The changing landscape of match-fixing in football

After just eight matches, Moni realised that the club's purpose was to stay merely afloat in the BCL while making money from colluding with other forces through various forms of match-fixing.

When former national team striker Saifur Rahman Moni resigned from the job of a Bangladesh Championship League (BCL) outfit two weeks ago, it was probably the first time in the country that a professional football coach had taken such a step in protest of what he believes was match-fixing by its officials and players.

The rookie coach, who had put his heart to the job of Azampur Club, didn't take long to realise that his ambition of becoming a coach of a Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) club one day, for which he had already enrolled into an AFC A licence course, was not the ambition of the club.

After just eight matches, Moni realised that the club's purpose was to stay merely afloat in the BCL while making money from colluding with other forces through various forms of match-fixing.

It's not that Moni hadn't seen match-fixing in Bangladesh football before; In fact when he hung up his boots in 2008, things weren't much better. But with the professionalism that has been forced into the top two tiers over the past decade or so and the regulations put in place, there was certainly the expectation that things would be much cleaner now.

Unfortunately that didn't turn out to be the case. Match-fixing is as much prevalent today, if not more, as it was in yesteryears; the only differences are in the medium and modus operandi.

In old times, match-fixing used to be pretty straight-forward: two clubs playing a specific match would decide on the outcome of the match beforehand and the club hierarchy would instruct their players to act in a specific manner.  It was usually done to give a club an advantage in their title race or relegation battle and the reward would be in cash or kind.

Today the whole nature of the fixing game has changed, owing to the availability of live telecasts on television and live updates on football apps. Match-fixing has evolved into spot-fixing, online betting and other forms in a way that a single goal or a specific stat, which may or may not not affect the final outcome of the game, can be subject to fixing worth lakhs of taka or dollars. There will obviously be agents on the pitch and perhaps in the dugout, but the masterminds could very well be operating from the confines of their homes in a far-off place, sometimes beyond borders. 

The first case of spot-fixing and online betting involving a club in Bangladesh football was exposed last year in the BPL. It was a unique case for Bangladesh, with people from within the country and beyond joining hands and importing ideas, and using a delinquent club for making illegal money.

But once the red flag was raised by Asian football body, there was no saving Arambagh KS – the club found guilty – and a number of their players and officials. An exemplary punishment was meted out, which has seemingly forced the dark forces away from the BPL.

But those forces and the ideas are still very much active in our football, namely in BCL and lower leagues where regulation is lax and monitoring is minimal.

The other factor that is contributing to the proliferation of match-fixing here is the lack of scrutiny these clubs receive before getting approval to play in the leagues.

On paper, a professional club needs to fulfil a few criteria, including having a solid financial base as well as owning proper training facilities, certified coaching staff and residential facilities for the players. However, some of the clubs currently playing in the BCL fare very poorly in regards to these criteria, especially in regards to financial condition. The purpose of these clubs is to work as vehicles for helping out other clubs or cater to the demands of spot fixers and online bettors.

According to media reports, there are at least five clubs out of the 12 operating in the BCL that are involved in some way or another with such suspicious activities.

Moni, in an interview with The Daily Star, termed this situation in the BCL as an epidemic. Now without a job, the aspiring coach may well have to wait for some time before he gets another job, but his personal sacrifice has already had a positive impact in the form of questions being asked and investigations demanded.

If the reaction from the authorities lead to something similar to the Arambagh episode, Moni's resignation would be worth it and he could certainly dream of soon returning to a dugout not stained by black money.