Kelong Kings: Confessions of the world's most prolific match-fixer

by Wilson Raj Perumal

  A few days after the Bahrain vs Togo match, I received a call from Mweetwa, one of the Zambian boys from RoPS.

  "On September 22nd, there is a Veikkausliiga match between TPS and AC Oulu", he explained. "The Yobe brothers are asking whether we can do business".

  I packed my things and hopped on a flight to Finland to meet the Yobe brothers before the match.

  "You have to lose by 2-0", I told them. "If one of you takes a double yellow, I think that the result will come naturally".

  The Yobe brothers agreed and I arranged for Dan to send a Bulgarian runner over with the cash for them. I was probably the only Indian guy watching the match in all of Finland; I sat in the stands shaking for the bitter cold. Neither one of the Yobe brothers managed to be sent off the pitch; one of them was actually substituted during the first half but, by then, AC Oulu was already down by two goals. Then, with ten minutes left in the match, they were losing by 5-0, so I whistled to Mweetwa, who was sitting in the stands some distance away from me.

  "Come to the bathroom with one of the Yobes", I told him.

  The Yobe brother who had been substituted joined me in the stadium's bathroom as Mweetwa waited outside. Once inside, I gave him 50 thousand euro to share with his brother. Then I gave Mweetwa five thousand for bringing the Yobe brothers to me and Musonda two thousand for bringing Mweetwa over. It was their commission.

  Barely a week later, in early October 2010, Exclusive Sports received an e-mail from a Finnish club called FC PoPa.

  "Hello", said the message, "we are looking for a sponsor".

  FC PoPa was a club that played in the Ykkonen league, the Finnish second division, and was run by a former football player called Antti. I reckoned that the FC Haka Managing Director, Juha, to whom I had proposed the sponsorship deal first, must have spread the word. I decided to keep PoPa on hold for the moment and sent them an e-mail saying as much. Then I followed up on my sponsorship proposal with FC Haka. I called Juha and asked him whether his club's management had accepted my offer. Juha replied that the board had rejected both the sponsorship deal and our proposal to provide players for their lineup.

  "There is something very wrong with this proposal", the board had objected.

  Juha also informed me that he had decided to resign from his post.

  After speaking to Juha, I called the Tampere United management to figure out where they stood on the proposal. Tampere was in dire need of cash; their financial situation was disastrous and they seemed very interested, so I set up an appointment with their CEO, Deniz, in Helsinki.

  "How much money can you give us?" was his first question.

  "The entire deal will be worth about one million euro", I replied.

  "How soon can you give us the money?" he continued.

  "I can arrange an advance payment of 300 thousand by November", I explained.

  Deniz was agreeable. He drew up a tentative contract saying that Exclusive Sports would provide one million euro to sponsor Tampere United but, in the meanwhile, had also sought information about my company.

  "You are not the director of Exclusive Sports", Deniz said. "The director is a guy called Mohamed Rais. So if you want to go ahead with the deal, Mohamed has to come here and sign this contract or give you a power of attorney".

  "I'll get the power of attorney in no time", I reassured him.

  As the Finnish football season was drawing to a close, I was contacted by a Kenyan footballer that I knew called George who gave me the telephone contact of another Kenyan player called Willis. Willis was one of Kenya's national team's goalkeeper and happened to play in Finland for a first division club called IFK Mariehamn. I later found out that Willis had started in the Kenya vs Nigeria match that I had fixed in order to get Nigeria into the World Cup. I rang him up.

  "Hello bro", I said, "I got your number from a common friend, George. What's going on? How are you?"

  "Good".

  "You want to do some business?" I asked him straightforward.

  "What kind of business?" he inquired.

  "Football, are you prepared to throw a game?"

  "IFK Mariehamn will not renew my contract. I've got two or three matches left to play and then I'm going back home. I only want money, what do you want me to do?"

  "Lose, of course".

  "No problem. How much are you going to pay me?"

  "I'll pay you about 20-25 thousand euro per match".

  "You mean for one game?"

  "Sure, each game is 25 thousand".

  "How many goals do you need?"

  "Just give me two goals, OK?"

  "OK. No problem, come see me and we'll work things out".

  Willis and I agreed to meet in Mariehamn island, where his club was based, and speak face to face. On my way to the Viking ferry, the boat that connects Turku, a town in mainland Finland, to Mariehamn island, I met a Chinese runner working for Dan named Chee Wee who was carrying money for me. I didn't want to lose my passport while on board the ferry, so I put it in my computer bag and left it with Chee Wee. I then boarded the ferry, hopped off on Mariehamn island and made my way to Willis' home, where we sat down and discussed business.

  "What about your teammates?" I asked him. "Are they also willing to fix?"

  There were two additional black players in the team.

  "Don't use them", he said, "you just give me the money and I will do the job for you".

  Willis sounded fully committed.

  "Fuck", I exclaimed. "Why didn't I meet you earlier?"

  When I returned to Turku from Mariehamn with the Viking Ferry, I found Chee Wee in a rush to leave. He handed my bag back to me and disappeared.

  Willis proved to be the kind of player that match-fixers want for their business; convinced and dedicated. The goalkeeper is not necessarily the best player to have on your side. I still think that the two central defenders are the best ones to have because they can concede a penalty; a business goal, we call it. You give the attacker room to beat you when he comes towards you, then you go after him and bring him down in the box. It's an easy thing to do but players don't usually know how to move that way; they don't have that kind of criminal mentality and they're always practicing not to give way. I have frequently taught footballers how to position themselves. I taught them how to move so that the attacker could beat them. The goalkeeper can let the ball slip in the net but the shot has got to come from somewhere and who is in the best position to let you shoot? If I am a central defender, all I need to do is hesitate for a split second; my body moves in the wrong direction and it's done. My movement is enough to grant the striker the little room that will suffice to take him in front of the goalie.

  Willis knew exactly what he had to do. I went ahead and fixed his two remaining league matches with IFK Mariehamn. He was able to deliver the job all by himself. He destroyed both games; kaput. When I have this kind of player, I personally push all my money, everything, all of my chips, on the match. Not all players are like that; some take things for granted; others just wait to see if things just happen by themselves.

  CHAPTER XVI

  He who ate my bread

  In late September 2010 I turned my attention to Latin America. It was a clean place before we showed up; we went there to dirty it up a bit.

  In Latin America, you couldn't discuss match-fixing directly; you had to go behind people's backs and try to outsmart them. You had to lure their FA's into placing your referees in their matches to make things happen. In comparison, Africans were a lot easier to deal with: direct to the point.

  During the previous months, while I was busy with Finland, Anthony had been all over the place for me: Jamaica, Peru, Bolivia. I would buy him a ticket and just send him off while I coordinated things from London or Helsinki. After the South African warm-up friendlies, Anthony had become my main man; he was in charge of dealing with the FAs, organizing tournaments, friendlies and all the other stuff. I trusted Anthony because he was a childhood friend, a fucker that I had known for over 20
years. I called him after his visit to Peru and he told me that the Peruvians were completely professional and that there was no way to do business with them. Bolivia was next on our list.

  "Go on to Bolivia", I told Anthony. "Try to seal a deal for a referees' exchange program with the Bolivia FA and tell them that we want to organize an Under-20 South American tournament".

  Bolivians are very poor people, I think that players in their top league are paid roughly one thousand dollars per month on average. If you offer them five thousand dollars per match, which amounts to 20 thousand dollars at the end of the month, it's big money; it can really change their lives.

  Anthony hadn't come back to me about Bolivia for some time, then, in early October, he called to ask for additional funds.

  "Wilson", he said, "my money has run out, can you send me some more?"

  "What's happening in Bolivia?" I asked.

  "Nothing's happening here. The deal did not go through".

  "OK", I told him, "I'll send you some more money but you pick it up in Peru. Come back from Bolivia if you can't land a deal with them".

  Just then I began receiving troubling telephone calls from Dan.

  "Wilson", Dan asked in an inscrutable tone, "did you send Anthony to South America?"

  "Yeah", I said, "he's in Bolivia".

  Dan seemed satisfied with the answer at first, then he called again.

  "Are you very sure that Anthony went to Bolivia?" he insisted.

  "Fuck, OK", I gave in, "let me check with my travel agent".

  I called my travel agent in Singapore and asked her to check whether the travel coupon to Bolivia had been used.

  "Yes", she confirmed, "he did go".

  Then I rang Anthony up directly.

  "Where did you get your visa for Bolivia?" I inquired.

  "In the US", replied Anthony.

  I called Dan.

  "Dan", I explained, "Anthony did go to Bolivia, my travel agent says that he used his coupon. I also checked with him and he claims that he got his visa in the US. So, yes, I think that Anthony actually traveled to South America".

  I didn't bother to ask why Dan was questioning me about Anthony's whereabouts. My mind was busy on other matters. I was preparing a trip to Ecuador where I had set up a rendez-vous with the local FA president. Before leaving for Latin America, I decided to settle my debt with Dan. I paid him back the 200 thousand dollars that he had lent me a few months before and that I had used to acquire some property. I thanked him for trusting me with that much money.

  Since there was no direct flight from London to Guayaquil, Ecuador, and one had to stop over in Peru, I decided to pay a visit to the Peru FA to double-check on Anthony's work. When I approached them, they actually seemed quite professional, as he had reported. They sat there and listened attentively to my referee exchange program proposal.

  "We will look into this and will come back to you", they said.

  Next, I landed in Ecuador where I met with the president of the Ecuador FA. The Ecuadorians were even more professional than the Peruvians and seemed to be thoroughly honest people; they didn't know anything about match-fixing. I submitted the letter from Exclusive Sports with our standard proposition, they took my Raja Morgan Chelliah passport and photocopied it just to make sure. The Ecuador FA president was a pretty down to earth guy.

  "Hey", he said, "take a seat, I want to know more about this deal".

  "I'm here for a referee exchange program", I explained.

  The president was curious and wondering who I was; he spoke very little English so he called an acquaintance of his that lived in the US who spoke English fluently and could serve as an interpreter. He then put me on the telephone with the person.

  "Please tell the president that this is a referee exchange program", I told the interpreter. "I take your referees and you take mine during FIFA calendar days; and we support your training courses".

  "Our Under-20 team is going to Venezuela", he said, "can you pay for the tickets?"

  "That is no problem at all", I replied, "my company wants to start a relationship. Can I bring your national team out to play in Indonesia?"

  Believe it or not, this was a legitimate business proposal. If Ecuador had come to play in Indonesia, we would have had 60 to 70 thousand people attending the match and could have made money from the ticket sales.

  "That is not possible", relayed the interpreter. "We have a contract with a television station in Argentina and they will not allow us to do business with others, but the junior team is no problem. You can bring the juniors anywhere that you please".

  The Ecuador FA president also provided me with the contacts to some Argentinian match organizers that he claimed might be interested in our referee exchange program. I called them and they booked our match officials for a six-nation tournament in Cordoba, Argentina: the Copa Cordoba International Under-20, to be played in December of that year.

  That evening I returned to my hotel and switched on my television. It was October 7th, 2010, FIFA calendar day, and the TV showed the highlights of a match between Venezuela and Bolivia, final result 3-1. The signal was disturbed and the image came and went.

  "Fuck", my eyes caught a glimpse of the ref. "That's Ibrahim!"

  I gave Dan a call.

  "Dan", I said, "I was watching a match between Venezuela and Bolivia. I think that the referee was Ibrahim. I am not sure because the image was fuzzy but for a second I thought that I saw him".

  Dan didn't confirm nor deny.

  "OK", he said, "I'm busy right now. Bye".

  I flipped my laptop open and began searching for the match on the internet. I tried to find out who the designated match official was but it was too early for any detailed reports so I eventually forgot all about it.

  My following target in Latin America was Costa Rica. I didn't have the time to approach the Costa Rica FA myself so I sent a good friend of Armando's, a Nicaraguan guy called Yasser, to do the talking for me. Yasser spoke decent English so, when Armando introduced him to me, I decided to welcome him on board. I also dispatched a friend of mine, a guy called Ravin Raj, to accompany Yasser and carry my money for him. Yasser's approach with the Costa Ricans was, however, completely wrong and he ended up fucking the entire deal up for us.

  "We must use our referees to officiate your matches", Yasser told the Costa Rica FA.

  It was written all over that he wanted to do something funny. He hadn't put it in a way so that it sounded clean.

  "It's an exchange program", he should have said, "we send your referee for a match in Zimbabwe and a Zimbabwean referee comes here to officiate one of your games".

  That's how you make things happen. Yasser's approach was too brutal and scared the FA away; I called Dan to find a solution.

  "Dan", I suggested, "I think you should send one of your men to Costa Rica to rectify the situation. Things are getting out of hand with Yasser".

  Dan decided to send Alassane to repair the damage done by Yasser. Once again, Dan was concerned that I might try to fix Alassane up while in Central America.

  "Wilson", he warned, "don't do anything funny with Alassane".

  "Fuck", I exclaimed, "he's got family, two kids. I'm not going to fix him up. I just don't want to talk to the fucker, that's all".

  Alassane landed in Costa Rica, spoke to the FA's president and attempted to place our referee in a Costa Rica vs El Salvador international friendly match that was to be played in the remote town of San Carlos. Costa Rica is quite the place to stage an international friendly match. I don't know why, but if the teams have a FIFA ranking above 100 and the match is aired on television, then you can be 100 percent sure that there will be live betting for it. By then, however, the Costa Rica FA president had grown suspicious of my company Exclusive Sports.

  "These mother-fuckers are up to something", he probably thought.

  Alassane told the president that Exclusive Sports would be covering all the expenses to fly El Salvador to Costa Rica. The deal was too f
avorable to pass and the president signed our contract; he seemed to have changed his mind. Alassane, however, didn't have the credentials to put his signature on the deal so we used a FIFA-licensed agent to sign for us in exchange for a small fee. Alassane finally walked away with the signed contract and was convinced that he had duped the Costa Ricans. He picked a rundown stadium in San Carlos for the match but, at the last moment, the Costa Ricans proved to be smarter than he was. Once the El Salvadorean team had flown in at our expense, the Costa Rica FA appointed a Panamanian ref of their choice to officiate the game. In the end, we paid the airfare and accommodation for El Salvador but weren't able to dictate anything to the Costa Rica FA. They fucked us over and we didn't make any money from the match. What was the score again? 2-1 for Costa Rica, I believe.

  By then, the Bahrain vs Togo match featuring the bogus Togolese team had fueled a row of polemics about my operations. The Bahrain FA had exposed my name to the Singaporean media and the papers all claimed that Wilson Raj had organized the fixture, assembled a bunch of impostors and got them to wear a Togo jersey in what looked more like a masquerade than a football match. When I returned to London from Latin America, I decided to call 'The New Paper' in Singapore, one of the loudest voices against me, to assert my side of the story. I wanted to respond to the allegations and attempt to instill doubts over the media's reconstruction of the events. I didn't want everyone to know that I was staying in the UK so I told Ravin Raj, who was still in Central America, to use an El Salvadorean SIM and make the telephone call on my behalf.