Match fixer Perumal coming to Zimbabwe Wilson Raj Perumal
Wilson Raj Perumal

Wilson Raj Perumal

Sikhumbuzo Moyo Senior Sports Reporter
ZIFA hopes to bring finality to the Asiagate scandal by inviting serial matchfixer Wilson Raj Perumal to visit Zimbabwe in April.

The convicted Singaporean match-fixing mastermind confessed to approaching Zimbabwean football administrators and players as way back as 1997 when Zimbabwe participated in the Dunhill Cup in Malaysia.

Zifa feels that inviting the discredited and shamed businessman, who claims to have pocketed around $5 million from match-fixing, will finally bring closure to the scandal that saw more than 100 Zimbababwean players and some officials being suspended from the game.

In a statement on its official website on Sunday after an extra-ordinary general meeting in Harare, Zifa confirmed that it was mulling the idea of inviting Perumal, who, in an interview with media giant CNN last year, revealed that six Zimbabwean players had agreed to lose to Bosnia-Herzegovina 4-0 during the Dunhill Cup in 1997 for a return of $100,000.

The match ended in a 2-2 draw.

“It was also heard that the prolonged bid to finalise the Asiagate scandal may finally happen this April and the association is mulling the idea of bringing the Kellog Kings writer and chief mastermind of the shattering sport betting scandal, Raj Perumal to Zimbabwe in its efforts to flush out all traces of rot in the football family,” part of the statement on the Zifa website reads.

According to the US cable news network, the 50-year-old’s first foray into international matchfixing, a 1997 friendly match between Zimbabwe and Bosnia Herzegovina, failed.

“We gave them a result that was difficult to accomplish and what happened during the game was that one player accidentally kicked the ball into the net,” Perumal is quoted as saying.

A decade later, Perumal targeted Zimbabwe again in what became known as the “Asiagate” scandal with both players and officials receiving bribes to fix a string of matches between 2007 and 2010.

“We were like two hands prepared to clap,” Perumal said.

Former Fifa match-fixing investigator, Terry Steans, also told CNN that he was shocked when he was handed a Fifa case file on match-fixing in Zimbabwe in 2009.

“I read that file and thought: ‘No. It can’t be. It can’t be this easy and it can’t be this prevalent,’’’ Steans was quoted as saying by CNN.

“Five years later, I know yes, it was and yes it is. But that file opened our eyes and it was to set Fifa security, at that time, on a path to try and discover as much as we could about the fixers and how prevalent and widespread they were.”

Zimbabwe’s game was destroyed by the fixing scandal, Steans said.

Dozens of players and officials were sanctioned, some receiving life bans while others were barred from playing for several years.

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