Kelong Kings: Confessions of the world's most prolific match-fixer (22 page)

"Look", I
told Jumbojumbo when we met on the next day, "it's not necessary
for you to bring the full national team. You can bring some younger
players who will listen to you, that's the most important thing. You
can appoint a coach that will do as he's told and he'll hand-pick the
players that will listen to him, end of story. You must play exactly
how we ask you to. We may ask you to win 3-0, or we may ask you to
lose 3-0; it depends. Don't you worry, we will not ask your boys to
lose by a ridiculous scoreline".

The Malaysian FA had
agreed to provide accommodation for the teams so we just needed to
pay for the tickets to fly them in. I began preparing the paperwork
for the delegation's passports as soon as I was back in Sandton City,
Johannesburg. I went to a local travel agent who made all the
necessary arrangements. As agreed, we marked up the price of the
airline tickets by 20 thousand and divided the extra among Thana, Yap
and myself.

Zimbabwe was on
board, now I needed the second team: Lesotho. I didn't need to
physically travel there because somebody from the Zimbabwe FA had
provided me with the telephone number of the Lesotho FA. I gave them
a call.

"I have an
interesting offer for you", I said. "We would like to
invite your national team to the Merdeka Cup in Malaysia. It's an
exhibition tournament and there's some money to be made".

I didn't, of course,
go in-depth to explain the details regarding match-fixing; I just
scratched the surface.

The Lesotho FA was
also agreeable. The Malaysia FA sent them the invitation and they
reciprocated so we got the ball turning. Lesotho also submitted their
passport details and I prepared the paperwork for their trip to
Malaysia.

With a week to go
before the Merdeka Cup, we grouped the two delegations in South
Africa. The Zimbabwe and Lesotho teams met up in Johannesburg and
were then flown to Singapore. Waiting for them, as they climbed out
of their airplane, were two of Thana's runners and myself. We didn't
want the teams to go to Kuala Lumpur straight away because we planned
to put the time left before the start of the Merdeka Cup to good use.
We loaded the two delegations on a coach and sent them over to Johor
Bahru, Malaysia, where we housed them for a week in the Grand
Bluewave
Hotel.
During the course of the week we arranged
two friendly matches against local clubs; just a side dish. Thana's
guys were all over the players buying them mobile phones, football
boots, jerseys, shorts and other gifts. The players were like
children walking into a candy store; Thana really put them on a
shopping spree.

"Take what you
want", he kept repeating with a smile, "but just give us
the result".

The senior officials
from the two delegations, with Jumbojumbo in the forefront, spent a
week's holiday abusing booze, women and massages. I had brought the
teams over, the boys were happy, everybody was happy; we had given
them what they wanted. We had gratified them physically and they were
ready to deliver.

"Listen",
I told the Zimbabwean players before their first match in the cup,
"this game has got no value: it's not a World Cup qualifier;
it's not an Olympic qualifier; nobody is going to remember you for
winning this match or this tournament. Win or lose, you are not going
to go anywhere. But if you do as I say there are 40 thousand US
dollars for you players to share".

40 thousand dollars
went to the players. I knew these African fuckers, senior officials
like Jumbojumbo; they were all crooks. You gave them 40 thousand
dollars for the players and the money would just disappear. I took
Jumbojumbo to the side and spoke to him.

"It's company
policy that the money be distributed in my presence", I
explained. "If it isn't, I lose my job; and I cannot afford to
lose my job. The money is inside these envelopes, the head of the
delegation will be given the envelopes one by one and he will pass
them on to the players in front of me".

"This is your
company policy", complained Jumbojumbo. "But we have our
own policy. The players get only 20 percent, the officials get 80
percent".

Jumbojumbo policy.

"No,
Jumbojumbo", I said. "That cannot be done. There is no way
that you can apply your policy to my deal".

Finally, each player
received his cut and the heads of delegation had no way to embezzle
the money before it reached the footballers. I gathered the players,
envelopes in hand, around me.

"In return for
this money", I said, "you guys give me what I want on the
pitch".

After that, Thana's
boss and his guys took over and my role was minimized because they
wanted to have direct control over the team. Thana told me that I
would receive my cut at the end of the tournament.

The first match was
Singapore vs Zimbabwe. We told the Zimbabweans to lose the match by
2-nil. I don't know why the final score ended up being 4-2. I had
some money of my own and was using it to place bets on the matches in
Singapore. Singapore's victory was paying four dollars for every one
dollar wagered. I placed between 20 to 30 thousand dollars on the
match and walked away with about 100 thousand dollars in my pocket.
Zimbabwe played two more matches and qualified for the semi-final,
which they lost to Myanmar 3-1. I was traveling with the teams but I
did not dictate the results anymore: Thana and Yap were now running
the show.

There was, however,
a minor fuck up with the Lesotho team. When they had arrived in
Malaysia they were still unaware of our scheme so we had to sit down
with them and explain everything to the coach, players and delegation
members.

"This money is
yours if you achieve the result that we want", I told them as I
left a 50 thousand dollar deposit with them.

In the first match
they only managed to lose 1-0 to Myanmar. Thana's boss won some money
but there were some rough edges that needed sharpening so we put all
the players in a room again and spoke to them thoroughly. Then we
spoke to the coach, just to make sure that there would be no more
mistakes in the coming matches.

The following match
was Lesotho vs Laos in Kuala Lumpur. The Laos team, however, happened
to be controlled by a Chinese-Malaysian bookie called Botak. I don't
know why they called him that; 'botak' is a Malaysian term meaning
'bald head' but his hair was longer and finer than a woman's. Botak
looked nothing like a Chinese as he was very tall and well-built. He
had total control over the entire Laos team so Thana's boss sent
Thana and Yap to speak to him before kick off.

"Can we do
something together?" they asked.

"No",
Botak replied as he brushed his hair back with his hand, "you do
your thing, we'll do our thing. Let's see who is the King of Kelong".

In Malaysian,
'kelong' is a wooden offshore fishing platform built over water. You
just throw your line and catch the fish. I don't know how the term
came to be associated with match-fixing.

I was watching the
match from the stands. First half, 3-1 in favor of Lesotho. Now
forget all about the first half, it is redundant. Only the second
half counts because the two bosses, Thana's boss and Botak, were
waiting to see who would make the first move before they placed their
bets. Botak spoke to the Laos team inside their changing room.

"In the second
half", he commanded, "I want a total of three goals. We can
score, we can concede".

Thana, Yap and I
were in Lesotho's changing room when Thana's boss called.

"Tell the boys
not to score and not to concede anymore", he instructed.

On that day, Pal was
at his mother's funeral when he received a call from Botak. The
latter had worked for Pal during the Malaysia Cup days and the two
were still in touch.

"Pal",
said Botak, "Lesotho vs Laos. Go and play this game. Take Over,
there will be three goals in the second half".

Through the
grapevine, Pal had come to know that I had taken the Lesotho team to
Malaysia.

"A competition
between Wilson and Botak?" said Pal to a common friend who was
attending the funeral. "Let's see who wins. This is a clash of
the titans, let's see who is the Kelong King".

Pal thought that the
contest was between Botak and myself because he didn't know about
Thana's boss; I don't know who he placed his money on.

As the second half
of the match began, the Laos back-line disappeared from the pitch.
Nine players advanced to the front-line in hopes of scoring leaving
just one man, at times nobody, in defense. And what did the Lesotho
boys do? Since there were no Laos defenders between them and the Laos
goal, they shot from 40 meters away. You should really get a
recording of this match from the Malaysia FA, it's worth watching;
you'll never come across a football game like this in your entire
life. Lesotho was awarded a corner kick. The player brought the ball
to the corner and just stood next to the flag with his hands on his
hips. When the Laos players came forward hoping to score, the Lesotho
players did their level best to stop them; their defense was packed.
As the game progressed, Laos was getting more and more desperate to
score or be scored against. The Laotian players were so angry that
they began kicking our boys.

"Either you
score or you concede", they yelled. "You don't want to
score and you don't want to concede. What the fuck".

It was a comedy. I
was unaware of the contest between Thana's boss and Botak until after
the match, when Thana informed me, so I watched the two teams play
and marveled about what the fuck could be happening. The fans all
thought that Lesotho didn't want to embarrass Laos, since they were
already winning 3-1. When the time ran out and the final whistle was
blown, the score hadn't changed: 3-1. Second half, zero goals scored;
we won our bet and Botak was defeated.

In their last match,
Lesotho lost 4-nil to Malaysia, which went on to win the final.
Thana's boss was very happy but couldn't express his gratitude
directly to me as my cut was always channeled through Thana and Yap,
who acted as a filter between him and me. This is a very dirty
business, you know, people will undercut you if you let them get too
close to your private dealings, so Thana and Yap were guarding their
boss jealously from the competition and never introduced him to me.
In the Merdeka Cup, everyone made very good money and the boss was
good to all his boys. He wasn't as generous with me: Thana paid me
100 thousand Malaysian Ringgit, about 40 thousand Singapore dollars;
a meager sum for such a fine and difficult job.

"Fuck. You
promised me 5 percent of the profits", I complained.

What can I say? The
Jumbojumbo policy had effected me as well.

The 40 thousand
dollars that Yap had brought to South Africa were gone. The cut we
had made by marking up the price of the tickets had been divided by
three and I had spent another ten thousand dollars to corrupt
Jumbojumbo; there was nothing left. I gathered that if I wanted to
make enough money from my fixes, I would have had to build up my own
betting network.

Since leaving prison
in 2006 I had realized that the world around me had drastically
changed; everything was happening over the internet.

"Wilson",
teased my friends, "we don't bet over the telephone anymore. We
click directly on the website".

"Direct on-line
betting", I thought, as I got acquainted to the gambling
website, "this is so much better".

During the old days
we would bet over the telephone prior to the match. There were
computers and dedicated websites already but the agents would handle
them for you. You would call the agent over the telephone.

"Roma vs
Lazio", he would say. "Roma half-ball, win-9".

If I wanted to take
Roma, I would offer him a better deal.

"I win you
8.5".

"OK".

Then the agent would
submit my bet on his website and record: Wilson, 5000, Roma. There
were no live bets and you could only bet on the full 90-minute
end-result. No Over-Under, only handicap. And we had a standard: the
lowest an agent would pay you for a win was eight. For every ten
dollars that you wagered, you would win eight dollars; that was the
lowest they would go. Nowadays, the computer will bring your win down
as low as four dollars for every ten dollars wagered; you take your
four dollars and go. Sometimes people don't find it worth the gamble
for four dollars. If you lose, you lose ten, if you win, you win
four.

By 2007, master
agents were providing punters with direct access and credit on
gambling websites. Your agent earned a percentage on your bets and
paid a percentage to his superior. He, in turn, would hand a share to
the betting company, to HQ. There was a hierarchy - senior master
agent, master agent, agent - and everyone took a percentage from each
bet. The only problem was that the system made the odds fluctuate a
bit too much. When you first clicked on the website, the odds would
be 9.5, then, after the second click, they would shrink to 9.2.
That's a difference of three percent. If you placed 100 thousand
dollars on a game, that difference would amount to 3 thousand
dollars: the agents' commissions. The betting companies also
manipulated the odds to maximize their profits. Sometimes this made
me very agitated because the odds would spread so far apart that the
mother-fucking company was making money simply by playing around with
the numbers. These fluctuations angered me and made me want to fix
matches in order to beat the fuckers.