A Singaporean businessman who allegedly induced three Lebanese referees to fix a soccer match by offering them free sex rejected corruption charges yesterday and sought bail.
Eric Ding Si Yang, 31, has been held in Changi Prison since he was charged with three counts of corruption on Saturday.
The three Lebanese, arrested earlier, are also being held in the same jail on similar charges pending their bail hearing.
The four are the first to be arrested since Singapore came under pressure to crack down on match-fixing, but they have not been linked so far to syndicates in the city-state allegedly rigging soccer matches worldwide.
“We are going to trial, your honor,” Ding’s lawyer Thong Chee Kun told District Judge Kamala Ponnampalam yesterday when asked for his client’s plea.
State prosecutors opposed bail, but the judge scheduled a bail hearing later yesterday for Ding, who was handcuffed and dressed in white prison attire when he was brought to the court.
Ding is accused of offering the sexual services of three women to the referees in exchange for fixing an AFC Cup match between Singapore-based Tampines Rovers and India’s East Bengal on Wednesday last week.
Investigators said referee Ali Sabbagh and his fellow Lebanese assistants Ali Eid and Abdallah Taleb accepted the favor, but were abruptly pulled out before the match started. They are each facing one count of corruption.
If convicted, they face a maximum prison term of five years or a fine of up to S$100,000 (US$81,000), or both, for each count.
Singapore’s Sunday Times said Ding was a soccer tipster in its sister tabloid the New Paper from 2006 to last year. He spends most of his time in Bangkok, but has stakes in a restaurant and nightclub in Singapore, and is known to have a passion for fast luxury cars, it added.
Singapore has a long record of match-fixing scandals. Syndicates from the wealthy state have been blamed by Europol for orchestrating an international network responsible for rigging hundreds of matches worldwide.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but