After the Socceroos played their last home friendly before the World Cup, startling match fixing claims have rocked Australian football.
Convicted match-fixer Wilson Raj Perumal claims he rigged outcomes of a 2010 Egypt-Australia friendly, which Egypt won 3-0.
The claims were outlined in a book called Kelong Kings, where Perumal says he arranged for a Bulgarian referee to officiate the match.
His gambling syndicate then made bets that there would be a total of three goals scored in the match – facilitated by the referee.
Socceroo players at the time voiced their concerns over questionable referee calls.
Goalkeeper at the time, Mark Schwarzer reiterated his concerns on the ABC’s 7:30.
“The game in itself was very much a game that was one-sided and in a game which you thought the officials probably didn’t referee it in the fairest way,” Schwarzer told 7.30.
“It’s hard to take when you’re there playing it, but also it’s very difficult to read after the event and … I suppose it justifies your beliefs at the time.”
Schwarzer thinks it is time for the game’s peak international body FIFA to act.
“I think there should be an investigation from the top. FIFA should investigate it,” he said.
Another Australian match was mentioned in Perumal’s memoirs, a 2008 match Australia’s Under 23s, the Olyroos, played against Togo in the Intercontinental Cup that was called off mid-match.
Perumal instructed the Togo players to lose, but not by much, being so confident that he betted $70,000.
His confidence turned, when the Olyroos were up before the second half.
He instructed the Togo players to fake injuries and get into dangerous tackles to get sent off, and with only six players left in the team, the match was called off, thereby keeping his bet safe.
Australian soccer’s governing body, the FFA, was unaware the two matches were suspect until 7.30 told them of Perumal’s claims.
The FFA acknowledges there may be some problems with the systems in place for detecting match fixing and says it will refer the allegations to the Asian Football Confederation and FIFA.
Source: ABC
