The man who allegedly accused Croatia and Cameroon of foul play is under arrest in Finland

After the bonus scandal, the Cameroon national team was involved in another ugly story. The German edition of Spiegel Online claims that the game of "indomitable lions" with the Croats was negotiated. FIFA, however, has yet to spot anything suspicious in the said match. However, they do not deny that evidence of the dishonest nature of the game may appear in the future. Meanwhile, the Cameroonian Football Federation launched an investigation into this matter. But as it turned out, the legs of this story grow not from a suspicious surge in bookmaker rates, as is usually the case, but from private correspondence on Facebook.

“On Monday night, Germany will play Algeria and if there is anyone who knows in advance how the game will end, it is Wilson Raj Perumal. The Singaporean is considered godfather» match-fixing where he is said to have made millions. Sports editor Rafael Buschmann, who has been in contact with Perumal for many years, tells amazing things: the organizer of the “agreements” in a private correspondence on Facebook even before the start of the preliminary round match Croatia - Cameroon absolutely correctly predicted both the result (4:0) and the fact that in the first half will be shown a red card. But the game of Germany, says Buschmann, he did not comment, ”such a publication appeared on the Spiegel website on June 29. This information was disseminated by all the world's media, and Cameroon, along with Croatia, were involved in an ugly story.

The match Croatia - Cameroon really ended with a score of 4:0, and Alexander Song, the Cameroonian midfielder, received a red card in the 40th minute. But this game was over 10 days before the German edition hinted at its contractual nature. Why did you have to wait so long?

Meanwhile, Raj Perumal is now in a Finnish prison, long retired and cooperating with the police and Interpol, investigating the case of a Singaporean syndicate that earns billions on betting and fixed matches around the world.

Who is Wilson Raj Perumal?

Singaporean Wilson Raj Perumal is a kind of Ostap Bender of modern football, who worked for the most important syndicate, earning on fixed matches and underground betting.

Born in the 60s in a Singaporean village, he began to actively bet at the age of 13 and realized quite early that you simply couldn’t make money on betting, Perumal grew into the main manipulator of the results of football matches around the world. He became right hand the head of the syndicate Dan Tan (who, by the way, was recently arrested for illegal activities in football), who turned billions of dollars on bookmakers (according to Interpol, the profit was at least $35 billion a year).

Three years ago, Perumal, FIFA's most wanted man, lost Dan Tan's trust, owed millions because he was addicted to betting. He bet on games that he knew no one had a hand in. And lost to smithereens. And then the syndicate organized his arrest. Wilson was arrested in February 2011 in Finland. First for forged documents, and then, when they realized who they were dealing with, and for his football affairs. Perumal quickly realized who framed him, and immediately made a deal with the investigation. He began to talk about everything, the police only had time to write down.

For the past two years, Perumal has been living in Budapest under a witness protection program. During this time, he married and had twins. But in April of this year, Wilson was again detained in Finland on a warrant issued four years ago in Singapore. Moreover, this warrant has nothing to do with the fraudulent cases of Perumal. In 2009, at the Singapore airport, Wilson got into an altercation with a security guard, pushed him away and left while he was trying to detain him. The guard went to the police with a statement about the attack, and a year later the court sentenced the perpetrator to five years in a correctional facility.

And now the “great strategist” is waiting for the decision of the Finnish authorities: to extradite him to Singapore or send him back to Budapest. At the same time, Perumal is very much counting on the fact that Interpol, the police of those countries in which he helped to investigate cases of match-fixing, and FIFA will recognize his usefulness and will not let the court deprive the necessary witness.

Italian journalists Alessandro Righi and Emanuele Piano talk about the current fate of Perumal on their website. Rigi and Piano, in 2012, as independent journalists, began to investigate the history of the Singaporean syndicate. And we went to Perumal, with whom we first communicated by e-mail. In the process of communication, the reporters realized that the Singaporean had something to tell the world, especially since he had already provided the police with all the data. And they began to convince him to write a book. Gathering together all the stories of Wilson, Riga and Piano, they wrote this book. And they thought that there would be no release from publishers, but they were mistaken. In their opinion, the material was too lethal, and they were simply afraid to publish it. After thinking, the journalists slightly edited their work, removed some names, nicknames and even some stories completely. Especially those witnessed by Wilson alone, and no one can confirm his words. The book is now available for purchase online for £15.

True, the annotation to it says: "After you read this book, you will no longer be able to watch football as before."

Secrets of Perumal

After the book "Kelong Kings" (kelong - in Singaporean slang means "agreement"), that is, "Kings of the agreement", appeared on the net, and this happened a few months ago, it was immediately pulled to pieces and the stories were replicated in the press . In the book, Wilson describes how players, coaches, referees and even entire football federations are bought, and at all levels - from the youth league of some Togo to the World Cup.

In the early 90s, Perumal already had a reliable profit in Asia, it was time to move to Europe. The combinator began from England, from the FA Cup match between Liverpool and Birmingham in 1995. I tried to negotiate with the goalkeeper of "Birmingham" that he handed over the game for 20 thousand pounds sterling, but he refused.

The next victim of the evil genius was Dmitry Kharin, known to all Russian fans, who then defended the colors of Chelsea, who had already been promised 60 thousand dollars. But Dmitry also refused, while saying that during the 1994 World Cup he already had similar offers, but they did not seduce him. We remember that the Russian team then lost everything in the group, except for the match ... oops ... with Cameroon! Ours defeated the Africans then 6:1.

Another funny story. When Wilson failed to reach an agreement with the players, the idea was born to bribe the stadium electricians so that the arena lights would turn off at the moment when the scoreboard showed the desired score. The fact is that Asian bookmakers paid out winnings even on the basis of interrupted matches. The plan was implemented in 1997 during the matches " West Ham"- "Crystal Palace" and "Arsenal" - "Wimbledon".

Match Portugal - Tunisia at the 1996 Olympics, too, according to Wilson, was contractual. It was necessary that Tunisia lost by more than one goal. The goalkeeper helped, when the score was 1:0, he jumped during a shot on goal in the other direction from the ball.

In 2001, the idea of ​​a power outage at the stadium was embodied during the Champions League match between Fenerbahce and Barca. However, the technology stepped forward so much that the bet did not play. The backup generator immediately turned on, and Perumal lost a million dollars.

One of the loudest confessions of Perumal was the statement that it was thanks to his machinations that Honudras and Nigeria reached the 2010 World Cup. The circumstances were such that the falsified results of other matches in the qualifying group helped these two teams to be in the world championship. “And I couldn’t brag to anyone! Damn it!" - Perumal wrote in his book.

In today's world, you can buy and sell anything. Even a football match. The passion of people to bet has been known since ancient times. In the modern world, people have learned to benefit even from this. The network of underground sweepstakes spread across all continents. Dealers offer incredible odds and fantastic winnings. The largest underground betting scam in history will be discussed next.

Football is the most popular game in the whole world. And no matter how the FIFA leadership tries to defend its good name, the fact remains. This is the most corrupt sport. Literally everything is bought and sold here. Clubs, players, referees, games. And of course, any mafia is not averse to putting his paw on such a tidbit. According to the latest data, the annual turnover of underground betting reaches approximately 500 billion dollars. Legal firms earn about the same amount.

The Internet has allowed shady bookmakers to expand their field of activity and maintain their complete anonymity. This area resembles the stock market. Here, odds change every minute, new favorites and outsiders appear. Here you can bet on any factor. The number of goals, penalties, yellow and red cards, the time when a goal will be scored. There is no limit to fantasy.

Match-fixing has become commonplace in world football. However, the first attempts of scammers looked amateurish and curious. So, in 1997, during the match between West Ham and Crystal Palace, as part of the next round of the Premier League, in the middle of the second half, the Londoners equalized the score. Suddenly the lights went out, the game was stopped. A week later, the same incident occurred at another Premier League match. Soon the police found out that power outages were the work of a Chinese group that was taking bets on the match. As soon as the score reached the desired value, the gangsters broke the game and took their jackpot.

But this clumsy scheme did not have the right to long-term existence. Then the Triads, who crushed the entire underground betting market, found a different approach. And to implement the plan, they had a real genius at their disposal - Wilson Raja Perumal. He studied under another sports genius, Regindran Kurusami, who made a fortune on bets, but went to prison for his machinations.

From his teacher Wilson Raja learned everything. He felt the game well, knew the possibilities of each team from and to, was well versed in the intricacies of the underground betting market, was familiar with many prominent officials of football federations around the world. Perumal knew how to ingratiate himself, bribe, intimidate. Once, on his orders, the recalcitrant Croatian defender of Ragusa, who refused to cooperate with the gangster, was beaten.

Perumal honed his skills in the least civilized championships, where it was impossible to get real time. The championship of Zimbabwe and Ghana was a kind of "alma mater" for him. He did not buy individual matches, but he acquired an entire football federation. The methods of bribery were the most primitive. Sponsorship, organization international tournament, treatment of players and their relatives. Poor African countries could not afford such a luxury and Perumal skillfully used it. For example, he organized a friendly match between South Africa and Bolivia, paying them $100,000 each for the right to appoint their own referees for the match. Naturally, the meeting ended with the necessary score for the gangster.

According to the FIFA security service, Perumal is just a pawn. At the head of this mighty network are four big Singaporean bosses who run their legal business, which allows them to launder all betting proceeds. It is impossible to trace the path of bets, as thousands of silent mercenaries around the world place small bets from a million different credit cards. Such a financial flow is simply impossible to control.

Yes, Perumal was a genius. For ten years he built a real criminal empire. It included players, judges, officials. Profit grew. The glory of Perumal also grew. When he flew to the next "agreement" in Kenya, he was met by the entire football federation and the national team. Everyone who came up to shake hands with a swindler received a hundred dollars in his pocket. Soon, the football functionaries themselves began to call Perumal, with a proposal to "agree on the score of the next match." The criminal himself was not ashamed of his deeds, believing that in this way he helps many football federations from third world countries not to go bankrupt. Soon he was in control of the whole football world Africa, Latin America, Middle East.

Feeling their impunity, the scammers began to declare "ghost matches" that were not actually held. This saved time and money. It was enough to pay an "independent observer" and a couple of bumps from the football committee, come up with a non-existent referee and the trick is in the bag. FIFA realized too late that many matches in remote parts of the world have no relevant documentation.

But, being a genius, Perumal suffered from his own genius. Once his flight was delayed in Costa Rica and he was stuck in the city for a day. Out of boredom, he began to play the sweepstakes. Moreover, he did not bet on matches of his own lured leagues, but on serious clubs such as Manchester United, Barcelona, ​​Juventus, which cannot be bribed. In less than twelve hours, he won almost a million dollars. And for the remaining five he lost it.

And then he got carried away. He bet and bet, won a million, lost two. I had to deceive the bosses to cover the penalties. A year later he was in debt, like in silks. As a result, numerous errors began. The Bahrain-Togo match received unnecessary publicity in the press and attracted the attention of FIFA.

And then the Triad made a decision - to get rid of the presumptuous schemer. He was removed from work. He understood this when two corrupt teams and a corrupt referee played a match that Perumal did not organize, but only watched on TV. The gangster went against his masters by sabotaging a number of deals. But this only made the situation worse.

Soon, the new gangsters who replaced Perumal, due to their inexperience, fell under the scope of FIFA and the bosses from the Triad realized that their business was covered with a copper basin. It only remained to hand over Perumal to the authorities, which boss Dan Tan ordered the former protégé of Santania to do. He was taken in February 2011. In retaliation, the criminal betrayed his masters without batting an eyelid. The trial is still going on.

Unfortunately, the criminal mind is quite flexible. And this scheme will be replaced by another one. The world of underground betting is too lucrative to be left unattended.

Negotiated football matches- shadow business, the turnover of which is forty times greater than the capitalization of the entire legal football industry. GQ tells the story of the rise and fall of Wilson Raj Perumal, a match-fixing man who bought half the world's football players and then lost everything he had.

On the morning of February 20, 2011, a man named Jonathan Tang Xin came to the central police station in the Finnish city of Rovaniemi (the same one where Julio Medem's film "Arctic Circle Lovers" takes place). Tang Xin, Singaporean Chinese origin, told the duty officer that another Singaporean - of Indian origin - had recently entered the city on a fake passport. Police inspector Jukka Lakkala, at the head of the task force, immediately went to the Scandic Hotel to organize surveillance.

The suspect's name was Wilson Raj Perumal. On February 23, the operatives followed him to the Fransmanni French restaurant, not far from the local football stadium. The match had just ended and the surrounding streets were full of fans who had come to watch their team, Rovaniemen Palloseura, draw the game 1-1.

The officers watched with interest as Perumal was joined by three men, two Georgians and one Zambian. All three are Palloseura players. The conversation went on raised tones; Perumal scolded the grown men who sat with downcast eyes, like naughty teenagers. Lakkala did not doubt the significance of what was happening. When they detained Perumal the next day, Jukka called the Finnish Football Federation and asked if they knew the guest from distant Singapore. In the Federation, they had never heard of Perumal and, in turn, dialed the FIFA number.

The head of the FIFA security service, the former administrator of Interpol, Australian Chris Eaton knew perfectly well who Perumal was. I knew because I had been chasing him for six months. When Eaton arrived in Rovaniemi, he told the stunned detectives that they had managed to take into custody the largest organizer of match-fixing. Wilson Raj Perumal, the mysterious international football cheater who always eluded his pursuers, who bought and sold matches in 26 countries and earned many hundreds of illegal millions for his customers - Asian and European crime syndicates, finally ended up behind bars. Tellingly, on a tip from another gangster.

The most popular game on planet Earth is also the most corrupt. Match-fixing cases are currently pending in the prosecutor's offices of at least 25 states. Operation "Last Bet" has shaken the Italian Football Federation to its foundations - 22 clubs and 52 players are now waiting for a subpoena. The Football Association of Zimbabwe has vetoed the call-up of eighty players suspected of participating in purchased matches. Lu Zun, China's first ever World Cup referee, was sentenced to five and a half years in prison in February this year with forfeiture of property for taking $128,000 in bribes for Chinese Super League match-fixing (in fact, he easily got off - according to Chinese law, Zun, as a civil servant, could well get a tower). The Korean K-League suffered a devastating loss of 57 defendants in the case of faked games (of which four committed suicide in the most suspicious way). Hungarian second division team director REAC Budapest jumped out of a window after six of his team's players were accused of cheating. Finally - the apotheosis of dark deeds! - the youth team of Turkmenistan beat the youth team of the Maldives with a score of 2:1. I beat in a game that didn’t exist - a “ghost match”, bets on which were accepted by international bookmakers, despite its pure fantasy.

The reason for the epidemic spread of the infection is simple - superprofits. The underground betting market has swelled to an unimaginable size over the past decade: According to Interpol, underground bookmakers take $500 billion worth of bets each year. That is exactly the same as legal betting offices. Put together, the exorbitant amount of a trillion dollars is equal to two-thirds of the budget of the global military-industrial complex. For comparison, the total turnover of the global football industry is $25 billion. How is this possible?

The advent of the internet has led to a thriving gambling site offering players a much wider variety of betting options than the local bookmaker or betting shops with their lower rates. Moreover, the Internet has changed the very model of sports betting. Twenty years ago, football matches accounted for about 15 percent of the world's betting volume. The Internet has unleashed the hands of online bookmakers and made possible an endless fan of offers on the particulars of the game - elapsed / remaining time of the match, current score, number of players on the field, number of cards, penalties, corners, fouls, etc. The attractiveness of soccer as a betting offer has increased many times - in our time, bets on European football account for up to 70 percent of the total volume of the international betting market.

Wilson Raj Perumal, mysterious,
cheater forever eluding pursuers
international football

The internet has made possible a model where players can trade bets; an extensive international network of betting on football matches resembles a living organism - something like the stock market with its eternal running around of changing numbers, a huge volume of offers and instant winnings. The new sophistication and scale of the global market has turned the illegal betting industry into a tempting business opportunity for those with the brains and the money to bend the situation in their favor and create a well-structured transnational criminal enterprise. The Chinese triads, who took the sting out of the local economic boom and the Asian underground betting market, have long dreamed of creating a global match-fixing system.

The first attempts were quite comical. November 3, 1997, during a match English Premier League between West Ham and Crystal Palace, the Hammers equalized (2:2) in the 65th minute of the match. Suddenly, the stadium lights went out. The same thing happened at Arsenal's match against Wimbledon a month later. The "spotlight case," as it was called in the British press, soon came to light. It turned out that a Malay gang working for the Chinese gilded the handles of the stadium technicians, who turned off the electricity at the very moment when the score in the game reached the value the gangsters needed.

The scam turned out to be too primitive to build far-reaching plans on it; such incidents are easy to detect and stop. In addition, the “projectorgate” was out of the category of traditional agreements when players and referees are bought. The triads had to develop a more elegant know-how with which to get into the soul (and pockets) of the international football community, to manipulate it from the inside. It required a man with a big criminal soul and a wide smile, a sly man with a convenient passport, a dexterous balabol capable of picking up the key to anyone's heart. The Great Combinator was needed.

Perumal learned everything from his former boss, a gangster named Rajendran Kurusami - a man who loved to tell the story of how he once made 17 million betting in 5 months. Perumal learned everything from him. How to gain confidence. How to pay more than competitors and buy loyalty. How to keep the wards in fear - not by direct threats, but by intimidating someone in their presence, so that the addressee understands the price of the question. How to reinforce words with deeds (in 2000, Perumal and an accomplice ambushed the Croatian defender Ivica Raguz and slapped him hockey stick knee-deep right in the middle of a Singaporean street).

When Kurusami went to jail, the reorganization of the betting business was already in full swing on the Internet. It's time to spread your wings and, using the successful Singapore experience, embark on an international voyage to the glory of super profits. Perumal honed his skills in Africa - in Zimbabwe and Ghana - in the late 90s. The tactics changed - he no longer bought individual matches, he bought the national football federations in the bud. Under the guise of shell companies with names like Footy Media and Football 4 U, Perumal roamed the planet, presenting himself as a specialist in organizing international friendlies between national teams. The main targets were the national federations that had experienced better times. Finding them was easy.

The gangster signed contracts with Bolivia and South Africa, paying each of the federations a hundred thousand dollars for the right to appoint their own arbitrators. “Most football federations are forever on the verge of bankruptcy,” Perumal wrote from a Finnish prison to Singaporean journalist Zaihan Yusof. - If you offer them an opponent who is ready to play a friendly match, paying all the expenses, they will welcome you with open arms. Of course, without suspecting what is behind it.

And behind this is a Singaporean crime syndicate, controlled, according to FIFA, by four bosses whose legitimate businesses allow them to finance the activities of Perumal and his henchmen. Dan Tan owns an engineering business. China Morgan - travel agency. Rajendran Prasad - a plastic bag factory. Peter Pe has a spa. All four work in collusion using the hawala network - ancient system channels of underground transfer of money, built on the principles of thieves' honor. Behind this criminal quartet, according to FIFA, are powerful Chinese triads that operate thousands of "boiler rooms" throughout Southeast Asia. Hundreds of silent hard workers, crouched by the computers, press their quick fingers on the buttons, placing bets on sums of $ 3,000. The minimality of these rates and their spread across a huge number of credit cards do not allow bookmakers - both licensed and illegal - to track down their source.

It was a great ten-year-long scam. The illegal network grew and expanded - all new players and referees got into it. Profits grew, Perumal's subordinates gained more and more fame in the intra-football world. One day one of his emissaries attended a junior match in Kenya. During the opening ceremony, high-ranking officials of the local federation, in solemn silence, entered the field at the head of the procession. As soon as one of them spotted the man Perumal on the podium, an easy-going official turned the whole procession around and moved it to the podium to greet the benefactor. Each passing by received a hundred dollar bill in the palm of his hand.

Soon players, judges and officials from all over the world were themselves calling Perumal and his people. “Hey, we have a match next week. Let's agree". Supply outpaced demand; the coaches of the national teams telephoned the gangsters right from the edge of the field, offering to "miss a couple of goals for you." The head of one of the national federations once called Perumal's man in London: “I'm here with my family, our wallet was stolen. Would you mind lending me $5,000?”

Perumal boasted that he was "better in control of the Syrian football league than Assad his citizens." He saw himself as a football Robin Hood, helping disadvantaged players in Africa, Central America and the Middle East to provide for families, buy houses, put children in schools and pay for the treatment of parents.

In the absence of real police control, the syndicate became completely insolent, declaring "ghost matches" that did not take place in reality, but indicated on international betting sites. Information on such games was reported to bookmakers by a purchased “observer”.

As a mockery of the cheated offices and their clients, the criminals invented the names of non-existent referees - Hedy Larsen, for example, or Blepp Johnsen (a mocking spit in the direction of FIFA President Sepp Blatter).

FIFA's new security team, led by Chris Eaton, has discovered that in many parts of the world, organizing a friendly match requires nothing more than paying stadium rent. No paperwork to sign or sanctioning procedures - nothing that would turn an official friendly match under the auspices of FIFA into a truly official match. “FIFA sanctions all matches,” says a security operative, “but many matches are played without any sanctions.” Another employee of the service decided to pay a visit to the office of the organizing company. The office was empty, there was an "Import-Export" sign on the door. Dialing the number indicated on the door, the operative heard a distant female voice, drowned out by a child's roar.

Once in Costa Rica, Wilson Perumal had a free day. It was necessary to kill time before the flight to Rio de Janeiro. Perumal locked himself in the room and began to play at stakes. It was not enough for him to manage agreements. In the end, there was no excitement in it - it was like dealing marked cards to yourself. So he bet on Chicago Bulls games or Manchester United games - on clubs and games he obviously didn't buy or anyone else. The criminal instinct led the misguided prince of the shadow empire through the labyrinths of stakes; after all, he was more than anyone able to "read the players" and feel the nuances of the game. “He had a nose,” says Perumal’s former assistant. And the eye is sharp. In 12 hours spent in front of a computer screen in a Costa Rican hotel room, Perumal made a million in bets. In his excitement, he forgot about the time, missed the flight and rushed back to the hotel; I wanted to bet again and again - and over the next 12 hours I lost all my winnings. The fucking gangster blamed his fiasco on the hotel staff, who refused to put him in the previous, “happy” room.

Perumal began to bet and lose recklessly; once lost three million in three months. The only way to beat off such money was a fraud of the employer. For example, Dan Tan sent him half a million through hawala channels to buy a match - Perumal simply took the money for himself, hoping that the necessary account would form by itself. Soon he was deep in debt; a million to one boss, half a million to another, another one and a half to a third. The Grand Schemer fell into despair and began to mow; organized, for example, the match between the fake Togo team and the Bahrain team on September 7, 2010. Bahrain's coach - former Austrian footballer Josef Hickersberger - said that the players fielded by Togo were "not able to play 90 minutes". The match received unnecessary syndicate press.

In the wake of the adventurer's exploits, the bosses called his assistants, Dani Jay Prakesh and Anthony Raja Santia, to the carpet. They complained that they no longer trusted Perumal. It was no longer possible to work with him, he completely lost his shores. Moreover, he started a Facebook page! Something had to be done. Irony of fate: the downfall of the evil betting genius began because of his own passion for the game.

** In mockery of the deceived **

** bookmakers criminals composed **

names of non-existent referees.

When on October 8, 2010, Perumal turned on the TV in another hotel, he realized that his game was over. On TV, the Venezuelan national team hosted the Bolivian national team. The match was officiated by Ibraim Shebu, a referee from Niger, a protégé of Perumal and the most reliable FIFA referee on the staff. It was he who was the referee at the Togo impostors match. It was he who appointed three crazy penalties in the match South Africa-Guatemala, which ended with a score of 5:0. It was he who recalled dozens of goals on false offsides and appointed as much extra time as was necessary to put the finishing touches on the desired score. It was he who handed out red cards to the right and left. When Anthony Raj Santia contacted him about an upcoming clash at the Polideportivo de Pueblo Nuevo stadium in the Venezuelan city of San Cristobal, the corrupt referee didn't ask any questions.

Santia and Prakesh bypassed Perumal and themselves took advantage of the network of personal connections that the Singaporean had been weaving for more than a decade, shorting out the purchased arbitrator directly with the syndicate. When the bosses equipped the lieutenants of Perumal, bypassing their boss, they, in order to certify loyalty, laid out to them all his ins and outs. At that time, Perumal was already in Finland to personally oversee the deal on behalf of Dan Tan. Perumal has been arranging agreements for Palloseura since 2003, stuffing the team with “his” players from Tanzania, Kenya and Zambia and promising them a heavenly life near the Arctic Circle. The team generated so much profit that Dan Tang eventually decided to buy it.

In dire need of money, Perumal, angry with the owner, decided to sabotage the deal. Having concluded an agreement with a front Hungarian company, the Finns sold the club for half a million dollars. Having received the money, Perumal gave the Finns only 200 thousand. The Finns called the Hungarians, those - the Singaporeans. When all concerned parties gathered in the office in Rovaniemi, it became clear who was the cause of the general misunderstanding.

In the absence of Perumal, who had lost confidence, Santia took care of organizing the biggest deals in his career. Latvia-Bolivia and Estonia-Bulgaria, both matches - in Antalya. Due to his inexperience, he could not even imagine that both matches were targeted by FIFA long before the initial whistle: Secretary General of the Latvian Football Federation Janis Mezheckis was concerned about the appointment of referees and contacted FIFA. Chris Eaton, in turn, alerted London watchdogs from Sportradar, a firm that tracks suspicious matches.

Sportradar employees recorded that the dynamics of rates was the same for both matches. The opening odds of over-under 2.5 goals caused an incredible surge of activity on international betting sites. “The attention these games received in the marketplace was completely disproportionate to their status,” said Darren Small, one of Sportradar's executives. “The purse of over-under bets on these matches reached five million euros.” The results of the meetings, as is often the case in agreements, were impudently obvious. Seven goals in two games. All - from the penalty spot. When the player missed one of the penalties, he was allowed to interrupt.

After the matches in Antalya, Santia was on the sidelines, and it became clear to the Singaporean syndicate that FIFA had its finger on the pulse of events. Dan Tan and his partners, forced, among other things, to deal with the consequences of the thwarted purchase of the Finnish club, came to the conclusion that Perumal surrendered them to FIFA. Then Dan Tan made a decision that became fatal for his business. Going against the criminal ethic, the boss ordered Santia to hand over Perumal to the police. Santia sent a six - Jonathan Tang Xin, who, having entered the Rovaniemi police station, put an end to the career of Wilson Perumal. In any case, for the time being.

Realizing the abundance of evidence against himself, Perumal, offended by the bosses, agreed to cooperate with the authorities; provided information sufficient for an Italian court to issue an arrest warrant for Dan Tan in December 2011. After serving a year in a Finnish prison, Perumal was moved to a secure apartment in Budapest, where sources say he now paints a detailed picture of the syndicate's activities in exchange for a reduced sentence.

I'm meeting with a syndicate member in Singapore. This is a colleague of Perumal. Like him - an authoritative specialist in purchased games. A man walks into a cafe, calmly orders an espresso; talkative, charming fellow, like everyone else in this business. We are talking about the World Cup and whether you can buy main match planets. “We pay the referee 15 million. Each player - 10. Total one billion for all. And they put 15 billion on the final. Here also consider. I think anything is possible if you try hard enough.”

My interlocutor sips an espresso, we change the subject. We are talking about his former accomplice Wilson Raj Perumal. “Guarded apartment? Do not make me laugh. The guard went out for coffee, Perumal went to the toilet, groin-groin - and it's done. They'll take him out, hire a sniper. I was offered 300 grand just to fly to Budapest and point my finger at him. They want me to sit on the roof with a sniper. The Russians made 350 million on this business last year. Wilson is stopping people from making money."

"Black bookmakers" and purchased matches. End of material about Wilson Raj Perumal.

Perumal had great connections in Asia, and the African team of Zimbabwe generally received a salary from him - at the same time, not the titular appeal of the national was often brought to tournaments, but the Olympic, youth team, or some club: who will understand the country, whose economy cheerfully and successfully rolls into hell?

It's time to go to Europe.

Perumal already had a bad experience on the Old Continent - in particular, he tried to bribe Chelsea goalkeeper Dmitry Kharin, but the attempt was unsuccessful. Perumal was advised to immediately leave the UK (which the BLU SB took care of), and besides, they hinted that this was not his territory at all (they were already serious guys from the Tirana drug cartel).

Thus, Perumal decided to work with the second Finnish league. The scheme was simple: 4-5 African legionnaires were brought to the club, the coach put them on every game, and they ensured the result. Naturally, club presidents also had a share: they were promised that their teams would not fly out of the league, and their card account would be replenished by a significant amount every week.

But at the end of 2010, Dan Tan's cartel began to enter the Balkans, where he began a market relationship with the Tirana drug cartel. The Albanian heroin kings, through Tan, were given access to the Singapore gambling house (300,000 euros per click), in exchange for allowing Tan and his team to work in their own habitat.

In January 2011, Tan called Perumal and said that there was some business in which Raj's share would be 60,000 euros. "What kind of matches?" Perumal asked immediately. After a long theatrical pause, Tan replied with inexpressible pride: "Napoli - Sampdoria 4-0 and Brescia - Bari 2-0."

Perumal could not believe it. It's Serie A!

It turned out that the agents of the players, who owed money to the Sapin brothers, and, consequently, stuck out to the Tirana drug cartel, turned to Tan themselves, deciding to bet 600,000 euros - thus, they repaid the debt and made a profit. The snag was that Sampdoria agreed to "lie down", but only with a score of 0:2, not 0:4. As a result, the old fox Perumal, of course, resolved everything as the cartel required. His negotiating talent was estimated at 10% of the total rate of 0.6 million euros.

Sampdoria "lays down" near Napoli to pay off the debts of the players

In Finland, Perumal worked with the Ravaniemi club, where he was pissed off by the crazy Zambians. To make money, a Singaporean businessman organized the U "23 tournament in Egypt - everything worked out quite well there. The choice of the country was also made not by chance: they love football in Egypt and show on television all the games of the Olympic or youth teams, therefore, bookmakers open a line .

Money was also made on individual "commodities". Perumal organized a friendly meeting Bahrain - Togo, and Togo was represented by the second team, completely financially dependent on the Tamil functionary. The underground football businessman hoped to raise the "total over", so the match was supposed to be served by a man-result, the famous "Ibracadabra". It seemed that the deed was done, but someone “leaked” information to Asian bookmakers that the match had been bought, and in Asia, everyone without exception began to bet on “total over”.

As a result, the bets on the line changed and it turned out that you can make a profit only by betting on the “total under”. By that time, Bahrain had already opened the scoring, but Perumal nevertheless decided to take a chance and informed the assistant head coach of the Togo national team about the change in plans. He, cursing, re-instructed the players, after which the Togo team immediately dug in near their own penalty area. “Blow off all offsides, the bet has changed, we are playing for total under. Total two and a half,” said the assistant coach to the linesmen, the “right and left hand” of Ibrahim Chabu. The star team from Niger did their dirty deed by not assigning two clear penalties against the Togo national team and finding offsides even in those game situations when the ball was localized in the central circle. Thanks to the virtuoso work of Ibracadabra, Wilson Raj Perumal raised about half a million.

Working with the national team and clubs are two different things. Both there and there have their difficulties. It is easier to organize the national team, however, the organization of the “goods” itself costs about 200 thousand euros - at the same time, you need to pray that the bookmakers open the line, otherwise all aspirations and finances are down the drain. Net exhaust can be approximately 400 thousand euros. Clubs play every week and you need to negotiate very carefully, because fans or bookmakers may suspect something is wrong if a team of a certain level suddenly starts to show results that do not correspond to this level.

If you don't negotiate with the players, you negotiate with the referees. You do not negotiate with the judges - you negotiate with the coaches. You do not agree with anyone - you are looking for another solution.

In Asian offices, a return line is played if the match is interrupted in the first half. That is, if something goes wrong, then the meeting must be interrupted in order to return the money. Back in the nineties, Perumal had an idea with a power outage (the match is interrupted and played out the next day, the cartel can revise the bet and lose nothing), which was implemented in the Derby-Wimbledon, West Ham-Crystal Palace and Wimbledon-Arsenal fights. Naturally, there was no bribery of football players here, those people who have access to an electric switch were bribed. Then they offered 100 thousand euros to an electrician for cutting off the current at a meeting between Barcelona and Fenerbahce. Why so much? Because it was a Champions League match and the electrician would have been fired immediately without severance pay.

Perumal lost a hundred thousand: the stadium was equipped with a spare generator.

As already mentioned, in Ravaniemi, things were not going very well for Perumal. He tried to dock with Tampere or Popa, but they already belonged to the Croats and Albanians. Rather, the Croats and Albanians from the Tirana drug cartel have already ordered their music there. Ravaniemi, despite all the perturbations, went to the top Finnish league, which in Asian bookmakers meant an increase in the rate to 18 thousand euros per click, and now the cartel was much more interested. But Perumal swore to deal with this team after another failed deal. Before the start of the match, he asked the players to ensure "total under", but they said that the field is very small, they feel strong in themselves and asked to bet either on them or on "total over".

“The score will be 5:2 in our favor or something like that,” they assured.

Perumal charged 100 thousand euros for the game.

Ravaniemi drew 1:1.

“People think our business is simple and easy. Went, agreed, all tip-top. In fact, these are huge nerves. Everyone and everything is thrown here - from bosses to subordinates. You can, for example, charge money to your person and tell him to bribe such and such a team for such and such a match. A person calls and says that it didn’t work out, the players didn’t fall for it. Comes, brings money. Years later, you will find out that he poured your money into his result, made a bet and hit the jackpot, and just brought you a “charge”. Do they kill us? Yes. But not like in the movies, where they shoot off the head for leaking information. Usually small "black bookmakers" kill - when they are just starting to gain credibility. The cartel can kill a small fry - just to demonstrate their power, to show who is who in this fucking life. No one will kill a large debtor. He earns interest, which he pays on time. If he does not hide, does not run away, does not leave, does not hide, then there are no questions for him at all. Yes, the person lost, but he pays his interest. They often tell me - you, they say, are a disgrace to football and all that. Do you know what I'll tell you? When I offer someone money for a contract and get a refusal, then I don’t go to this person anymore. He is a professional in his field, ok, no questions. But if you want to raise money, you work with me. And I've always been honest with everyone I've worked with. Not a single person will tell you: "Wilson Raj Perumal dumped me."

Wilson Raj Perumal was sentenced by the Finnish authorities to two years in prison. In prison, he began to cooperate with the investigation, and a year later he was transferred to Hungary, where he still lives. Perumal has uncovered a whole network of contractors dealing with agreements, but FIFA is sure that this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Wilson Raj Perumal is the organizer of many fixed matches and entire tournaments.

His book "Kelong Kings", co-written with two Italian journalists and published on April 28, 2014, became a bestseller even at the stage of biblio-post-production.

With us, many are not so honest, and we are used to it. But it's hard to realize that even football can deceive you. It's already really scary.

How to organize a fixed match? Answers the main manipulator in the history of football

Wilson Raj Perumal organized a hundred fixed matches, served three times for this and wrote a book. Now he is answering questions from Match TV about how to influence the results of games, how much you can earn from it and how to deal with it in general.

The man in the photo is Wilson Raj Perumal. You may have heard of him. Perhaps even watched the matches, the scenarios of which he came up with. In 2011, Perumal was detained by the Finnish police after trying to arrange a match-fixing in the Finnish top league. Contacts of football leaders and football players from 38 countries of the world were found in his phone. In his laptop were the phones and emails of football people from more than 50 countries (in total, FIFA includes 209 associations). The investigators became even more interested a few days after the arrest. Perumal made a deal and began to remember what connects him with each of those recorded in the phone book.

Before Perumal's stories, the FIFA security department lived an ordinary life. People came to work at 9:00, had lunch from 13:00 to 14:00, turned off their computers at 17:59 and went home. After Perumal spoke, the lights in the FIFA offices stopped going out.

People leafed through Perumal's reports and understood that football outside the first hundred of the FIFA rating should be closed. And possibly even higher. In his book “Kings of Contracts”, Perumal recalls how he went to England to explore a new market. One of his targets was Chelsea goalkeeper Dmitry Kharin. Perumal and his friend acted simply. They waited for Kharin at the door of the base, pretended to be fans, took pictures and asked if the goalkeeper could give them a lift to the city. On the way, Perumal took out $60,000 in cash and suggested to Kharin that Chelsea lose the next match. Kharin refused.

He said that he had a long-term contract with Chelsea, says Perumal in an interview with Match TV. - He said that he would not want to ruin his career because of this money.

- You got into a car with a stranger and offered a bribe. How is this possible?

Of course, we understood that there was a risk that he would immediately report us to the police. As soon as he dropped us off his Mini, we rushed to the first taxi that came across to leave as soon as possible.

In that conversation with Perumal, Kharin admitted that he was offered to play fixed matches at the 1994 World Cup. And then he refused too. Perumala the words of the Chelsea goalkeeper did not surprise then and do not surprise now.

I think that Kharin could well have been offered to take matches at the World Championships. He really told us this. I have no reason to doubt. I think that at that time, contract players played at tournaments of this level.

- Why, then? What has changed in twenty years?

At that time, there were no systems like BetRadar and FederBet, with the help of which you can see in real time how much money is being put on which events, and track suspicious bets. Then there were fewer people who follow bets on not the most top matches. Now there are experts evaluating rate fluctuations. More controlling companies.

- That is, there are fewer fixed matches in the world?

I will answer this way: many have become afraid to organize them.

- Three things to do to permanently solve the problem of match-fixing in football.

Close legal betting shops operating online. Close illegal offices operating online. These two steps will reduce the number of match-fixing to a minimum.

Wilson Raj Perumal dreamed of becoming a military man, but as a child he ruined his biography when he got into the police. He started gambling and got very upset when he lost. In order not to lose again, he decided to organize the desired outcomes of matches. Then he entered the largest syndicate, which was led by Dan Tan. With the development of the Internet, he has even more opportunities. It was possible to bet not only on the matches of the Singapore Championship, but also to manipulate world football.

For the Beijing Olympics, money could be loaded online not only for match results, but also for secondary indicators. It has become easier. For example, Perumal described the case of how he paid money to the Nigerians so that they would be the first to start the match of the semi-final tournament of the Olympics with Argentina from the center of the field. And he loaded a crazy amount into the bookmaker's office. One of the scariest moments of his career came when the referee tossed a coin before the match and pointed at Riquelme. One of the happiest moments of his career happened when Riquelme turned to the words of the Nigerian captain, listened to him, and then raised his hands up and said: "No problem, you start."

- That is, most of the contract games are played to earn money on bets?

Not necessary. The presidents of the top leagues of the clubs have good relations with each other, they can be good friends. Therefore, when one club needs points more than another, they can negotiate among themselves. And there are no financial reasons.

Let's pretend I'm the President football club. Another president suggested that my team should lose this time. I agreed. What are my next steps, how do I negotiate with the team?

I know from my own experience that in order to be 100% sure of a positive result, you need to agree with four players. Among them should be two central defenders. It has always been more convenient and easier for me to work with central defenders, and not with goalkeepers. Well, it is also very important that the coach knows about your intentions.

- With whom is it easier to negotiate: with the players or the referees?

This question cannot be answered unequivocally, it all depends on the specific situation, and not on whether you are trying to negotiate with the referee or with the player. Much rests on the financial situation of a person.

In his book, Perumal wrote that he tried not to get into the Eastern European market and worked more in Africa. But he had many partners, and according to his information, one of the main hotbeds of match-fixing in the world was the lower leagues of Belarus. But now everything is different there.

I think the Belarusian league has become much cleaner now. I follow the bets on these matches. They are very stable. Therefore, I can conclude that everything is better there than before.

- How much money can you earn on holding a fixed match in conditional Belarus?

It is impossible to earn big money in such tournaments. Especially now, when bookmakers control everything. I think you can earn something like 100 thousand dollars for a match there.

- Have you ever thought of holding a fixed match in Russia?

No never. The reason is simple: I just don't speak your language. I was not connected with this market, so I don't know how many match-fixing matches you played.

You wrote that you tried not to go into the Eastern European market, because it is very dangerous there. What did you mean?

I meant violence. Eastern Europeans are more dangerous in this regard. Asians are much quieter.

Perumal has never counted how many fixed matches he has had in his career, but he thinks that it is about a hundred games. There is even a book on his website. special section with match highlights organized by Perumal. Sometimes he gave instructions to coaches right from the bench. In the 90s, there were few places where they controlled who was next to the team in the technical area.