The Doha Summit on Sports Security is going on now. Do not believe a syllable of anything that emerges from that meeting. Trust very few of the people who are speaking there. What you are witnessing is an extraordinary and costly charade. There is a superb line in the film by John Sayles Eight Men Out about the fixing at the World Series of Baseball in 1919 that explains, in general, what is going on in Doha. In the...
Right. Lets take a short break from the Dan-Tan-not-being-arrested-saga to get a good laugh at the latest travesty floating about in the sports corruption industry. A Hollywood producer is mooting doing a film about Chris Eaton and his sterling role in cleaning up soccer. Ha, ha, ha! Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dearie-me. I thought it could not get any better than the oxymoron of a Qatari-anti-corruption agency. This is a wonderful joke but as a credible project,...
Thanks to my contacts in Singapore’s law enforcement community (CPIB and the Police), I can bring you the following exclusive transcript of last weekend’s interrogation of Dan Tan: Scene: A cell inside Singapore police headquarters. Long table. Two policemen in crisp, white shirts on one side of the table. Across from them sits the charming (and Dan Tan is many things if not charming) and intelligent Dan Tan. The atmosphere is tense. Policeman 1:...
So Dan Tan is now helping authorities with the investigation. A press release from the Singaporean Police announced a few hours ago, “Dan Tan Seet Eng, a Singaporean who has been named in reports so far, is currently assisting Singapore authorities in their investigations.” Fair play. This is a good start. Months late. But fair enough someone in Singapore, after immense international pressure, has stepped up to the mark and started a process that should have been done a long time ago. Here...
In life, there are certain phrases that mean the exact opposite to their stated meaning. For example, the term “world-class” usually means that something is parochial, petty and provincial. You do not see signs in Paris or Rome advertising “world-class” projects, but you do in just about every small-town across the globe. “Centre of excellence” (mediocre and deeply unoriginal) is another term, but the best is when someone looks you in the eye and says, “I am...
There is an international match fixer living in Singapore who has, according to numerous different European police agencies helped fix hundreds of football matches around the world. Interpol has issued an international arrest warrant for him. The Singaporean government has responded by giving them, FIFA, European police investigators and the international sporting community the finger. They have given the finger in true-Singaporean fashion – lots of flabby excuses and illogical media statements – but basically they have told Interpol/FIFA where it...
To start – I broke the story. I have been stating publicly since September 2008 that there is a group of Asian based match-fixers who travel the world arranging football matches with local criminals. For regular readers of this blog or my book The Fix, this is obvious. But in a week filled with vindication and support after the Europol press conference, there is a strain in the media of a very small number of journalists who...
Anyone who tells you that match-fixing is complicated to solve is either ignorant or lying. Following the Europol press conference and the media hype around it – let us analyse the current fixing situation in international football: It is very, very simple. Let us take out ‘football’ for the moment and imagine that we are speaking about bank robberies. There is a gang that is going around the world and robbing banks. They have stolen money from at least 680 banks...
Stay Tuned – I will be releasing fresh revelations later this week. However, for now, here is a quick fact sheet for people interested in the story developing around the Europol press conference on Monday of this week. At the conference, police investigators announced that they had over 400-suspects and over 680 suspicious matches. Most journalists have played the story straight and simply announced these findings, however, there has been a strain in the media that is trying frantically to downplay...
Dear Friends and Colleagues, Here is a brief outline on the activities of Dan Tan. The unmentioned man at the centre of yesterday’s Europol press conference. You are welcome to use the material, but please do cite me and my newspaper the Ottawa Citizen. All good wishes, Declan Dan Tan has a very comfortable life. He lives in a modern condominium in a rich neighbourhood of Singapore. He drives late-model luxury cars and, reportedly, has a personal net worth of more...
