PANJIM: The All India Football Federation has directed the Goa Football Association to conduct an investigation into the red flagged six matches of Goa Professional League, played between October 16 and November 19, 2019, involving seven teams.
GFA President Churchill Alemao on Thursday stated that the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) report itself states that there “were suspicious betting patterns indicative of match-manipulation”.
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Alemao pointed out that the AFC report in all the six matches highlighted that there was a highly suspicious live betting, there being substantial betting evidence that the outcome of the matches were unduly influenced with a view to gaining corrupt betting profits. In some matches it was a failed manipulation attempt.
The preliminary conclusion of the AFC report states, “There is clear and overwhelming betting evidence that the course or result of the matches were unduly influenced with a view to gaining corrupt betting profits.”
Consequently, Alemao stressed that an investigation will be undertaken in this case of “suspicious match fixing” based on “suspicious betting patterns”. As such, there is a need to give an authentic picture that there is suspicion. A five-member investigative panel is likely to be headed by a retired judge and will comprise of lawyers and others.
Sports Radar is a London based company that tracks all bets placed on sports events around the world, using monitoring software. There are instances where bets are placed on events in a match like yellow cards, red cards, goals scored, goals conceded, match result. In many countries this is completely legal. In India, betting is illegal.
The Sports Radar concludes that due to this suspicious betting pattern, it indicates fixing. A report is then sent to AFC and AIFF showing red flags. It is only after the findings of the inquiry it is established whether the match was fixed or not.
In the case of GPL, the AFC suggested that there is evidence of suspicious betting pattern which indicates fixing, there being no proof as yet to establish that match fixing actually took place.
