SINGAPORE, Feb 5, 2013 (AFP) - Singapore's reputation for low corruption came under fire Tuesday after revelations that a criminal gang based in the city-state rigged hundreds of football matches in Europe and elsewhere.
While police had no immediate comment and some of the country's state-linked media downplayed the news, some Singaporeans expressed shock and analysts said the scandal could harm the wealthy island's squeaky-clean image.
“Major questions will arise as to what the government authorities in Singapore knew, when did they know it, and why this illegal network running out of Singapore was not caught sooner.” Galaviz said football is a sport with a global audience, including millions of fans in Asia, and while there are small cases of illegal sports betting in almost every country, “it looks like this case is going to have global ramifications of epic proportions”.
“What is disturbing about this case is that it seems that Singapore's status as a financial hub was potentially being used for nefarious purposes, and that is going to be extremely disturbing to a lot of people.” Neil Humphreys, a popular sports columnist and author, asked why “so little is being done to question Singaporean individuals allegedly involved in such a global match-fixing operation. More pertinently, the issue has not received quite the same front-page media attention that it has in other football-popular countries, despite the obvious fact that Singapore is allegedly home to the ringleaders of the world's biggest match-fixing syndicate,” he told AFP. Full story
Also read:
- Why Singapore government didn't issue an arrest warrant for Dan Tan? - Declan Hill's Blog
- Match fixing: The Singapore link to a global scandal - Goal.com
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