When and how it all happened

PETALING JAYA: It was a text message that raised the eyebrows of many.

The message contained details of the outcome of a President’s Cup match which had yet to be played — from the jersey numbers of the players who were on the take to the final score of the match.

The Malay Mail’s front page story “SMS to lose” on Nov 17, 2010, revealed a T-Team official received a message from a man who identified himself as “Wilson”. The official received the SMS on the night of July 14, 2010.

The sender, in broken Malay, claimed several T-Team players were going to throw away their quarterfinal match against Kuala Lumpur scheduled the next day, “losing by four goals” to the city team.

T-Team edged KL 3-2 in the first-leg quarterfinal clash on June 23 but lost 4-2 in the return leg on July 15.

The sender also claimed the players fixed an earlier match against Negri Sembilan, and that one of the team’s coaches received a call during the game while two players did not board the bus after the match.

“Wilson” revealed the jersey numbers of the players who had apperently gone to collect money from a bookie upon the coach’s instruction.

T-Team secretary Ali Embong said there is usually a third party — either a coach or a team official — involved in match-fixing.

“The players are young and they will be coaxed by the coaches or officials to throw away matches,” said Ali.

“We have learnt that the players do not deal with the bookies directly but are often introduced by someone they know,” he added.

Former T-Team goalkeeper coach Sufian Ngah and Singaporean Rajendran were charged on June 15, 2011 with bribing players from T-Team to fix their matches against Selangor, Negri Sembilan and Pahang.