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| Perumal Wilson |
A notorious match fixer who started out fixing
football matches in the late 80’s and perfected the art of match fixing, Perumal
Raj Wilson a Singapore national, who was convicted for fixing matches, revealed
to BBC how he has been fixing matches including the South African 2010 world
cup qualifier match between Nigeria vs Kenya played in November 14, 2009 in Nairobi.
In Perumal’s interview reads:
Perumal:
“I
have brought previously Nigeria to tournament in Malaysia, The Intercontinental
Cup, so that was how I planned with Odera to approach the Nigerian football
association”.
Prince Odera AKA Odera Eze is a Nigerian National
and football agent, as the documents in Aljazera’s possession attests, he
clearly also had close links to the Nigerian football federation. In September
2008, he was licensed by the federation to organize international fixtures on
its behalf and traveled with the national team on several occasions. That same
year he was photographed with Wilson Raj Perumal when Nigeria took part in the
Intercontinental cup in Malaysia.
In late October 2009, just a couple of weeks before Nigeria’s
last world cup qualifier against Kenya, Odera signed two letters to secure
visas to Nigeria for Perumal and an associate Manimaran Kalimutu. Kalimutu was
one of the syndicate’s most reliable runners who regularly carried money
overseas for Perumal and passed it on to footballers in Kenya, Rwanda, Jordan and
elsewhere. In early November 2009, he and Perumal flew to Nigeria and checked into
the transcorp Hilton hotel in Abuja.
Manimaran:
“We
reached Abuja at 8am Nigeria time, we went and put our luggage in the room, and
Wilson told me to meet him downstairs at the lobby, there were people from the
federation and I didn’t join them, I just went to the bar, I was having my
chivas”
During that meeting, Perumal claims to have offered
members of the Nigeria football federation an extraordinary deal.
Perumal:
“I
will make sure everything is done to help Nigeria qualify, which is I’ve got
two players or three players in the Kenyan team and they will ensure Nigeria’s
win. And the other side is that my company will probably give bonus to Mozambique
of $100,000usd to make sure they get positive results with Tunisia”.
In exchange Perumal says he wanted his company
Football For You International to be given an official mandate to organize pre-world
cup warm up fixtures for the Nigerian national team.
Perumal:
“If
a team makes it to the world cup there’s between 1 to 1.5million usd for them
before the world cup and they get an approximate sum of 8million dollars after
the group stage is completed, and that is a lot of money for a football
association”.
Three days before the Kenya vs Nigeria match, Perumal
wrote a letter to the general secretary of the Mozambique football association.
Perumal promised the football association $100,000 if the Mozambique won or
drew their game against Tunisia. Perumal spoke on the role he played during the
Nigeria vs Kenya match.
Perumal:
“I
had three players in the Kenyan team, two of them were starting the match and
one was on the bench, so I spoke to the players and they agreed to have Nigeria
win the match”.
On November the 14 2009, Kenya and Nigeria faced off
in Nairobi while Mozambique played Tunisia.
Perumal:
“Eventually
Mozambique beat Tunisia, I don’t know how they did it, they managed to get 3
points out of Tunisia and Nigeria won, it was like what I had planned, Nigeria
qualifying for the world cup finals”.
The match ended in Nigeria’s victory of 3 goals to
2. When told that the Kenya vs Nigeria match was fixed, Obafemi Martins could
not bring himself to believe it.
Obafemi Martins:
“I
remember the game so well that I played against Kenya, it wasn’t a fixed game, and
they wanted to win against Nigeria because they have never won against Nigeria,
so we wanted to win too because we wanted to go to the world cup, so it wasn’t a
fixed game for me”.
On Perumal’s return to Singapore he was arrested for
unrelated assault charge. By the time he was released few weeks later he says
the deal he’d offered the Nigerian football authorities had gone cold.
Perumal:
“When I came out from the three weeks I spent, I sent
repeated emails to Odera, asking him what was going on, was he going to fulfill
his promise or not”.
Perumal wasn’t given the access to Nigeria’s world
cup warm up matches and training camp that he sort. But in April 2010, the
Nigerian football federation did grant his company Football For You
International the right to organize other friendly games for the national team.
The letter was forwarded to Perumal by his NFF contact Odera Eze. BBC got in
touch with Odera on the phone to ask about his relationship with the match
fixer. When Odera was been asked if he knew Perumal Wilson and his response on
the phone was:
Odera Eze:
“I
don’t know him so well but I think I could remember sometime he came to the
Nigeria football federation office, that was where we met”
Odera Eze denied that he ever knew Perumal was match
fixing, he denied any knowledge of any offer or deal that Perumal made to him
or to NFF official before the Kenya qualifier. He did agree that he passed on
the Nigerian football federations letter of mandate to Perumal’s company Football
For You International, but he did not explain why, the letter of mandate bears
the signature of one Mohammed Sanusi. At the time he was the NFF’s head of competitions,
now he’s at integrity officer. We asked him to explain the letter and the NFF’s
relationship with Perumal, Sanusi said that he does not remember signing the
letter, that he knows who Perumal is but has never met him in person.
The Kenya-Nigeria game is only one of several world
cup qualification matches for the 2010 FIFA world cup that Perumal claimed to
have influenced; in fact he says he played a part in the qualification of five
of the thirty-two teams that eventually took the field in South Africa. Surely then
these and his many other claims of merit close examination FIFA the governing
body of football.
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