By Andrew Warshaw
December 21 – The ongoing global crackdown on match-fixing has now reached Australia where Sydney FC have denied any knowledge of wrongdoing after a Chinese referee confessed in court to accepting bribes, one of them involving the club, whilst another was to fix a friendly involving Manchester United.
Huang Junjie admitted to accepting more than $250,000 (£159,000/€190,000) in bribes to fix two international friendlies and six club matches between 2005 and 2009.
One of those was a friendly between Sydney FC and China’s Shanghai Shenhua which the Chinese club won 2-1.
But in a statement on Wednesday, the Australian club said: “Sydney FC travelled to Shanghai to play the friendly in 2009 and at no stage during the trip or the match was there anything that would have alerted Sydney FC to the situation that has been raised today.”
Huang, a veteran of more than 20 years, was among three officials shortlisted for best Chinese referee of the year in 2009.
Another of the alleged tainted matches was a 2007 friendly between Manchester United, Premier League champions at the time, and China’s Shenzhen FC, though no further details have emerged.
Huang’s claims were made as corruption hearings against some 20 former footballing officials kicked off on Monday (December 19) as part of a corruption crackdown that has reached the top echelons of the game in China.
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