Football betting escalates

Sport
SINGAPOREAN Wilson Raj Perumal — the man at the centre of the match-fixing scandal that rocked the Zimbabwe Warriors has been arrested in Finland and the Finnish Football Association believes that the tentacles of the betting scandal that has shaken the foundations of Finnish football reach far beyond the country’s borders.

Perumal (45) was arrested while attempting to leave Finland on Thurdsay morning.

According to Finnish Football Association managing director Kimmon Lipponen, it is possible that even more cases relating to bets and free bets ,wrapped up in the same tangled web may be discovered either in Finland or abroad.

“The teams have not made any agreements between themselves. Instead, there are large-scale global criminal operators lurking in the wings. We are talking about a very big and serious matter here.”

Raj Perumal is the principal fingered in Zimbabwe’s match-fixing scandal in which the players were paid to throw away matches  in 2009 and 2010 in Asia. The match-fixing scandal has already claimed the scalps of former Zifa chief executive officer Henrietta Rushwaya and programmes manager Jonathan Musavengana.

Currently, Zambian-born striker Christopher Musonda from Finland’s Lapland football team Rovaniemen Palloseura (RoPS) has remanded in custody, while four other players (all Zambia) from the same team are under arrest.

In addition, Dominic Yobe, who transferred from AC Oulu to HJK Helsinki for this season, and his brother Donewell Yobe, whose new team is Oulun Palloseura, have been arrested. All the mentioned players are suspected of involvement in match-fixing.

“Many Finnish football teams’ economic situation is not as good as it should be. For one, the teams are unable to pay their players sufficiently high salaries”, Lipponen said.

According to the FA managing director, the players’ low wages and economic problems increase the risk of criminal betting cheats approaching individual players or teams with lucrative match-fixing offers.

The Finnish FA works in co-operation with international football associations and the police to prevent betting scams.

“We receive reports about strange game behaviour, and we take action. Last year there were two such cases,” Lipponen said.The betting scandal got an additional twist on Thursday when the sports weekly Urheilulehti reported that the National Bureau of Investigation (Finland’s central criminal police) had widened its investigation into the matter to include the southern team Tampere United.

According to the weekly, Singapore national Wilson Raj Perumal, who has been arrested in Finland on suspicion of illegal match-fixing, offered TamU US$354 559 which the team accepted.

“I am not aware of any illegalities in our operation”, TamU chairman of the board Harri Pyhältö replied firmly to Helsingin Sanomat.

Pyhältö refused to comment on whether the team had received any money from Perumal.— Helsingin Samanat