Accused players admit taking 10 million to betray the country

Kathmandu / October 16: Four national football players including team captain Sagar Thapa accused of match fixing have admitted the wrongdoing.

During the investigation, they admitted that they involved in match fixing, said Crime Division Chief of the Metropolitan Police Office, Senior Superintendent of Police Sarbendra Khanal.

The police had initiated investigation immediately after the arrest of the football players. SSP Khanal said the accused players said they involved in the match fixing and were feeling tremendous regret now. Most of matches fixing were designed under the direction of captain Thapa.

The preliminary investigation has found that they had involved in such wrongdoing in the eight games played since 2008 to the present, and they took up to Rs 10 million for one match fixing.

In 2008, every player had taken 5000 US dollars from Afghanistan for 2-2 during the Merdeka tournament. Similarly, in 2009, everyone took 3,061 US dollars from Malaysia during the friendly match played to 2-0. They had similar records in the games played in the international tournaments.

For the match fixing, Anjan KC and Ritesh Thapa were taking money from various foreign agents as Singapore citizen Titani Periyasami and Kesbhan Pattan via money transfers.

According to the police, the players and the coach currently in detention would be initiated a case of treason and organized crime for their foul play on nationality.

The arrested players are- captain Sagar Thapa, and Bikas Singh Chhetri, Ritesh Thapa, Sandip Rai and coach Anjan KC. They were arrested on Wednesday.

ANFA sacks footballers accused of match fixing

The All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) has sacked all the five players arrested for match fixing scandal.

In a statement ANFA said, “The Association will not allow the five players and the coach to participate in any kind of activities until such a sensitive subject of match fixing in football is resolved.”

The ANFA has pledged to provide all kinds of support to the Nepal Police in the investigation over the scandal.

As per the code of conduct of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), if players, coach, match official and the manager are found to be involved in match fixing they will be subject to action from the concerned country’s football association and the police.

If the players are found guilty they will be banned from all activities related to football for life, charged a huge fine and even subject to jail term.

Nepal has exhibited poor performance in the international games and the players used to blame the country’s poor infrastructure and less investment in the football as reasons for it and most of the football fans believed their statement and urged the government to invest more in the sector. The officials of ANFA were not serious about football as they were busy in corruption on the fund got from international organizations. RSS