Singapore jails Indonesian for SEAGames match-fixing

SINGAPORE — An Indonesian man was jailed for 30 months Tuesday in Singapore for conspiring to fix a football match during the recent Southeast Asian Games in the city-state.

Nasiruddin conspired with two other persons to bribe the technical director of East Timor’s football team, Orlando Marques Henriques Mendes, to lose a match against Malaysia, Singapore’s Corrupt Practices and Investigation Bureau (CPIB) said.

The Indonesian had offered Sg$15,000 ($11,000) to the East Timor soccer official, the CPIB said in a statement.

READ: Football: SEA Games rocked by match-fixing scandal

Nasiruddin also conspired to bribe members of the East Timor team “as an inducement to lose the same match,” according to the statement.

East Timor’s under-23 team at the Games lost their May 30 opening match 1-0 to Malaysia, who played most of the game with 10 men after the dismissal of playmaker Nazmi Faiz Mansor.

Singapore has been hit by previous fixing scandals including in April 2013, when a local businessman provided prostitutes for visiting referees to influence an Asian Football Confederation Cup game.

Alleged global match-fixing mastermind Tan Seet Eng, or Dan Tan, is being held under a law that allows for indefinite detention following a crackdown in September that year.

Experts say low-level games are most vulnerable to offers from match-fixers because players and officials are typically not well paid.

At last year’s Asian Games at Incheon in South Korea, a betting analysis company said there were strong indications of match-fixing in the football competition’s early rounds.

“Singapore adopts a zero tolerance approach towards corruption, and match-fixing of any form is not condoned in Singapore,” the CPIB said Tuesday.

It warned it “will not hesitate to take action against any party involved in match-fixing related activities.”