The Southeast Asian Games were rocked by a match-fixing scandal yesterday when East Timor’s under-23 team manager was suspended from soccer over alleged bribery and corruption.
Orlando Marques Henriques Mendes was provisionally barred from soccer activities for 30 days after he was detained and charged by the Singaporean anti-corruption bureau, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) said.
It was an unfortunate beginning for the regional multi-sports event in Singapore, a city seen as a center for international match-fixing networks.
The AFC has opened disciplinary proceedings against Mendes for alleged violations of its rules on bribery and match integrity, a statement said.
Mendes’ suspension can be extended once for a further period of 20 days, the AFC added.
On Friday last week, the Singaporean Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau said it had been “proactively monitoring football match-fixing activities” and acted on information to arrest “a Singaporean alleged match-fixer and several co-conspirators of different nationalities.”
East Timor lost their opening game on Saturday 1-0 to Malaysia, who played most of the game with 10 men after the dismissal of Nazmi Faiz Mansor.
Soccer is among a handful of events getting under way before the opening ceremony at the National Stadium on Friday.
Singapore has been hit by previous fixing scandals, including in April 2013, when a local businessman provided prostitutes for visiting referees to influence an AFC Cup game.
Alleged global match-fixing mastermind Tan Seet Eng, or Dan Tan, is being held under a law that allows for indefinite detention following a crackdown in September that year.
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