What is it about this man?   Why will the authorities never mention his name?  For nine months now, I have been standing on public stages, giving interviews and talking opening about how the international arrest warrants against Dan Tan must be served.  Tan must stand trial in an open court and give his side of the story.

Yet no official authority – not Interpol, not ICSS, not FIFA, not the Singaporean government, not the Council of Europe, called out for his arrest.    Why not?

Heck! Some of these people would not even mention his name in public. They would start doing that bizarre, twisty dance that bureaucrats of all kinds do when they are trying to skirt controversy.

Others in these ‘guardians of the credibility of sports’,  if absolutely pressed, would try to downplay the significance of having two international arrest warrants against someone.  Or try to insinuate that the Italian police had not done a good job in their investigation against Tan’s alleged gang of fixers or the Hungarian police had not done a good job or that the German police had not done a good job or …. (etc, etc).

Now we are facing a barrage of press releases where again these officials are twisting about not mentioning his name.

It is all like something out of the great Harry Potter novels.  Where the bureaucrats will not mention the name of Voldemort – thereby giving him far more power than he deserves.  BTW – Tan is certainly not a Capo or a gang leader, rather he is alleged to have lots of connections with the Asian business and political establishment leaders, which is a possible reason for the protection he has received so far.

Anyway – to repeat –

The arrest of Dan Tan is massive. It is huge. It is incredibly important.

Another thing that worries me is that my sources, who are close to the investigation, tell me that they are considering charging Tan under the 1950s anti-terrorism laws, which means that he might not stand trial in public.  Which means that the rest of you will not get to hear what I, and readers of The Fix know. These guys have been fixing massive amounts of games for years. 

I have been getting the statement/question – the arrest of Dan Tan won’t make a difference, because someone else will just take his place – from a lot of journalists today.

Oh please!  This is Interpol/FIFA spin and it truly is embarrassing how many of my media colleagues are falling for it.

Imagine any other crime – drug dealing, rape, murder – the authorities in half-a-dozen different countries accumulate hundreds of pages of evidence against one person.

Then people say, ‘oh no point in arresting that person, because other people will deal drugs, rape or murder.’

To repeat the arrest of Dan Tan is hugely important.

Here are some real questions for my media colleagues to start asking Interpol/FIFA and the Singaporean Government?

1)    Why did it take so long?

2)    The original arrest warrants were delivered to Singapore almost one year ago.  Nothing was done. Why not?

3)    Does this amount of warning to a suspect give them time to destroy potential evidence?  

4)    Tan, has according to my sources, been detained under an anti-terrorism law.  If so, does this mean that he will not have a chance to testify in an independent court?   Thereby not giving the public a chance to hear all that he can tell?  Thereby not giving him a fair trial?

5)    Ummm… why did it take so long?  No, really, we still have not heard a credible reason why law authorities took almost one year to arrest a suspect when they had hundreds of pages of evidence presented to them.  What have they been waiting for?