KNVB uncovers Eredivisie match fixing scandal

Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2016 by foxsportsasia.com

KNVB uncovers Eredivisie match fixing scandal
An investigation by the Dutch Football Association has revealed attempts to fix an Eredivisie fixture between Willem II and Utrecht almost seven years ago.

The KNVB investigation uncovered a plot between Ibrahim Kargbo, a player at Willem II at the time, and Singaporean businessman Wilson Raj Perumal, who has been accused and convicted of fraud on numerous occasions in the past.

"Dutch football is one of the last in Europe to lose its innocence in this matter," said the 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 KNVB revealed in its statement that Kargbo had promised Michael Aerts and a third unidentified player would conspire to achieve the required result, a 2-0 win for Utrecht, in return for 25,000 Euro each.

One of the reasons this has taken so long to come to light could be that the fixture only ended 1-0 in favour of Utrecht, and Kargbo therefore refused to pay the players involved in the fixing.

"Nevertheless, it has been established that they agreed on the outcome of the match. There is not enough legal evidence to determine whether Aerts was involved and it is unclear who the third person was," added the KNVB statement.

The report also went on to suggest that a friendly match between Willem II and Sierra Leone had been organised with the specific intent of manipulating the result on behalf of a betting syndicate.

The KNVB said it would hand the report over to FIFA, UEFA and the Dutch police and have also banned Kargbo from any further participation in football inside the Netherlands.