ROVANIEMI, Finland — A man arrived at the police station here in 2011 with an unusual tip. He told the police that a Singaporean man was fixing matches with the local professional soccer team. The police were incredulous.
This city on the Arctic Circle is known as the hometown of Santa Claus. It boasts a theme park with reindeer, elves and jolly St. Nicks. It is also a popular destination for Asian couples looking to make love under the Northern Lights. Rovaniemi is known for many things, but not for organized crime.
“Then after a few days, we started to realize that we had something real,” said Arttu Granat, a police detective at the time who hunts moose on the weekends. “So we started to build up the surveillance team.”
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Rigged: Part 1 of a Two-Part Series: Fixed Soccer Matches Cast Shadow Over World CupMAY 31, 2014
The detectives soon discovered that Wilson Raj Perumal, a match fixer from Singapore, was toiling away in Rovaniemi, working with several players, unbeknown to the coach. Mr. Perumal was considered a risk by his associates in a Singaporean match-rigging syndicate, so the group had sent a representative to Finland to tip off the police, Mr. Granat said.
Mr. Perumal was arrested and given a choice: Talk or be sent back to Singapore, where his punishment might be severe.
Mr. Perumal talked. His account — along with confidential documents, judicial investigations and interviews with people with knowledge of the syndicate’s operations — revealed how pervasively illicit gambling operations have infected global soccer, leaving the legitimacy of what fans see on the field more fragile than ever.
No match-fixing syndicate has exploited soccer’s vulnerabilities more than the group Mr. Perumal worked for. The syndicate has manipulated hundreds of professional soccer matches around the world by identifying players and referees ripe for bribery — particularly in countries that pay low wages.
The syndicate’s schemes often succeeded with apparent ease, including the rigging of exhibition games in the lead-up to the 2010 World Cup, raising concerns about the ability of officials to thwart match fixing.
The Apprentice Fixers
Mr. Perumal learned his trade in an informal school for match fixers in Singapore, along with Tan Seet Eng, a Singaporean man known widely as Dan Tan. In the early 1990s, they would gather in the stadiums where illegal bookmakers would take bets on the Malaysian-Singaporean soccer league.
The fixers were so successful that a Malaysian Cabinet minister estimated that they succeeded in fixing more than 70 percent of the league’s matches. The corruption was so bad that the Malaysian-Singaporean league collapsed.
At the bottom of the fixers’ hierarchy were runners: the go-betweens for the players and the fixers. Above the fixers were influential businessmen with the money to back the more expensive fixes and the protection muscle to make sure the network ran smoothly.
In the syndicate’s early days, there was one king, known as Uncle Frankie, a legend among match fixers. He was a Chinese-Indonesian businessman who sometimes used the name Frankie Chung, but his real name could not be confirmed. He knew that the global expansion of soccer presented lots of fixing opportunities. Uncle Frankie would go to major international tournaments, like the World Cup, and try to bribe players and referees.
Uncle Frankie taught Mr. Tan and Mr. Perumal the dirty secret of international soccer: Many teams and their personnel are poor, so they often have players, coaches and referees open to bribes.
“In every competition you find gamblers around,” said Kwesi Nyantakyi, president of the Ghana Football Association. “Yes, every competition. Every competition, they are there. It is done all the time in major competitions. In all the major tournaments, World Cup, Cup of Nations.”
“The gamblers are not Africans,” he added. “They are Europeans and Asians. So they have a lot of money to bet on these things.”
As a country of talented players with little money, Ghana is one of the countries that fixers frequently target at international tournaments, Mr. Nyantakyi said. So he was not surprised when, in 2007, it was discovered that there had been an attempt to fix an international match involving Ghana’s celebrated goalkeeping coach, Abukari Damba, who was working with the Singaporean fixers.
After some players turned him in, Mr. Damba confessed and said in a Ghana Football Association hearing that he had worked with the Singaporean fixers for 10 years.
Enter the Sapina Brothers
Mr. Perumal joined the international match-fixing group in 2008. In his interrogation cell in 2011, he charted the syndicate’s organization for Mr. Granat and other Finnish police officers. It had European partners and Chinese backers who supplied money allegedly laundered through casinos in Macau.
The match-fixing syndicate was a criminal network, according to European police investigators. Europeans supplied compliant referees, players and coaches; Mr. Tan and the Singaporeans provided access to the vast, unregulated sports gambling market in Asia.
If the match fixers had only the referee on the take, they would say it was a one-star fix. In this case, the Asian syndicate would bet a smaller amount. If the local fixers had the entire team and the officiating crew on the take, it was called a five-star fix, and the syndicate would wager far more.
This system was devised at a meeting in a hotel room in Vienna in September 2008 between the Asian syndicate run by Mr. Tan and the Sapina brothers, two Berlin-based Croatian fixers who had a vast network of corrupt soccer players, referees and coaches. The Sapinas have twice been convicted of match fixing in Germany and are in prison there.
Together, they fixed hundreds of soccer matches around the world, targeting nearly every league — from the prestigious Champions League and World Cup qualifying matches to obscure, low-level matches. Once the Sapina brothers had persuaded their contacts to fix matches, Mr. Tan could then place bets on the Asian sports gambling market, the biggest in the world. Because much of the Asian market is underground, estimates of its size vary greatly. Patrick Jay, a senior executive of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, one of the largest government-controlled gambling companies in the world, estimated that the Asian market handled $1 trillion in wagering.
“It is huge,” Mr. Jay said. “FIFA boasts about how much money they make every four years with the World Cup. You know what they call $4 billion in the illegal betting markets in Asia? Thursday.”
Terry Steans, a former FIFA investigator, probed the match-rigging efforts of a Singaporean syndicate in South Africa and elsewhere, including a 2011 international tournament in Turkey that the syndicate organized and selected referees for. “The whole thing was set up for the gambling markets,” he said.Luke Wolagiewicz for The New York Times
680 Suspicious Matches
Terry Steans, a former FIFA investigator who now runs a sports security company in the United Kingdom, said the syndicate of Mr. Tan and Mr. Perumal moved fixing to another level from the early days of simply approaching players in hotel rooms.
“They organized tournaments where they invited entire teams — no one watched the games, they were not televised,” Steans said. “The whole thing was set up for the gambling markets.”
In February 2011, the syndicate orchestrated one of the strangest tournaments. It invited the national teams of Estonia, Bulgaria, Bolivia and Latvia to a beachside city in Turkey. The tournament’s games were played in near-empty stadiums. They were not televised. Yet they attracted millions of dollars in bets on the Asian market.
All seven goals were scored on penalty kicks — all awarded by referees the syndicate had chosen and flown in.
“For sheer nerve, it has to rate high up there,” Mr. Steans said. “They hired the stadium. Would not sell tickets. Would not allow fans in. No television. Four international teams. Bought the referees and made money on the gambling market. It is pretty brazen.”
A 2011 tournament in Antalya, Turkey, organized by the match-fixing syndicate, had near-empty stadiums. Associated Press
FIFA eventually barred all the referees.
In February 2013, Europol, the European Union’s police intelligence agency, said the results of 680 matches worldwide from 2008 to 2011, including World Cup qualifying matches and European Champions League matches, were considered suspicious. Mr. Tan’s group did most of this work, investigators said.
In just one country — Italy — Mr. Tan was so successful working with Balkan associates, who had connections with Italian organized crime, that more than 20 Italian professional soccer teams were investigated for match fixing. A senior investigator of Italy’s National Organized Crime Task Force labeled Mr. Tan as the “No. 1 wanted man in Italy.”
“For their part, Dan Tan and his group constitute a criminal network that is both dangerous and quick to violence in case of anyone who breaks their rules,” an Italian prosecutor wrote in his statement. “This is stated in the testimony of one of the members who said it takes very little in the case of treason by one of the group to risk their murder.”
The European investigators determined that Mr. Tan’s syndicate also managed to fix matches played in the United States. In 2010, it persuaded a majority of El Salvador’s national team to throw a game against D.C. United of Major League Soccer as well as an international match against the United States in Miami. Many of the Salvadoran players were subsequently barred for life.
The Syndicate Lives On
In 2011, Mr. Perumal was found guilty of corruption in Finland and was sentenced to two years. He was released early. In late April, he was arrested again in Finland because, the police said, he had returned to the fixing business and had an outstanding international arrest warrant. He faces extradition to Singapore.
Last year, Singaporean law enforcement officials arrested Mr. Tan. However, he is in indefinite detention and may not stand trial. The scale of his match fixing may never be fully revealed.
Their arrests are not expected to stanch match fixing in Asia. Mr. Granat, the detective who helped disrupt Mr. Perumal’s exploits in northern Finland, said he ultimately recognized the group’s extraordinary reach.
“I remember I started to take it seriously when Wilson Raj Perumal had been in prison for a week and he told me, ‘This particular game next week will be fixed,’ ” Mr. Granat said. “He was in custody and he could still tell me these things.”
In a recent interview in Kuala Lumpur, an associate of the syndicate’s discussed the group’s next phase. “Dan Tan and the others are locked up, but the betting cartel has just carried on,” he said, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
“They have new people to do their work. There is no stopping them.”
芬蘭Rovaniemi - 一名男子來到派出所這裡在2011年與一個不尋常的一角。他告訴警方，一名新加坡男子被操縱比賽與當地專業足球隊。民警們懷疑。
這個城市在北極圈被稱為聖誕老人的故鄉。它擁有一個主題公園，馴鹿，精靈和樂融融聖尼克斯。這也是亞洲夫婦尋找下北極光做愛的熱門目的地。羅瓦涅米是著名的很多事情，但不是有組織的犯罪。
“那幾天後，我們開始認識到，我們有真正的東西，”Arttu石榴石，一個警探在誰捕殺駝鹿在週末的時候說。“於是我們開始建立監察隊伍。”
相關報導
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操縱：一個兩部分系列的第1部分：固定式足球比賽施放暗影過世界杯2014年5月31日
偵探很快就發現，威爾遜拉吉Perumal，來自新加坡的比賽定影液，是辛苦工作在羅瓦涅米，有幾個球員，不為人知的教練工作。Perumal先生被認為是一個風險由他在新加坡的比賽，索具集團聯營公司，因此該集團已派出一名代表芬蘭通風報信的警察，石榴石先生說。
Perumal先生被逮捕並給出一個選擇：通話或發送回新加坡，在那裡他的懲罰可能是嚴重的。
Perumal先生談到。他的帳戶 - 與機密文件，司法調查和採訪的人與該集團的營運知識 - 揭示如何角落，非法賭博活動已感染全球的足球，留下的領域比以往更加脆弱什麼球迷看到的合法性。
沒有假球集團已利用足球的漏洞多組Perumal先生任職。特別是在支付低工資的國家 - 該集團已通過識別球員和裁判成熟賄賂操縱數百種世界各地的專業足球比賽。
該集團的計劃屢屢得手明顯緩解，包括表演賽索具的鉛直至2010年世界杯，提高對官員的阻撓操縱比賽的能力的擔憂。
學徒固定器
Perumal先生得知他的貿易為比賽鐵工人在新加坡的非正式學校，隨著譚薛先生工程，新加坡人人廣泛地知道丹談。在90年代初，他們將聚集在那裡的體育場館向非法莊家會採取有關馬來西亞 - 新加坡足球聯賽投注。
固定器是如此成功，以至於馬來西亞內閣部長估計，他們成功地修復70％以上聯賽的比賽。腐敗是如此糟糕，馬來西亞，新加坡聯賽的崩潰。
在固定器“層次結構的底部是亞軍：該中間人為玩家和固定器。上面的固定器都是有影響力的商人用金錢來支持更昂貴的修復和保護肌肉，以確保網絡運行平穩。
在該集團的初期，有一個國王，被稱為叔叔弗蘭基，比賽固定器之中的傳奇。他是一個中國和印尼的商人，誰有時使用的名稱羊羊湧，但他的真實姓名都沒有得到證實。他知道，足球的全球擴張提出了許多固定的機會。弗蘭克叔叔會去大型國際賽事，如世界杯，並試圖賄賂球員和裁判。
弗蘭克叔叔教譚先生和Perumal先生國際足球的骯髒的秘密：很多團隊和他們的工作人員都很差，所以他們經常有球員，教練和裁判開賄賂。
“在每一個比賽你發現周圍的賭徒，”奎西Nyantakyi，加納足協主席說。“是的，每一場比賽。每次比賽，他們在那裡。這是做所有的時間在重大比賽。在所有的重大賽事，世界杯，國家杯。“
“參與賭博的人不是非洲人，”他補充說。“他們是歐洲人和亞洲人。所以他們有很多錢賭這些東西。“
由於天賦的球員用小錢的國家，加納是鐵工人經常針對國際賽事的國家之一，Nyantakyi先生說。所以他不能當，在2007年，人們發現，出現了解決的涉及加納的著名守門員教練，Abukari丹巴，誰正與新加坡鐵工人國際比賽的嘗試感到驚訝。
經過一些玩家把他在，丹巴先生交代，並在加納足協聽證會上說，他與新加坡鐵工人10年曾。
輸入•沙皮納兄弟
Perumal先生加入國際假球集團於2008年在他的審訊細胞在2011年，他繪製了該集團的組織石榴石先生和其他芬蘭警察。它有歐洲的合作夥伴，誰提供的資金通過澳門賭場洗錢據稱中國的支持者。
假球集團是一個犯罪網絡，根據歐洲的辦案民警。歐洲人提供兼容的裁判，球員和教練; 陳先生和新加坡人提供訪問廣闊，不受管制的體育賭博的市場在亞洲。
如果匹配鐵工人只有裁判在拿，他們會說這是一家一星級的修復。在這種情況下，亞集團將下注量較小。如果本地固定器有整個團隊和取主禮船員，它被稱為五星級的修復，以及集團敢打賭遠了。
該系統被設計在亞洲銀團之間由譚先生和•沙皮納兄弟兩個柏林的克羅地亞鐵工人誰了腐敗的足球運動員，裁判員和教練員的龐大網絡運行在賓館的房間在維也納會議在2008年9月。該Sapinas曾兩次被定罪假球在德國和在監獄那裡。
他們一起固定全世界數百個足球比賽，目標是幾乎每一個聯賽 - 來自著名的歐洲冠軍聯賽和世界杯預選賽，以晦澀的，低層次的比賽。一旦•沙皮納兄弟說服他們的接觸來解決比賽，陳先生便可以投注亞洲體育博彩市場，最大的在世界上。因為許多亞洲市場是在地下，它的大小的估計差別很大。帕特里克·傑伊，香港賽馬會，最大的政府控制的賭博公司在世界上的高級行政人員，預計亞洲市場處理1萬億美元的賭注。
“這是巨大的，”周杰倫先生說。“國際足聯吹噓自己賺了多少錢每四年的世界杯。你知道他們調用$ 4十億在亞洲非法博彩市場？週四。“
特里Steans，前國際足聯調查，探討新加坡人團在南非的比賽-索具的努力和其他地方，包括在土耳其2011年的國際比賽，該集團有組織，有選擇的裁判為。“整個事情的成立目的是賭博的市場，”他說。盧克Wolagiewicz為紐約時報
680可疑比賽
特里Steans，前國際足聯調查誰現在經營著一家體育安全公司在英國，說陳先生和Perumal先生的感動集團由單純逼近球員在酒店房間的初期固定到另一個層次。
“他們組織的比賽，他們邀請整個團隊 - 沒人觀看了比賽，他們沒有電視轉播，”Steans說。“整個事情的成立目的是賭博的市場。”
2011年2月，該集團精心策劃的最奇怪的比賽之一。它邀請愛沙尼亞，保加利亞，玻利維亞和拉脫維亞國家隊的海濱城市在土耳其。本次比賽的比賽被演奏了在近空的體育場。他們沒有電視轉播。然而，他們吸引了數百萬美元在亞洲市場上的賭注。
所有七個進球被贏得的點球 - 所有頒發裁判該集團選擇了與飛行英寸
“對於純粹的神經，它具有很高的評價了那裡，”Steans先生說。“他們找來了球場。不會賣門票。不會讓球迷。沒有電視。四個國際團隊。買了裁判和賭博市場上賺到錢。這是很無恥。“
平成23年比賽在土耳其安塔利亞，被假球集團有組織，有近空的體育場。 美聯社
最終國際足聯禁止所有的裁判。
2013年2月，歐洲刑警組織，歐盟警察情報機構說，世界各地的680場比賽2008至2011年，其中包括世界杯預選賽和歐洲冠軍杯比賽，結果被認為是可疑的。陳先生的研究小組做了大部分的工作，研究者說。
在短短的一個國家 - 意大利 - 陳先生是如此的成功與巴爾幹聯營公司，誰曾與意大利有組織犯罪，有超過20意大利職業足球隊進行了調查假球的連接工作。意大利國家打擊有組織犯罪特別工作組的一位高級研究員標記陳先生作為“號 1通緝犯在意大利。“
“對他們來說，譚丹和他的團隊構成犯罪網絡，它是既危險又迅速的情況下，任何人誰打破了他們的規則的暴力事件，”一名意大利檢察官寫在他的發言。“這是說在說，誰需要很少的叛國的情況下，由集團之一冒著謀殺成員之一的證詞。”
歐洲研究人員確定，陳先生的集團也成功地解決發揮在美國的比賽。在2010年，它說服了大多數薩爾瓦多國家隊扔打擊足球大聯盟華盛頓聯隊比賽以及對美國邁阿密的國際比賽。很多的薩爾瓦多球員隨後被禁止的生活。
銀團住在
2011年，Perumal先生因犯貪污罪在芬蘭，被判處有期徒刑兩年。他早早被釋放。4月下旬，他在芬蘭再次被捕，因為警方說，他已經回到了固定業務，並有突出的國際逮捕令。他面臨被引渡到新加坡。
去年，新加坡執法人員逮捕了陳先生。不過，他是在無限期拘留，可以不出庭受審。他操縱比賽的規模可能永遠無法完全顯露。
他們被拘捕，預計不會止住假球在亞洲。石榴石先生，誰幫擾亂Perumal先生的功績芬蘭北部的偵探說，他最終確認的本集團非經常性接觸。
“我記得我開始認真對待它，當威爾遜拉吉Perumal曾坐牢了一個星期，他告訴我，'下週這個特定的遊戲將是固定的，'”石榴石先生說。“他被關押，他仍然告訴我這些事情。”
在最近的一次採訪在吉隆坡，討論小組的下一階段該集團的聯營公司。“譚丹和其他人都被鎖定了，但投注卡特爾剛剛進行的，”他說，一位不願透露姓名的條件害怕報復。
“他們有新的人做他們的工作。有沒有阻止他們。“
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