The face of the man who could bring cricket to its knees: England's first convicted match fixer faces jail

This is the little-known face of the cheat who could bring cricket to its knees. Essex paceman Mervyn Westfield faces jail after becoming the first Englishman convicted of match-fixing.

He will be sentenced on 10 February but – with three Pakistani cricketers jailed in England last year over similar charges – the 23-year-old is expected to name further fixers in the game as he bids to get his sentence reduced.

Westfield was warned by Judge Anthony Morris: “Mr Westfield, I hold out no promises but it is open to the court to pass an immediate custodial sentence.”

Morris also promised to name the “well-known” cricketing character who paid Westfield. The ECB announced an amnesty on match-fixers last Friday in an attempt to get further corruption out in the open – but Cricket South Africa refused to accept the need for something similar in this country despite the shadow of the late Hansie Cronjé’s match-fixing, exposed in 2000.

One CSA spokesman told Scoop! last Friday: “Nobody in South Africa is under suspicion.” But Herschelle Gibbs, who admitted to trying to fix an innings in India in 2000 and still plays for the Cobras, received only a six-month ban from cricket.

Westfield, once considered a Test contender, effectively threw his career away for £6 000 (R72 000) when he promised to allow 12 runs to be scored off the first over of a Pro40 match against Durham in September 2009.

Though he bowled a wide, only 10 runs were conceded. Westfield’s legal team argued their client had not gone through with the fix, but the judge said he found it “difficult to accept”that he would not have been paid.

The game was broadcast live on Sky across India and Pakistan, making it eminently fixable. Westfield conceded 60 runs from his seven overs but Essex went on to win by seven wickets.

Born in Romford near London, Westfield boasted about his ill-gotten earnings to col¬leagues, who blew the whistle.

Westfield’s conviction is a huge embarrassment for English cricket, coming three months after Pakistan stars Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir were jailed for spot-fixing.

This story first appeared in Scoop! South Africa's new Sunday tabloid. See www.scoopnews.co.za

Match fixing: Dinamo Zagreb may have gone too far this time. Football will never be the same again.

I first wrote the dreadful words “match fixing” this week about ten minutes in to Chelsea’s Champions League clash with Valencia on Tuesday night. Then I tweeted #matchfixing again and again as I witnessed one of Spain’s top sides simply fail to bother at Stamford Bridge.


Chelsea duly won 3-0, Valencia’s beaten troops left without visible disappointment at their abject failure and presto! Through comes the news that Bayer Leverkusen could only draw with hopeless Belgians Genk and Roman Abramovich, with all those roubles to his name, had the pleasure of seeing his Chelsea top their group. Out of the blue, so to speak.

Wednesday night, I flicked over from Manchester United’s appalling display at Basle to see Ajax Amsterdam denied not once but twice by an assistant referee against Real Madrid. Again. #matchfixing flew off my keyboard and in to the world of twitter (check my timeline, www.twitter.com/nealcol, it’s all there, including the vehement denials from those who don't understand what they're seeing).

And at Dinamo Zagreb, the powerhouse of Croatian football, Lyon were able to score seven goals in 28 minutes (yup, a goal every four minutes, that’s some going) to confirm their progress at Ajax’s expence. I’ve just seen a video of the so-called highlights. No tackles, no recriminations… and, incredibly, there’s one of the Dinamo lads, Domagoj Vida, giving a cheeky wink after the sixth goal.

Lyon "triumphed" 7-1 away. They scored just two goals in their first five Champions League matches – none in their last three. And while Ajax failed with a bit of help from as assistant linesman against Real Madrid, Lyon were through.

Dinamo sacked their manager Krunoslav Jurcic straight after the final whistle. A week ago they were planning for a bright future, with their side six points clear at the top of the Croatian league.

#matchfixing, #matchfixing, #matchfixing.

Afterwards, Ajax coach Frank de Boer said: "They won 7-1? Maybe I'm naive when I think it normally doesn't work like this, but if Zagreb gave the match away they should be punished. But I think it is hard to find any evidence."

Yup, #matchfixing.
Everybody thought I was bonkers. I probably am. Driven to madness by failing to realise Hansie Cronje was manipulating us all at SuperSports Park in Centurion in early 2000, when he and Nasser Hussain forfeited an innings each to manufacture a result after three days of rain in the final Test between England and South Africa.

I thought it was a great idea. So did the Fordsburg bookmaker called Banjo, who paid the now-dead Hansie to do it. He did a lot of that, dear old born-again Hansie. May he rest in peace.

Then there was the time Marseille had to score six goals against CSKA Moscow in the early 90s to get through to the early Champions League semi-finals. No problem. Turned out Bernard Tapie, the Marseille boss, had paid the goalkeeper. And I remember seeing the great Ghanaian Abedi Pele have a hopeful punt from 40 yards. Goal. Right through his arms.

On both those occasions, and several since (Pakistan’s spot fixing at Lord’s last year was another) I’ve seen things in a press box and wondered. But then I’ve stifled that doubt and written a straight match report with quotes.

Then there was that curious story a few weeks ago. Wayne Rooney's family members arrested for betting on a red card being brandished in a Scottish League match. Anybody heard anything since? Anybody think top footballers don't talk about these things all the time? But nobody dares to write about it.

Lyon's response? This: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2071958/Lyon-threaten-legal-action-Lyon-win.html. And UEFA appear reluctant to act, despite obvious evidence. Nobody will say a word in public.

It’s time for that to stop. There’s match fixing afoot at the highest level of the Champions League. I can’t prove it, but I can feel it. So can UEFA. Expect an investigation and few fines. God I wish I was wrong. Watching football will never be the same again.

Help yourself: Domagoj Vida of Dinamo winks during his side's 7-1 defeat at the hands of Lyon on Wednesday night

Keep up to date with the match-fixing investigation: www.twitter.com/nealcol and http://www.scoopnews.co.za/.

Match Fixing: South Africa Threatened by Corruption and a Dodgy Referee

Ibrahim Chaibou. Not a name you might instantly recognise, but one worth remembering as the latest round of FIFA match-fixing allegations rocks football.

With Greece, Finland, South Korea and even Sumo wrestling in Japan under scrutiny, FIFA have now turned their gaze to a couple of bizarre games in the build-up to last year’s World Cup in South Africa.

First, as they opened the World Cup final venue at Soccer City, Bafana Bafana (The Boys, The Boys) beat Colombia 2-1 on May 27, 2010. Amid the blaring vuvuzelas, Kenyan referee Langat Kipngetich saw fit to award two penalties – one of them distinctly dodgy - to South Africa that day, leaving the Latin Americans a little irked. I seem to recall Colombia coach Hernan Dario Gomez getting quite angry about it.

Four days later, I drove up the N1 motorway through a forest of toll booths to the brand new Peter Mokabe stadium in Polokwane (once known as Pietersburg) to see Bafana Bafana take on Guatemala. Though BafBaf were ranked 92 at the time (a record low for a World Cup host nation) they contrived to win 5-0, their best-ever international scoreline. Great boost for an anxious nation that as I said when I filed this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjzwzNhaeTM.

Strange day too. Before the game, with an old goalkeeper friend of mine Deshi Bakhtawer, who now works for the South African Broadcasting Corporation, we stopped off at the Holiday Inns in downtown Polokwane.

A strange but clearly powerful man, short in stature but big on lip, was ordering people about. I chatted to him. He told me he was the “agent” for the game. Bodyguards surrounded him. He told me how he organised such friendlies, sorted things out (for a reasonable fee, I imagine)... before driving off to the ground looking suitably self-important.

The Holiday Inns was chaotic, filled with journalists, fans, officials, players, ex-players and, unless I’m very much mistaken, the referee that night, a man called Ibrahim Chaibou, flown in from Niger.

A couple of hours later, Mr Chaibou saw fit to award two penalties to South Africa, both for handball. The first, after just 12 minutes, was a travesty. Katlego “Killer” Mphela stuck both spot kicks away. Job done.

At the time, I saw both the Colombian and Guatemalan wins (and the subsequent 2-0 win over highly-ranked Demark in Atteridgeville) as perfect preparation for the World Cup for the hosts, who started the tournament on a run of 12 unbeaten internationals. Sure, the refereeing was a little generous, but hey, Guatemala had just suffered a series of earthquakes and their players didn’t look too bothered about the result or the refereeing.

Now, just over a year on, you start to wonder. Just like seeing Bernard Tapie’s Marseille in the early 1990s or Hansie Cronje’s cricketing Proteas at the turn of the century, perhaps I was witnessing something more than met the eye.

Look closer at Mr Chaibou’s recent performances and you’ll see he was the man in charge when Bahrain beat Togo 3-0 last year. That was the day Togo put out a side of nonentities, pretending they were international footballers. Mr Chaibou saw fit to disallow five goals that day, for no other obvious reason other than to keep the scoreline respectable. Critisisms of his performance were swept under the table as the headlines focussed on the bogus Togo line-up and the actions of an agent called Wilson Raj Perumal.

But a month ago in Abuja, our whistle-happy friend Mr Chaibou was at it again. Nigeria were (surprisingly) 4-0 up against a below-par Argentina side when, according to internet bookmakers, there was a rush on betting that there would be a fifth goal in the match.

Matthew Benham, of online betting outfit SmartOdds, informs us: "With 86 minutes played the odds for [a fifth goal] were absolutely insane. But the market was effectively saying there would be no more goals."

Lo and behold, Mr Chaibou allowed nine minutes of injury time (even though the fourth official had signalled only four), then awarded Argentina a bizarre penalty. Nigerian defender Efe Ambrose clearly controlled the ball with his thigh but Mr Chaibou awarded a penalty for handball. Mauro Bosselli took the spot kick, fifth goal went in and the match ended Nigeria 4, Argentina 1. The internet gamblers were the only winners.

At the time FIFA President Sepp Blatter said there would be fair hearing on the issue adding: ''We have voted huge funds on investigations of match fixing and there will be zero tolerance on corruption.”

And that’s the last we’ve heard. Mr Chaibou remains unsuspended and free to referee at the top level. Now look, I’m not in a position to say Mr Chaibou is corrupt. I’m just pointing out that he’s been under scrutiny ever since FIFA announced on June 2 they were “studying betting patterns during the match as part of a wider ongoing FIFA investigation."

And hey, Mr Chaibou retired this year as he hits the referee’s retirement age of 45. Soon he’ll be history. But what you have to ask is: How did he get to referee that game against Guatemala? Did he really fail to notice the Togo side in Bahrain weren’t real international footballers? Why did he allow the game in Abuja to go on and on?

Match-fixing is, as we all know, as lethal to footballing credibility as performance-enhancing drugs are to athletics and cycling.

And then consider the case of Phil Setshedi, the former Bafana Bafana assistant coach, and his recent run-in with South Africa’s special police unit, The Hawks, earlier this month. Apparently Mr Setshedi was keen on seeing a team called Mpumalanga Sevutsa Stars beat Garankuwa United in their feeder division play-offs in Cape Town last month. So keen he offered a policeman, posing as the match referee, R2,000 to ensure the right result.

South African police spokesman McIntosh Polela is quoted as saying: "A member of the Hawks who posed as a match referee met up with the identified suspect at the Southern Sun Hotel in Cape Town. During this meeting the suspect offered to pay the agent in order to secure a win for Mpumalanga Sevutsa.

"Rakhange Humphrey Setshedi was granted bail of R10,000 and ordered to appear again on 9 September... he has surrendered his passport and will report to the Sandton police station twice a week.”

With Greece charging 84 football officials over corruption surrounding 54 games over the last two years, South Korea arresting five players and Mexico also investigating similar charges, South Africa is in danger of being dragged into the grey area of match-fixing.

So far SAFA have made all the right noises with spokesman Morio Sanyane insisting yesterday: "We take this opportunity to assure FIFA of our unqualified cooperation and support should they institute any form of investigation.

"Should any of our administrative members be found to have played any role in the matter, the association will, without hesitation, take appropriate action against the culprits in order to protect its integrity.

“As things stand, we want to believe that the matches under question were played in the spirit of fair play.”

As I said on South Africa's eNews television channel yesterday, so do we, Mr Sanyane, so do we.