Plans to rig World Cup busted

They were audacious enough to try and fix next year's football World Cup in Brazil.

In fact, they had already started building contacts and were poised to make millions, said several sources.

Their plan, however, will not see the light of day as 14 of the syndicate members, including alleged ringleader Dan Tan Seet Eng, were arrested by the Singapore authorities on Sept 17.

Tan's wife was also one of nine persons being investigated by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB). They are currently out on bail.

When contacted last week, Tan's wife declined to comment.

To date, four suspects have been named by the media. They are former Sleague footballer Gaye Alassane, alleged kelong mastermind Dan Tan, Tan's wife and a close aide of Tan's, Anthony Santia Raj.

Two Singapore government sources shared information on the syndicate's World Cup ambitions with The New Paper (TNP).

One said: "The syndicate had been posturing, setting up a base of corrupt football players and officials through matches played overseas in national leagues and international friendlies.

"When the 2014 World Cup comes, all they will be doing is collecting (their betting earnings). Their ultimate plan was possibly to set up one illegal infrastructure for two events - the World Cup and football matches in the Olympic Games."

An investigator from UK-based SI Sports Intelligence, who wanted to be known only as John, also believes there was a plan to fix World Cup matches.

He said: "Through corrupt referees, this syndicate allegedly sets up fixes six months ahead of major matches. "From source information, they (Dan Tan's syndicate) allegedly were gearing up for the (2014) World Cup."

The recently-dismantled syndicate had been linked to matches in Latin America and Africa, John said without going into specifics.

The other Singapore source, a highranking official, said this was part of the reason they moved against Dan Tan and his gang.

"Something had to be done to stop them... we couldn't take the chance," said the senior official.

Despite the close scrutiny by global law enforcement, media and football stakeholders, Mr Andreas Krannich, managing director of integrity and strategy for Sportradar, a betting analysis company, said he does not believe that attempts from match fixers will slow down approaching the 2014 World Cup.

STILL ACTIVE

Mr Krannich said: "The syndicate of Wilson Raj Perumal and Dan Tan has recently proven to be still active... The World Cup has the largest potential for profits and although many of the players' wages are significantly higher than those corrupted outside the World Cup (and therefore harder to bribe), the opportunity remains."

In April, Mr Ralf Mustchke, Fifa security head, told Xinhua news agency that "we (Fifa) don't have any leads that any match has been thrown", adding he was confident that "nothing will happen through the (2014 World Cup) qualification".

But kelong hunter John disagreed.

Other syndicates may have executed their World Cup plans years before.

He had shown TNP a video clip where a Laos national football player said that one 2014 World Cup qualifier match played against Cambodia in June 2011, among others, had been fixed.

The footballer had alleged: "Before the game, all the players knew what the score was going to be."

Laos lost 2-4 to Cambodia.

At least two Top 50 teams are believed to have been corrupted by Singapore kelong syndicates, John told TNP.

In the last World Cup in 2010, Singaporean names like Anthony Santia Raj, Gaye Alassane, Wilson Raj Perumal and Dan Tan had emerged in what is known as the South Africa Football Association (Safa) probe.

The Singaporeans were accused of fixing some 2010 pre-World Cup international friendlies.

Tan and Santia Raj were arrested last month.

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