By Andrew Warshaw
August 8 – FIFA’s former head of security has dramatically claimed that Greece’s 2010 World Cup game against Nigeria might have been fixed and is under investigation.
Chris Eaton (pictured below), who now holds a prominent role with the Qatar-based International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS), said FIFA is examining the match, which Greece won 2-1, in connection to possible spot-fixing.
Eaton told Britain’s Channel 4 suspicions have been raised that a red card issued to Nigeria’s Sani Kaita (pictured top, number 14) after 33 minutes might have been pre-arranged with a fixer.
The midfielder was dismissed after kicking out at an opponent with Nigeria 1-0 up at the time and the Africans went on to lose the Group B game 2-1.
“It’s certainly an interesting circumstance and we know a lot about it,” said Eaton.
“It’s a manifestation of, potentially anyway, an attempt at a fraud that is unique…and perhaps to be replicated in the future, so we have to be cautious about it.”
FIFA, who recently replaced Eaton with German crime buster Ralf Mutschke, denied it was investigating any incidents at the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa.
“We are not conducting any match-fixing investigation for 2010 FIFA World Cup matches,” the world governing body said in a statement.
Ironically, Eaton is due to be one of the speakers at an ICSS sports corruption press conference in London today.
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