Ex-Happy Valley soccer player found not guilty in match-fixing trial
Judge says Fan Weijun's conversation with goalkeeper could have been taken out of context
A former Happy Valley captain and assistant coach accused of asking a teammate to throw a soccer game last year has been cleared of match-fixing.
Fan Weijun, 35, was acquitted of incitement to commit conspiracy at Eastern Court today.
“I’m relieved now, as the whole thing has always been a misunderstanding,” the mainland midfielder said outside court.
Fan was originally charged with conspiracy to defraud, but that charge was amended on Tuesday. He had pleaded not guilty to the original and the amended charge.
The court previously heard that Fan had attempted to fix a Senior Shield match between his team and Sun Pegasus in December. A day before the game, he rang then reserve goalkeeper Leung Man-lai to ask him “to lose three to four goals”, the prosecution alleged.
In court today, Deputy Magistrate Colin Wong Sze-cheung said he could not convict Fan based solely on that evidence, noting that Leung failed to recall other parts of the alleged phone conversation.
Wong said the words could have been taken out of context, and noted that Leung had agreed with Fan’s lawyer Albert Poon that they could have been intended to be motivational.