Two Singaporeans charged in UK match-fixing investigation
Delroy Facey, a former player who made 10 Premier League appearances for Bolton, is among others allegedly arrested
Two Singaporeans were charged as part of a UK probe into soccer match-fixing that may involve five others, Britain’s National Crime Agency said.
Chann Sankaran, 33, and Krishna Sanjey Ganeshan, a 43-year-old with dual UK and Singapore nationality, were due to appear before Cannock magistrates in England on Friday, the NCA said on its website. The five other men arrested were released on bail, the agency said.
The arrests came after The Daily Telegraph published a report on Thursday that said match-fixers from Asia were targeting games across Britain. The newspaper published two secretly recorded videos of meetings in Manchester with an “internationally known fixer” who said lower-league matches could be manipulated for £50,000 (HK$631,800).
It would be terrible if we look back on this in months and years to come and discover this is just the tip
Sankaran and Ganeshan were charged with conspiracy to defraud by conspiring together and with others to defraud bookmakers by influencing the course of football matches and placing bets, the NCA said. The charges carry a maximum prison sentence of 10 years.
The newspaper also named one of the men arrested as player agent Delroy Facey, a former player who made 10 Premier League appearances during an 18-month spell at Bolton that ended in January 2004. At least three others are soccer players, the Telegraph said, adding that none of the teams involved in the probe are in the Premier League.
An e-mail sent to Facey yesterday by Bloomberg News through the LinkedIn social-networking website, seeking comment on the report, wasn’t returned.
The NCA investigation was informed in part by evidence provided by a source at the Telegraph, said a spokesman for the anti-crime body.
The NCA, which started operations last month and focuses on stopping organised crime, said it was working on the investigation with the Gambling Commission and the Football Association, soccer’s governing body in England.