An alleged member of an Asian crime gang had reportedly claimed that he had an 'entire African football team' under his control and added that the qualifying games for the 2014 FIFA World Cup may have been fixed by crooked 'betting syndicates'.
The man, who was one of the seven suspects, including three footballers arrested after he was secretly taped by a reputed British newspaper bragging about manipulating matches, has made the claims just a week before the draw for the tournament takes place.
According to the Mirror, the alleged fixer told an investigator, who was disguised, that he 'did' the World Cup qualifiers for Australia, Scotland, Ireland, Belgium, France, Sweden, Finland and a few others, adding that he 'bought' the matches.
In the conversation, which was recorded at a hotel in Manchester by an investigator with reported links to FIFA, the alleged fixer believes that he was trying to influence a match and also claimed to have set up international friendly matches.
The alleged fixer, who is understood to represent the Asian gambling gang involved in the multi-billion pound industry, also claimed that dishonest players were ordered by crime gang bosses to get an early yellow card during games to prove they were in on the scam.