According to local sources, one former national player and the team captain and vice-captain of Nepal’s national football team among others have been arrested and charged with match-fixing in global and national games.
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Police arrested national team captain Sagar Thapa, footballers Sandip Rai and Ritesh Thapa, and two former players Bikash Singh Chhetri and Anjan KC yesterday for alleged involvement in match fixing spanning eight years.
Police had launched investigation after finding suspicious transactions of money in their bank accounts and a dramatic change in their lifestyle, the police said. Police are also searching three other players, a football official and a bank staff in connection with the case.
Skipper Sagar Thapa was detained in Kathmandu on Wednesday as part of a coordinated series of arrests in the capital which also saw four current or former team-mates on the national side taken into custody. These players go through their agents and throw away matches and manipulate results with certain goal margins as per their agreements with the bookies, the senior police officer said divulging their modus operandi. KC started fixing matches as a player and began extending his networks after he was appointed a coach, according to police. “As many as six matches were found to have been fixed this way”.
Khanal said the alleged match fixing dates from 2009 and included matches played against Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia and the Philippines.
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Last yr, officers from ANFA requested Federation Internationale de Football Association to research the Nepali governing physique.
