We weren't trying to bribe him to give away penalties or anything like that. It wasn't really corruption money; we just thought that it would be useful for him to think that we were the good guys. Goddard was of a different opinion and curtly declined Anthony's offer. Fortunately for us, Jacob didn't.
"He may be the head of referees", said Jacob to Anthony as they left Goddard's office, "but we have the power to overrule him".
Anthony promised to pay Jacob ten thousand dollars for every match in which our company would be allowed to put its referees and Jacob became our front-man in SAFA, doing all the running for Anthony and introducing him to the FA's CEO, Leslie Sedibe.
We had come up with a bullshit cover story that Football4U had been contracted to supply FIFA-accredited referees for upcoming matches in the United Arab Emirates and the Bahrain leagues, and that we wanted to provide these refs with some practice matches. Anthony convinced Sedibe that SAFA did not need referees from Europe when there were local African match officials that could be promoted to the task.
"Why should we invite European referees when this is an African tournament?" he said to Sedibe. "Let's give our boys the opportunity. We want to promote our own African refs. We'll cover the cost for their flight, accommodation, fees and everything. We pay".
Sedibe liked the idea and seemed forthcoming, so Jacob went on to convince the rest of the management at SAFA.
"You know, everything is coming for free", he argued.
The SAFA management agreed that the offer was convenient.
"OK. Why not?" they reasoned. "These are all FIFA-accredited referees and this company, Football4U, is paying the bill".
Anthony and I drafted a contract saying that Football4U was going to officially supply referees for the 2010 South Africa World Cup warm-up friendly matches and Leslie Sedibe signed it enthusiastically. It was agreed that we would provide the refs for five friendly matches pitting South Africa against Thailand, Bulgaria, Colombia, Guatemala and Denmark. Job done; mission accomplished; and Anthony came back to Singapore.
As soon as he set foot in Singapore we met for debriefing and immediately realized our first mistake: we should have taken all the friendly matches that were going to be played in South Africa prior to the World Cup, not just those five; SAFA was paying for the organization of the fixtures anyways. But it was too late for regrets and we agreed that five games would have to do. Now we needed complacent referees that would dance to our tune.
Through my African connections, I contacted three sets of referees: one from Togo, one from Kenya and one from Niger. By 'set' I mean one referee and two linesmen who know what they are supposed to do.
My agent in Togo, where I had good connections from past dealings with them, spoke to a match official named Kokou.
"Would you be interested in officiating the World Cup warm-up friendly matches in South Africa?" he asked the ref.
Kokou and his linesmen volunteered.
I then contacted Samwel from Kenya and he also agreed to come along accompanied by his two trusted linesmen.
I needed just one more set. Niger referee Ibrahim was not on our list at first but, during the West African Football Union Cup held in Nigeria in April 2010, he had been approached by Prince, who had introduced him to Anthony. Ibrahim had just one more year of refereeing to go before retirement when he was asked the burning question.
"What are you going to do after you quit?" Anthony inquired. "FIFA is not going to give you a pension. They pay you one or two thousand dollars and fly you around in business class; we give you first class and we'll pay you 60 to 70 thousand US dollars per match. We have a number of World Cup warm-up friendlies coming up in South Africa and are looking for referees such as yourself".
"I can do the job", Ibrahim volunteered.
"Are you sure?" asked Anthony.
"Don't worry, the job is done. You give me the job, and I'll do it. You tell your boss that this job in no problem for me. Talk to your boss and tell him".
Anthony called me and told me that Ibrahim sounded very confident.
"OK", I agreed, "put him on a flight".
Anthony welcomed Ibrahim on board.
"Go and get the job done, then".
In addition to these three sets of match officials, we had an extra referee from Tanzania called Charles. We weren't going to field Charles; we were going to bring him along just as a replacement; he had no knowledge of what we were up to.
I was broke at the time. I had been gambling heavily through a bookie called Benny, a Singaporean who lived in Macao and who could throw quick bets with very high volumes. I threw several 300 thousand dollar bets on the English Premier League and lost close to 1.1 million dollars to Benny in a single weekend. I was sure that Benny fucked me up on at least one of the matches.
"Benny", I asked, "can you take Tottenham Hotspur FC and give for me? Half-ball and 300 thousand".
I hung up the telephone and sat waiting for Benny's confirmation; the betting company usually held onto every bet for three or four seconds before actually placing it. After about a minute and a half, the Spurs scored their first goal. Still no confirmation; so I called Benny again.
"Benny", I said, "how much of my bet did you manage to place?"
"I placed...", he paused. "Sorry, everything was rejected".
"Rejected?" I was perplexed. "Can you give me a print-out?"
Every time a bet is rejected, one can obtain a print-out of the failed operation.
"No, no, no print-out", Benny's version had unexpectedly changed, "they haven't started betting on the match yet".
In that very instant I knew that Benny had fucked me up. He hadn't even thrown 20 thousand dollars out of the 300 thousand that I had requested; an amount which usually only took him about 30 seconds to place. My potential win had vanished, leaving me with the entire 1.1 million dollar debt to honor. At first I didn't want to pay Benny the money that I owed him, then BJ, Rajendra Prasad's brother who knew Benny well, came to speak to me.
"Wilson", he said, "settle your debt with Benny, you're a gentleman. You lose, you pay".
"Fuck! OK", I consented and called Benny to arrange a meeting.
I met him near Orchard Road in downtown Singapore.
"I'll pay you a first installment of 500 thousand dollars", I suggested, "I don't have 1.1 million right now. You have to give me some time to settle the balance: 600 thousand".
I reckoned that in order to both repay Benny and make some money for myself, I had to place one million dollar bets on the South African warm-up friendlies. I needed someone with the capital in hand so I called Dan.
"Do you want to do business?" I asked.
"What business?" he inquired. "Let's go for a coffee".
We didn't usually talk about business over the telephone, so we decided to meet in a downtown coffee shop to discuss the matter.
"There are these World Cup warm-up friendly matches in South Africa", I explained the deal to him.
"Can I see the referees?" Dan asked. "Can I talk to them?"
"No problem", I replied, "you can see them and you can talk to them".
"One million, we divide by five", Dan proposed. "You bring me the business and I give you a share. In case we lose, I will absorb the loss first and will deduct your part gradually from the next matches".
For the very first time, Dan was asking me to become a shareholder in his syndicate.
"My European partners will take the remaining shares", he continued, "they are in big trouble, somebody fixed them up in Croatia. They were arrested and need money urgently. They need at least one million dollars to get out of prison".
Admir and Dino were very active in Croatia and in other European countries. They were moving around, just like I was, approaching players: "Can you do this? Can you do that?"
"Why would somebody want to fix them up?" I asked Dan.
"I don't know", he said, "but they have to pay over one million euro to get out of prison".
I ran a q
uick search on the web and saw the pictures of Admir and Dino in the back of a police van as they attempted to hide their faces from the photo-reporters' cameras.
Once I had secured Dan's support in financing the matches, I sent Anthony back to South Africa to make the final arrangements. At that point, my part of the job was done. I had developed the project, provided the company - Football4U - the refs and the contracts. Since I could not leave Singapore, the decision on what to do with the matches was strictly up to Dan, who was financing the business and who would be physically present in South Africa during the games. Before Dan's departure, I told him about Anthony.
"He is my guy", I explained, "his name is Anthony, he's already in South Africa. He's going to run the show for you, pay him so much and so forth".
Dan flew to Johannesburg in early May, five days before the first match. As he was afraid to carry large sums of money on his person, he brought Alassane with him to carry the cash for the bribes. We wanted to fix money in hand to avoid unpleasant surprises. Before his trip, Dan told me that Alassane was recently stopped in Argentina with 100 thousand US dollars on him and had barely avoided being charged by the Argentinian border authorities.
"Why the fuck would Alassane go to Argentina with that much money?" I marveled. "He is not buying drugs with it, I hope".
Then I put two and two together and solved the mystery on my own. I had noticed an international friendly match between Haiti and Argentina which the Haitians had lost by 4-0. I don't think that Dan was involved in organizing the fixture but I figured that he had probably sent Alassane over to see if something could be done, just like he had done in Angola. Despite their fucking around with Haiti, my team, I needed Dan for my South African fixes and wasn't going to ruin my business by raising the Haitian issue with him again.
In addition to Anthony, Dan and Alassane, I sent another trusted friend of mine named George to oversee the matches in South Africa and to keep me posted on the developments thereof. George is a Malaysian friend who sometimes carried money for me; he is maybe ten years younger than myself. I met him in the early 90's through a relative of mine, then, right before the South African matches, I voiced my proposal to him.
"Hey George", I asked, "why don't you help me out and carry this money to South Africa".
George was more adroit in the fieldwork while Anthony was more gifted in the administrative side of the business because he was fluent in English and had a more outgoing character.
A couple of days before the first warm-up friendly match kicked off, our referees landed in South Africa and were welcomed by Dan and the others.
As we waited for the South African show to commence, we were working on fixing some matches in Jordan with a number of clubs from the local Al Manaseer Jordanian Pro League, their top league. Since Dan was busy in South Africa and I was stuck in Singapore, we decided to send Choo and a friend of mine called Ronnie to Amman to run the show for us. Choo and Ronnie linked up with our local contact, a man named Boxer, who had been building up our network in Jordan for about a year. Boxer lodged Choo and Ronnie in a tiny hotel and told them to leave their things in the room before heading to the stadium for the match. As usual, Choo carried about 70 thousand US dollars with him to pay the players if the correct score happened to come their way, money which he hid in the false ceiling of the hotel room's bathroom. During the match, Boxer went missing and, when Choo and Ronnie returned to the hotel, they found that their room had been completely ransacked. It was clear to both that Boxer was responsible for the break-in. Fortunately, Choo's hiding place had remained undiscovered and Boxer was left empty-handed.
I received a call from Dan, who was in Johannesburg. He told me about the incident and added that Choo and Ronnie would be returning from Jordan shortly thereafter.
"Thank God Choo hid the money", I said to Dan, "if it had gone missing you would have probably thought: 'Wilson Raj mother-fucker stole my cash'".
We had a laugh and I seized the opportunity to ask Dan if he could lend me 50 thousand dollars. It was a gamble; I didn't know whether he was going to give them to me. I figured that I had a 50-50 chance.
"Ok", he said, "go to Ang Mo Kio and pick up the money". Then he added, "Fuck. When are you going to pay me back?"
"I'll pay you in two weeks' time", I replied.
"You better", he admonished.
I must admit that when I was down and needed cash, Dan was always there for me. He knew that he had made and could still make a lot of money from me but, to be honest, nobody else would have given me 50 thousand dollars just like that. Ours was a sweet and sour relationship.
South Africa vs Thailand on May 16th, 2010, was the first of the World Cup warm-up friendlies organized by Football4U. Samwel from Kenya was the designated referee for the match. We were ready to do business but the bookmakers didn't offer any betting on the game, so we dropped it. The final result was 4-0 in favor of South Africa.
As I later found out, the Botswana FA's president, David Fani, happened to be the match commissioner for the game. When he heard the name of our company, Football4U, he jumped in his seat.
"Mother-fuckers!" he must have thought. "This company again".
Fani remembered the September 2009 China vs Botswana match that I had tried to fix. He knew that my company, Football4U, had paid for his national team's trip to China, so he decided to voice his concerns with Goddard.
"How come you guys are doing business with Football4U?" he asked. "This company was responsible for Botswana's trip to China in 2009 where some individuals approached our team to fix the match. Because of that match, one of my FA's executives was sacked".
Fani ignited the fire in South Africa and Steve Goddard's doubts about Football4U were confirmed. From that moment forth, Goddard kept us in his sights and started flying left, right and center.
"These guys are up to something", he reckoned.
On May 24th, 2010, South Africa was set to play against Bulgaria in the second of the warm-up friendly matches. The designated referee was Kokou from Togo. Dan spent a considerable amount of time with him and the linesmen, educating them thoroughly on what needed to be done.
"We need a total of three goals", he demanded.
"OK, boss. No problem, boss", the ref and linesmen nodded.
However, when Kokou and his boys stepped onto the pitch and saw 60 thousand people on the stands, the mother-fuckers froze in panic. The match kicked off and, at the end of the first half, the score was 1-1. We wanted three goals in total, so we needed just one more goal to secure our win. We were hitting on the total number of goals scored; we didn't care which team scored them. The second half started; we waited patiently but the extra goal just wasn't coming. Suddenly, between the 60th and 70th minute of the match, the ball touched a Bulgarian player's hand inside the penalty box. We didn't give a shit whether it be ball-to-hand or hand-to-ball; we expected the ref to award the penalty. But Kokou wasn't swift enough, he was too shaky. Mother-fucker. The match ended 1-1; it backfired and we lost our money. Despite being lectured by Dan for two full days, the ref had failed to deliver and to walk away with the 60 thousand US dollars that we had promised him and his linesmen; a sum that they will probably never see again in their entire lives. After the match, Dan confronted Kokou and the linesmen and fucked all three of them for their poor performance.
"I didn't see the ball touch the player's hand", Kokou defended himself.
"Fuck you", shrieked Dan, "even if you don't see it, you still give the penalty. What the fuck. If you are good for nothing, then you go back home".
He gave Kokou and his linesmen one or two thousand dollars each and sent them back to Togo.
After the match, I sent a friend called Mohamed Rais to South Africa to deliver money to Jacob, our front-man inside SAFA. After the incident in Panama, where Anthony had attempted to recover my money from the players without informing me, I didn't really trust him anymore when he claimed that he was supposed to hand over ten thousand dollars to
the SAFA officials. I therefore decided to send Rais to South Africa to check on Anthony and deliver the money in his stead.
I had met Mohamed Rais sometime in 2000 or 2001 and we had quickly become good friends. He had been a referee in the past but had never fixed any matches with me. Rais was quite a lively person to go out with and talk to. I bumped into him in Singapore right before the South Africa matches.
"What are you up to?" I asked.
"I'm driving a taxi right now", he answered.
"Rais", I proposed, "why don't you work for my company. I'll send you to South Africa. I can pay you handsomely for your effort".
Rais began running some errands for me and off he went to South Africa to pay Jacob his ten thousand dollars.
Our third match, South Africa vs Colombia, was played on May 27th. Again, the Kenyan referee Samwel and his linesmen were running the show. All we wanted were three goals and, if the teams were so bad that they didn't manage to score on their own, we would be forced to give away penalties; even three per match. And that's exactly what Samwel did. In the 15th minute of the first half, the Kenyan ref awarded the first penalty in favor of South Africa for a handball in the Colombian box; a doubtful call. I think that Dan paid him extra money after the match, because the Colombian goalie saved the penalty but one of Samwel's linesmen flagged, claiming that the goalkeeper had moved before the ball was kicked. The penalty was kicked a second time and scored. Goalkeepers often make the first move because, if they just stand there and watch the player kick the ball, it's as good as a goal already scored. Some goalkeepers even come two steps out of the goal-line before the ball is kicked. Referees seldom ask for a repeat, but Samwel's linesman was swift and raised his flag. Then, around the 20th minute, the South African goalkeeper blatantly took down a Colombian striker headed straight for the goal inside the penalty box. Instead of giving the goalie a red card and sending him off the pitch, Samwel gave him a yellow card and awarded a penalty in favor of Colombia which managed to score the equalizer: 1-1.
During the half time break, the Colombians made a big fuss and threatened not to play on if the referee were to continue with his absurd calls. But that was not the end of it. Ten minutes into the second half of the match, Samwel awarded another, dubious, penalty kick in favor of South Africa which they readily scored, setting the final result at 2-1 in favor of the home team. Three penalties, three goals. Fixing matches is no simple task. When your money is on Over, you'll sometimes feel like there is a bad omen preventing the ball from going in the net; you need penalties, lots of them, to save you. But after awarding three penalties in a single match, the Kenyan referee had to go.
Kelong Kings: Confessions of the world's most prolific match-fixer Page 32