Asian soccer sins

Press, 28 April 1989, Page 30

Asian soccer sins

NZPA-Reuter Kuala Lumpur Asian football tournaments have become the playground for bookmakers out to bribe players and referees while poor crowds at lacklustre matches are becoming an embarrassment, a top official said recently.

An excess of tournaments in the region has placed a strain on players and benefited bookies and gamblers more than the game itself, Peter Velappan, secretary-general of the Asian Football Confederation (A.F.C.), told Reuters. The Malaysiabased A.F.C. is now asking national soccer organisations in Asia to reduce the frequency of tournaments and tighten checks against match-fixing.

“There is no smoke without fire. While the worst is probably over, there is always the suspicion that match-fixing is still going on in some

tournaments,” he said. “It is not easy to prove bribery, unless you catch them red-handed.” Most of the bribery attempts were carried out in regional tournaments in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia but attempts were also reported during Olympic and World Cup qualifying matches in other parts of Asia, he said. Five Malaysian players who admitted to taking bribes to fix matches in a local league were suspended last year. The biggest football bribery case in recent years was uncovered in 1984 when an international syndicate offered Syrian and Indian players large sums of money to fix matches in the Asian Cup, he said.

Velappan said about four players in each team, usually the goalkeeper, key strikers or defenders, were offered up to SUSIO,OOO ($NZ16,393)

each to throw away matches while referees were offered up to SUSSOOO (SNZBI96) and jewellery. Asian football is also plagued by too many regional competitions “that have contributed to a dilution of quality of these tournaments and made them less entertaining to watch,” he said. The soccer craze in Asia traced its roots to the Merdeka Cup international tournament started by Malaysia in 1957. Other countries, usually for reasons of national prestige, joined in and there are now 15 annual international competitions in Asia besides national and club tournaments. The hectic rounds of competition have increased incidences of injury and forced many countries to send secondrate teams, which in turn lowered attendances and affected sponsorship.