Unarguably, one of the remotest issues we talk about in Nigeria football is match-fixing. Even though it’s been alleged that it plays out in our league matches, it remained a hypothesis which is yet to be proven true.
While the bulk of problems bedevilling the round leather game in Nigeria has always been put on the doorsteps of mismanagement, maladministration and corruption on the part of administrators, we have heard so little about match-fixing – maybe once in a blue moon.
Match fixing is a global phenomenon and the need for stringent rules to always be handy in the slightest of its occurrence will mean we’re saving the ‘Goat’ from the ‘Lion’.
More often than not, it’s seldom detected and inquiry into any of its instances is always susceptible to the ever-defiant nature of the enablers or perhaps the culprit(s).
Of course, there are provisions in the framework of the leagues that spell out measures at addressing any occurrence related to match-fixing.
Among many other ‘actors’, match-fixing tends to find its roots in Coaches, Players, match officials, Club Administrators and by extension betting companies.
The voice from Ghana
It was like a thin voice from the wilderness when the former Enyimba FC and Ghanaian goalkeeper, Fatawu Dauda revealed the reason why he left Nigeria football.
He said on Angel TV: “There’s one particular reason why I finally decided to leave Enyimba FC. It’s all because of betting. Betting can completely destroy football. You know Nigeria is a big country. Sometimes, we can be on the road for two days travelling for an away game.
“We will go and lose a game but when we come on the bus, you’ll see some players happy. You’ll see some players pressing their phones, and checking score lines of other league games. I later got to find out from one of our guys that some of the players in the team were betting on our matches.
“They were fixing the games. It was shocking. It was the reason I decided to leave because I can’t be part of this and it was a waste of time playing in games when some people have already planned the outcome.”
Could Fatawu be lying? Why has no one in Enyimba come out to deny his claim since the month of May? And did he just say that to denigrate the Nigeria football league?
I concluded that he couldn’t have just made the claims. At least, Fatawu is currently not playing in the Nigeria league and he is also reportedly currently without a club. It is however safe to say that his revelation was that of someone who believes he has nothing at stake as far as the subject is concerned.
It’s also crystal clear that players are often involved in the deal especially when they have many accomplices – as Fatawu had posited.
Does match-fixing take a mutual approach?
There have been instances where clubs preemptively approach a match with the clear intention to lose it. This decision is most time a by-product of an agreement between two clubs on the heels of the request of one of them to secure a ‘lifeline’ win.
It was recently reported in a third-tier league (NLO) league match that a team had allowed their opponents to score many goals to scale through to the next round of the league at Ado-Ekiti centre of NLO Division Two Play-offs.
The aftermath of the game saw another team, who also had the opportunity to move to the next round petitioning the result of the match. Judgement was eventually served and the team that challenged the results had her calls tended to with a favourable decision from the league board of NLO.
It was further revealed that the club which allowed their opponents to score many goals to scale through had done so in serving the interest of being in the same State with the team as against the close contender which had come from another State – what a belief system.
The pains of Club owners in folds
In a recent chat with Journalists after Akwa United NPFL game against Kwara United in Ilorin, the Chairman of Akwa United, Elder Paul Bassey highlighted match-fixing as one of the challenges facing the league.
In Bassey’s words “pools betting coming into the league is another thing we club owners are trying to challenge- where players would intentionally lose matches because of one or two million naira they get instead of 50,000 we pay for bonus and that’s one of the systemic problems we are talking about because a country”
The Chairman further noted that the offer made by some of the ‘influencers’ are always irresistible to players, especially in the face of the uncertain nature of the league and the economic challenges facing the Country.
“So, those who have money call your Goalkeeper and Defenders and offer them one or two million Naira that’s difficult to resist,” the Club Administrator had said.
Elder Bassey was once a Journalist who had seen the Nigeria league as a reporter and is now seeing it again as an administrator. No doubt, his remarks go a long way in establishing the effects of match-fixing in the league despite the fact that it is also difficult to catch in the open wind.
Football, a game of mistake?
Coach Aliyu Zubair of Gombe United believes football is a game of mistakes and it would be unjust to tag a player in an event that he caused a mistake that handed an opponent a goal as a ‘sell out’.
“I think it’s something that’s difficult for anybody to just detect. Because football is a game of mistake-anybody can make a mistake. I don’t think that any player that makes mistake should be tagged a ‘sell out’ or should be that suspected is into betting. I, as a Coach, don’t believe in it but it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist”.
Can a Referee be an influencer?
Referees in Nigeria league has always been in the news for their roles in the making and growing of Nigeria football. Than anybody else, the dispositions of the ‘arbiters’ have always been the crux of post-match comments of any game based on the interest of those who might have made the remarks.
They are often ‘alleged’ of taking money from club Administrators to bear undue favour and influence on a game whether home or away.
Meanwhile, the just concluded NPFL season saw improved indices on the away win as against the age-long narrative of the home must-win syndrome.
“Teams are up and doing now. We have seen the likes of Rivers United, Plateau United going away to pick some points. I don’t think it’s possible for any Referee to dictate the outcome of a match by betting through that match” said an NPFL Referee who craved anonymity.
He believes that it will be suicidal for any Referee to influence the result of the game, especially in the face of a growing Technology approach to football and the uncertain safety of Referees in most match centres.
Are there rules?
Yes! The league framework made a couple of provisions for the effects of match-fixing. It frowned at it and set some of the most stringent punishments one would ever think of.
Amid the seemingly impossible way of establishing match-fixing case(s) in the league and its rather subtle effects, the league board must step up its scope of undermining match-fixing.
In essence, it’s important for the league boards across all levels to deepen the conversation around and against match-fixing in any form.
“Nigeria league should be pulled out of the betting pool. They should involve EFCC that no Nigerian team should be used for Betting maybe they can use the overseas teams that have come of age and not Nigeria,” said Coach Zubair.
Match fixing and Nigeria Football is truly a situation of a Lion and a Goat: Imagine the relationship between a Lion and a Goat? Your guess is as good as mine.