CHENNAI: It was only a matter of time before it happened but the spectre of match fixing is casting a shadow over the highest levels of Indian football. Ranjit Bajaj, owner of I-League leaders Minerva Punjab, has alleged that a couple of his players were offered huge sums of money by bookies to fix matches.
Bajaj tweeted news of the approach early on Thursday morning. “This happened to two different people,” he later clarified to Express. “Day before yesterday (Tuesday) night to one of my Indian players over phone. He came to me and the next morning I called up AIFF’s integrity officer Javed Siraj and told him the whole thing. In the evening, it happened again to one of my foreign players through Whatsapp and Facebook. He was offered `30 lakhs and he blocked the guy. I reported the whole matter on the AFC integrity app and gave all the details.”
Minerva currently hold a 3-point lead over second-placed East Bengal and have a game in hand over them. “We did some investigation of our own and the account holder on Facebook has an Indian name, but is based in Spain. The phone number, according to Truecaller was from Delhi,” Bajaj said.“The sum — `30 lakhs — is big money for players, but it is life-changing for match officials. They earn as little as `10,000 per match and amounts like this is what they earn their entire life. The AIFF needs to ensure that football in the country is played in the right spirit,” he said.
“I need to applaud the two footballers who recognised, rejected and reported the incident,” Siraj said in a statement. “We will leave no stone unturned to protect the integrity of football.”I-League CEO Sunando Dhar confirmed that this was the first time in the 11-year history of the league that a team was reporting an approach by fixers. “This is the first time an owner is reporting to this,” Dhar said. “Some years before there were allegations regarding a game involving Mumbai FC but for whatever reason, the club had decided not to report it then.”
While it may not have been officially reported before, football in the country is no stranger to claims of match fixing. The result of a 2011 I-League game between Dempo and Air India, which the former won 14-0, had been much scrutinised. Then in 2013, it was reported that a Malaysian betting syndicate had offered Mumbai FC players huge sums of money to lose matches they were expected to win. Results in various state and city leagues are regularly subject to such claims with FIFA’s integrity watchdog, Sportradar raising the alarm over a Calcutta Football League game between Tollygunge Agragami and NBP Rainbow AC last year. The same Twitter account (@Soccerreports23) who had alleged that the CFL match was fixed, much before Sportradar flagged it, had cast aspersions over a number of Shillong Premier League matches as well.
Express had reported earlier that a number of betting sites across the world offer odds on minor Indian leagues including the Chennai Super Divison, the Calcutta Football League and Shillong Premier League. Bets can also be placed on matches of the ongoing Santosh Trophy.
vishnu.prasad@newindianexpress.com