Jakarta Casual

The Malay Mail was tipped off by a source from abroad claiming the individuals linked to fixing the President's Cup and on-going King's Gold Cup matches could be involved in "arranging international matches" in the region.

This included the Thailand-Zimbabwe and Thailand-Syria international friendlies in Bangkok last year.

In an email to The Malay Mail, the source said: "As you know, they (Zimbabwe) played Thailand but the Malaysian who organised these matches brought Kenyan referees for that match, and later arranged the match between Thailand and Syria and brought across Serbian referees!

"I was told he is a Malaysian based in Singapore ... wouldn't give out his business card though.

"All corresponding emails between the respective FAs were sent and his replies were cc'd to a 'Wilson'."

The Malay Mail, in its story "SMS to Lose" published on Nov 17, obtained an SMS allegedly sent to a T-Team official by "Wilson" claiming the Terengganu-based club's players and a coach were on the take and would lose to KL by four goals.

The message was sent on July 14, a night before T-Team played KL in the return leg quarterfinals of the President's Cup. KL won that match 4-2 at the Cheras Stadium.

This came about after two players confessed to The Malay Mail of having been approached by bookies to throw away the President's Cup matches and the on-going King's Gold Cup tournament.

The Paper That Cares wrote an email to "Wilson" but had yet to receive a reply.

Zimbabwe played Malaysia last year but The Malay Mail exposed, in its article "Con Deal?", published on July 13, 2009, that the visiting team was club side Monomotapa United FC instead.

Last December, Zimbabwe played a match against Thailand which they lost 3-0. The 15 players from the African nation who played in Bangkok were unheard of.

The match was played despite local Zimbabwe newspapers quoting Zimbabwe FA (Zifa) chief executive officer Herietta Rushwaya as saying: “We indicated to our Thai counterparts that we would not be able to put a team together for the tie due to the Christmas holidays."

Following investigations, Zifa fired Rushwaya for allowing the club to travel to KL and for Zimbabwe's "dubious" match against Thailand.

READ: More evidence of players throwing away matches for money