By Samindra Kunti
February 15 – The Dutch FA, the KNVB, have confirmed that the 2009 Eredivisie match Utrecht vs Willlem II was subject to match-fixing after a year-long probe. A charity match between Willem II and the Sierra Leone national team may also have been manipulated.
The KNVB released a statement highlighting the extent and details of the case. It’s the first time a case of match-fixing at the highest level of competition has been established in the Netherlands.
In January 2015 the KNVB launched an investigation after a story in the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant about match-fixing by Willem II in high profile games against Ajax and Feyenoord respectively.
The probe failed to prove any malign intent in those two games, but has uncovered a bid by Ibrahim Kargbo, who played for Willem II at the time, to fix the outcome of a league match against FC Utrecht in August 2009 in co-operation with convicted Singaporean fraudster Wilson Raj Perumal.
Kargbo acted for the benefit of Perumal and an Asian gang. Perumal, 50, has featured in cases involving more than 100 manipulated matches around the world and has been jailed in both Finland and Hungary.
Perumal and Kargbo had e-mail contact and often discussed the possibility of fixing matches of Willem II and Sierra Leone. Kargbo promised the then captain Michael Aerts and a third unidentified player €25,000 each to lose the match against Utrecht, according to the KNVB statement. Willem II lost 1-0, but Perumal refused to pay out, because the agreement had been for a win by more than a single goal.
“Dutch football is one of the last in Europe to lose its innocence in this matter,” said KNVB operational director Gijs de Jong. “We have long warned this could happen in the Dutch league but it is still difficult to swallow now that this has been established. Hopefully it will add urgency in the Netherlands to the fight against this plague.”
The Dutch FA also suspects that the charity game between Willem II and Sierra Leone in November 2009 was organized with the specific aim of rigging the result on behalf of an Asian betting syndicate. Results of Sierra Leone national team in other competitions might also have been fixed by Kargbo, who was captain of the team, according to the statement.
The 33-year-old Kargbo, who last played at English non-league club Thamesmead Town, has already been suspended in Sierra Leone for alleged match fixing.
The KNVB intends to send their report to FIFA, UEFA and the Dutch police. The Dutch FA will request local authorities to set up a full-time unit to tackle match-fixing and corruption in sports during a session of The House of Representatives.
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