbagh confirmed that two other Lebanese officials – Ali Eid, 33, and Abdallah Taleb, 37 – would be his linesmen for the upcoming match in Singapore.

Ding allegedly wanted to know if all three officials had any requests while in Singapore. Sabbagh replied that he wanted the Singaporean to arrange “free sexual services” for them, in return for fixing an unspecified match in the future.

On April 1, the trio arrived in Singapore to officiate the AFC Cup match.

They stayed at the Amara Hotel, and met Ding the following day at the Subway restaurant next door.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the officials’ preference for the girls they were promised – but it did not last very long.

Suspecting that they were being secretly photographed, the group left abruptly.

But later that night, Sabbagh directed Ding to send over “tall Asian girls”.

Shortly after midnight on April 3, three women were taken to their hotel.

Each of the three Lebanese picked a girl and went back to their rooms. Sabbagh and Eid had intercourse with their respective girls, while Taleb received free services “in the form of a massage to his private parts and masturbation”.

Investigations revealed that the sexual services were priced at $500 each.

Sabbagh and his two linesmen – who were also sports teachers in Lebanon – never got to officiate the AFC Cup match that night.

Just hours after their sexual trysts, they were hauled up by officers from the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau.

Replacement officials for the match were found.

The three men were charged in court on April 4, when they asked for forgiveness and apologised for their actions.

The two linesmen were sentenced yesterday, and Sabbagh will know his fate today – a year after his fateful meeting in Beirut with a man called “James”.

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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.

Gamblers using IBCBet agents bet on soccer matches.

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.

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.

Gamblers using IBCBet agents bet on S-League and other soccer matches.

“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?”

Four Maltese players have been given life bans after being found guilty of match-fixing, the Malta FA announced on Tuesday.

Three of the players – Gaetan Spiteri, Julian Briffa and Jermain Brincat – are on the books of top-flight clubs in Malta while Chris Brincat, the brother of Jermain, is a futsal player who has turned out for Malta’s national futsal team.

Spiteri, who had spent his entire career with hometown club Hamrun Spartans before joining rivals Qormi on loan last year, has been sanctioned after being found guilty of colluding with Briffa to offer a bribe to a Sliema Wanderers player before a match against Hamrun in February last year.

No disciplinary action was taken against the Sliema player as investigations revealed that he had rejected the overtures of Briffa, a former Sliema player, and Spiteri. The match in question ended 1-1.

A life ban was also given to Briffa but the Malta FA prosecuting officer is recommending a reduced sentence for the defender on the grounds that he co-operated fully with the investigators.

The recommendation will be discussed at the Malta FA’s next annual general meeting later this year.

Jermain Brincat, who began this season with Maltese Premier League club Floriana, and his brother Chris, a Floriana futsal player, were both handed a life ban for their involvement in an attempt to fix the result of a Division One (second tier) match last September.

Media reports said the case came to light after the player who had been approached to throw the match contacted the authorities. 

They intended to be on this match at IBCbet, a bookmaker in Singapore

The players can appeal against their bans. 

The latest match-fixing cases have cast a pall over Maltese football, which is still coming to terms with former Malta midfielder Kevin Sammut being handed a life ban by UEFA late last year after he was found guilty of helping to fix the Euro 2008 qualifier between Norway and Malta.

Sammut, who has always maintained his innocence, is appealing against the sentence at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). 

During a visit to Malta in March last year, UEFA president Michel Platini stated that players found guilty of match-fixing should be banned for life. 

“Players (who are implicated in match-fixing) should not be allowed to play football anymore,” Platini said.

“This is killing the game and the players must shoulder the responsibility.”

Ding on bail

Meanwhile, in other match-fixing news, a Singapore businessman accused of bribing three Lebanese soccer match officials with prostitutes has been released on bail after he entered a not guilty plea in court on Tuesday.

Businessman Eric Ding Si Yang, who once worked for the local New Paper tabloid as a football tipster, will contest the three corruption charges that had been filed against him, his lawyer Thong Chee Kun told reporters.

Bail was set at $121,000 and Ding will appear in court again on April 18.

Ding left court on Tuesday wearing sunglasses and a shiny long sleeved green t-shirt accompanied by six men and a woman.

He shook hands with a reporter from the New Paper before leaving in a black car.

Ding’s release on bail comes one day before a hearing in which FIFA-recognised referee Ali Sabbagh and assistants Ali Eid and Abdallah Taleb are expected to enter their pleas and request bail. The Lebanese officials each face one charge of ‘corruptly receiving gratification… to fix a football match.’

The three officials had arrived in Singapore last week to take charge of the AFC Cup match between local side Tampines Rovers and East Bengal of India, but were hastily replaced hours before kick off by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

They are currently being held in separate cells, with the prosecution arguing against bail at an earlier hearing on Friday for fear they were part of a syndicated operation. 

The officials face a maximum fine of $80,670 and a five-year prison term if found guilty. Ding faces the same punishment on each charge.More
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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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Two Lebanese soccer match officials charged in Singapore with accepting sexual favors to fix an Asian Football Confederation Cup match were remanded pending a bail hearing next week.
A third official who had also been charged yesterday has been hospitalized, Singapore subordinate court Judge Kamala Ponnampalam said today at a hearing into the case.
Each of the men was provided with a woman at Singapore’s downtown Amara Hotel on April 3 who gave them free sexual services as an inducement to fix the soccer match which was to be played later that day, according to the charges filed last night. Each of the men faces a maximum jail term of 5 years and a fine of as much as S$100,000 ($80,700) if convicted.

Match fixers and sports gamblers have placed bets at Singapore IBCbet

Assistant referee Ali Eid, 33, had an “episode” in lock- up before today’s hearing and was rushed to a public hospital, Judge Ponnampalam said. No further details on Eid’s condition were available.
Referee Ali Sabbagh, 34, and assistant referee Abdallah Taleb, 37, shouldn’t be allowed bail given the circumstances of the case, the attention it has drawn and possible links to a syndicated operation, prosecutor Asoka Markandu said. The prosecutor asked for the two men to be remanded in separate cells.
Wider Concerns
Taleb had initially refused to be represented by lawyer Gary Low, who was hired by the Lebanese Football Association to act for all three referees. Taleb agreed after speaking with the vice consul of the Lebanon consulate.
The charges come amid wider concerns about match-fixing in soccer. In February, global governing body FIFA suspended people in Italy, South Korea and China for allegedly being involved in rigging games. The three Lebanese officials were replaced before the AFC Cup match between Singapore-based Tampines Rovers and East Bengal, which won 4-2 in a game that included an own goal by its opponent.
“Singapore has always adopted a zero tolerance approach towards corruption and match-fixing of any form is not condoned in Singapore,” the Asian city’s Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau said in a statement yesterday.
Europol, Europe’s law enforcement agency, said in February a Singapore-based operation tried to fix more than 380 games, including World Cup and European Championship qualifiers, to generate a profit of more than 8 million euros ($10.4 million). An 18-month investigation, Operation VETO, found 425 match officials, club executives, players and others in 15 countries were involved.
‘Excellent Referees’
The Football Association of Singapore previously said Sabbagh, Eid and Taleb were pulled from the match after it was informed they were assisting the anti-graft bureau with investigations.
Lebanese Football Association head Hachem Haydar said in a telephone interview before today’s hearing that he was “shocked and surprised” by events in Singapore.
“Of course I know them,” he said. “They are some of the excellent referees here. They are good referees, they have a good performance and their attitude is very good. We are all surprised that something happened.”
The men officiate in the Lebanese top league, AFC games and have overseen matches between national teams, Haydar said.
“They are the elite,” he added. “All the people here are shocked, we know them they are very good persons. I don’t know what happened with this exactly.”
The criminal cases are Public Prosecutor v Ali Sabbagh, DAC11104/2013, Public Prosecutor v Ali Eid, DAC11106/2013 and Public Prosecutor v Abdallah Taleb, DAC11105/2013, Singapore Subordinate Courts.

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