By Mark Baber
October 16 – Three current and two former Nepal national team players have been arrested in Kathmandu Valley as part of an investigation into match-fixing involving bookies in Malaysia and Singapore.
According to Nepal’s Metropolitan Police Crime Division (MPCD), those arrested include the current national team captain Sagar Thapa (pictured), vice-captain Sandip Rai, goalkeeper Ritesh Thapa, former national defender Bikash Singh Chhetri and former national player and former coach of Three Star Club Anjan KC.
The Thapa duo debuted for the national team in 2003, KC in 2005 and Rai and Chhetri in 2008 with the offences are believed to date back as far as 2008 according to chief of the MPCD, Sarbendra Khanal.
Khanal said the arrests were made after police received tip-offs that the five were involved in match-fixing.
Khanal told reporters: “They are accused of making quick bucks through match-fixing in cahoots with national and international bookies and fixers, and hurting the faith of fans and fellow countrymen.”
“We were keeping tab on the suspects for some time,” he said, “We had been monitoring their Facebook activities and international banking transactions.”
Furthermore, Khanal confirmed that, “More people are likely to be dragged into the case as investigation progresses.”
The matches which were fixed reportedly included internationals against Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia and the Philippines.
In friendly internationals Nepal lost 4-0 against Malaysia in October 2008, 3-0 against Afghanistan in December 2009 and 4-0 against the Philippines in October 2011. The team lost 2-0 to Bangladesh in an Asian Cup qualifier in March 2013 which led to Nepal exiting the tournament.
The information that lead to the investigation came originally from the monitoring of betting patterns that is part of a long term relationship between the Asian Football Confederation Sportradar Security Services. They alerted the Nepal Police.
Acting General Secretary of the Asian Football Confederation Dato’ Windsor John said: “The AFC adopts a zero tolerance policy towards match-fixing and a 360 degree view on the issue through a strategy of prevention, detection and response. These arrests show that the strategy is working. We applaud the Nepali Police for their reaction to the information and intelligence we have generated in partnership with Sportradar”.
Khanal said: “This is an important week in how Nepal presents its stance on match fixing. We extend our thanks to Sportradar and the Asian Football Confederation for the information and intelligence that they unearthed. We have worked tremendously well together to date and I am confident we can continue to work effectively going forward”.
The match-fixing investigation follows on from a FIFA Ethics Committee investigation which was launched last year into possible financial irregularities involving Ganesh Thapa, head of the All Nepal Football Association, who has claimed a $100,000 payment from former AFC President Mohammed Bin Hammam, made into his son’s account in 2009, was a personal loan, rather than any kind of bribe.
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