By Andrew Warshaw at the Leaders in Football conference at Stamford Bridge in London
October 11 – Singapore is using lie detector tests to try to cut down on match-fixing, according to the head of the country’s football federation.
The tiny Asian country has constantly been linked with corruption and Football Association of Singapore (FAS) general secretary Winston Lee said the introduction of polygraph tests had produced the desired effect.
Speaking here, he said: “It is now compulsory for all players to go through polygraph tests.
“They have to sign a form agreeing to the polygraph tests, and we can have a random test.
“Match-fixing is a cancer in football and it’s everywhere, it’s not just confined to Asia.
“We have taken a very strong stand against match-fixing and we are quite happy that it is working.
“It is also mandatory for players to report approaches by suspicious bodies.
“Recently some foreigners flew into the country and offered a large sum of money to a goalkeeper, and he reported this to our FA and we had these people arrested and they are now in jail in Singapore.”
Wilson Raj Perumal (pictured above), jailed last year and named by FIFA as among the world’s most prolific match-fixers, came from Singapore.
And four other men, including a former Malaysian footballer and a current Malaysian referee, were arrested in Singapore in May on match-fixing charges.
Lee’s comments came a few days after the international players’ union FIFPro criticised a decision by Bulgarian club Lokomotiv Plovdiv to order its players to take lie detector tests for the same reason.
But Lee said the process was definitely working in his country.
“You can never totally eradicate the problem but it is realistic to try and reduce it and this is one way we have done this,” he insisted.
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