MUMBAI: India, long known as the epi-centre of cricket betting syndicates, has now been hit by a match-fixing scandal involving football.
Five football clubs from the I-League are reportedly under the scanner of the Central Bureau of Investigation. As per Times of India, the CBI started a probe after it emerged that a notorious Singapore-based match-fixer Wilson Raj Perumal invested massive sums of money into the as yet unnamed clubs.
A CBI team visited the All India Football Federation (AIFF) headquarters in Delhi to seek more information about the clubs. The probe agency was looking for more information on the financials of these clubs and their investments. Perumal has been involved in match-fixing scandals and rigging games in tournaments like the Olympics, World Cup qualifiers, women’s World Cup, Concacaf Gold Cup and African Cup of Nations.
“The AIFF has zero tolerance towards match-fixing and we have written to the clubs asking them to cooperate with the investigation. There are concerns about investments made by shell companies linked to the fixer. We will do whatever is needed to ensure that Indian football has no links with anyone remotely connected with match-fixing,” AIFF secretary general Shaji Prabhakaran told Times of India.
CBI has also written to each of the clubs separately to gather information about all contracts and sponsorships, along with details of agencies involved in the signing of foreign players and technical staff.
There have also been other reports of possible match fixing in Indian football. Between March 15 and March 24 this year, six matches of the Goa Pro League were red-flagged for suspicious betting patterns and unusual results.
