Kelong Kings: Confessions of the world's most prolific match-fixer (60 page)

Deniz and Harri
seemed acquiescent.

"If someone
brings 900 thousand euro to my table", I reckoned, "why
should I question how much that person is making in the process?"

We shook hands and
parted ways. My mistake with Tampere was not to get their signature
on a contract when we had transferred the second installment to them
in November 2010. I had prevented Mohamed Rais, the then-director of
Exclusive Sports, from meeting with them at the time because I was
afraid that my dirty scheme would be unveiled. By now, Dan had moved
in as the director of Exclusive Sports and he wasn't about to give me
a power of attorney to act on his behalf; it was too late.

After the Tampere
guys left the Holiday Inn, I proceeded to meet with the owner of FC
PoPa, Antti. He seemed flexible enough and I had good hopes of
repeating the Tampere scheme with him. FC PoPa was another club in
desperate need of quick money.

"Can we put
four or five players in your team?" I asked Antti.

"I've got space
for four", he replied. "That's the most I can give you".

Antti was a very
nice and jovial fellow, he was a pretty straight-forward guy and I
had no trouble talking business with him. I think that he was ready;
if I had been given the chance and some more time, I believe that I
could have lured him to my side. To be honest, FC PoPa would have
been a better investment than Tampere.

"Look here",
I could have said to Antti, "we put four strikers, two defenders
and play around with total goals; score three, concede one".

But
I didn't; I just put Antti on hold. FC PoPa needed to be
first
promoted to the
Veikkausliiga, the Finnish Premier league; that's where the money
was. The volume for Veikkausliiga's games was huge: 18 thousand
dollars per click. In the second division, Ykkonen, the volume was
not that big and the standard was very low. Had we gone ahead with
our deal, I could have easily gotten FC PoPa promoted within the span
of a single season. People think of me only as a match-fixer, but I
have been watching football for over 35 years. I know what a team
needs in order to produce the right results.

As announced, in
mid-February 2011, Zeekay landed at the Helsinki Vantaa airport and I
was there to welcome him. Dan called me to relay instructions on how
to find him.

"Go to this
café at the Arrivals terminal", he said, "there will
be a guy sitting there. You go there and approach him, OK? What are
you wearing?"

"I'm wearing a
Barcelona top".

"OK, then he
will find you", said Dan.

I stepped in the
airport café mentioned by Dan and sat down. I looked around
and saw a man staring straight into my eyes.

"Zeekay?"

We shook hands.
Zeekay was traveling with his runner, Lecso.

"All right
Zeekay", I said, "everything is set with Tampere United. We
have our meeting scheduled for next week. But before we meet with
them, we've got some business to attend in Rovaniemi. Let's go there
first".

We
traveled together to Rovaniemi and spoke to the RoPS players before
their February 16
^th
,
2011, League Cup away match against Vaasan Palloseura (VPS). RoPS had
been promoted to the Veikkausliiga and were now more inviting to Dan
and his syndicate because of the higher betting volumes that they
could offer. We met the players in a local café where we
discussed the game plan.

"Score or
concede a total of four goals", I said to Musonda and the others
as we placed 80 thousand euro in their eager hands.

Zeekay, Lecso and I
then traveled to Vaasa, VPS's home ground, to watch the match.
Everything was running smoothly; with 30 minutes left to play and
with RoPS three goals down, we were waiting to cash in on the Over
3.5; we just needed one more goal for a clean win. There was a
penalty given away by the Canadian VPS goalkeeper, but the RoPS
player missed and we lost our bet. I could not believe that six
players out of eleven could not concede a single goal in a full
half-hour. In so doing, they had lost 80 thousand euro. Absolutely
stupid. I was furious and, after the referee blew the final whistle,
immediately sent an SMS to Musonda.

"
U
guys are stupid", it read. "Where is the one more goal? So
close
n
still
you can't get the job done".

After the match,
Zeekay and I went to Pori to meet with the FC PoPa owner Antti, who
was growing desperate for cash.

"Please help
us", he pleaded, "we need money now".

I introduced Zeekay
as one of my sponsors and we talked about our intention of putting
four of our players in the team. Zeekay and I agreed that if we could
find a few quality players to get the goals scored and the team
promoted, then we could fuck around with PoPa's Veikkausliiga
matches. We didn't need to bring the cup home; what were we going to
do with the championship title?

That same night
Zeekay and I met the RoPS players in Rovaniemi to recover the 80
thousand euro deposit that we had left with them before their last
match. Zeekay put on his fierce face and confronted them.

"Where's my
money?" he growled. "I want my 80 thousand back and I want
it now. You didn't do the job that was asked of you and I don't want
to hear excuses. If you don't pay me my 80 thousand, there is going
to be big trouble".

These guys were
footballers, they didn't want to get into a confrontation with Zeekay
so, the minute things got tense, they gave up and began bringing the
money back little by little. First they showed up with 40 thousand,
then some of them came to me with the usual African sob story.

"I've already
sent some money home to my family", they whimpered.

"OK", I
told them. "You go over there, speak to Zeekay and explain your
situation".

In the end, Zeekay
and I recovered about 70 out of the 80 thousand euro that we had left
with the players. Then Zeekay and I split up as he had some urgent
matters to sort out back home.

I
returned to London only to be back in Finland on the 20
^th
of February for the following match:
RoPS vs FF Jaro. Zeekay and I had agreed to do business in the second
half of the game but, about halfway through the first half, one of
our boys from RoPS took a red card and was sent off the pitch. As the
players were warming up for the second 45 minutes, I signaled to one
of them to approach me and I called the fix off.

"Cancel",
I said to him. "Finished".

We called off all of
our bets. With FF Jaro numerically advantaged, the odds for a RoPS
defeat were too unattractive, so we decided to skip the game. After
the match, Zeekay and Lecso stayed in Rovaniemi as I left for Tampere
to make arrangements for our meeting with Deniz.

During our time
together in Finland, I got to know Zeekay and I must say that he's
quite a nice guy. We spoke at length about Dan and his associates and
we agreed on many things. By then, Dan had settled his debts and was
making money again. He wanted to show off with the newcomers and
especially with Zeekay, who agreed to call Dan 'boss' out of
courtesy. Zeekay was very loyal to Dan but didn't like Dan's other
European partners because, in his eyes, they were all quite arrogant.

"Fuck",
said Zeekay, speaking of Kosta, "you've been to prison for
smuggling cigarettes, a menial offense, and then you boast that you
are a big shot".

Zeekay was not
hug-and-kiss with Admir either.

"This
mother-fucker", he poked, "came with his Porsche under my
house and was going brum, brum, in front of me. Then he hopped out of
his car and started walking around with a swagger. He must have
forgotten that, the first time I met him, he was driving a Datsun".

Dan's European
associates could not look each other in the eyes but, when the money
was on the table, they would take it without hesitating: business is
business.

The
meeting with the Tampere United management was scheduled for the 22
^nd
of February 2011. I was pretty
positive that everything was going to go smoothly, Deniz had been
informed about my commission and seemed to be willing to play along.
This time around Zeekay landed in Tampere together with a football
agent that he had brought along to impress the club's managers. I met
Zeekay and his agent in the hotel's lobby, we had a cup of coffee
together then I told the two to wait for me while I fetched Deniz; I
wanted to make sure that the Tampere guys would keep quiet about the
money that I had taken. When Deniz arrived, I reminded him to tell
Zeekay that they had received 600 thousand euro, not 300 thousand.

"No",
Deniz unexpectedly turned the tables on me, "we cannot agree to
say that we received 600 thousand. We cannot do that, we have to tell
them the truth, that we only received 300 thousand euro".

"If you tell
them the truth", I warned Deniz, "they are going to pull
out of the deal".

Dan
and Zeekay were already debating whether or not to cancel the
agreement because the Tampere United management was a little too
stiff for their taste; Tampere expected us to release the rest of the
1.5 million sponsorship while they continued to pick players of their
choice instead of using ours. I sensed
that
the shit was about to hit the fan so I left Deniz for a moment and
decided to call Dan and anticipate to him what Deniz was about to
reveal to Zeekay.

"Dan", I
confessed, "out of the 600 thousand that you gave me, the
Tampere guys only received 300 thousand. The remaining 300 thousand I
took as a loan".

"You
mother-fucker", shrieked Dan in triumph. "Now that the shit
is out of your asshole, you confess to me? You're a fucking bastard,
I knew all along that you were doing this".

"Dan", I
tried to justify myself, "I'm just using the 300 thousand on
another business right now. I'll pay you back soon enough".

"Then why the
fuck didn't you tell me until the last second?" he hollered. "I
knew from the very start that something was wrong: that's why I sent
Zeekay over. Where the fuck is my 300 thousand?"

"Dan relax,
OK?" I tried to placate his anger. "The 300 thousand are
not going to go missing, they will be paid back. Now let's finish
this Tampere deal".

I apologized and
hung up, then I went to the lobby and called Zeekay and his agent to
meet with Tampere's CEO, Deniz, who was waiting for us in the meeting
room. I made the introductions, then we all sat down and began
discussing our deal.

"What's going
on?" Zeekay asked Deniz. "Are we allowed to put our players
in your team or not?"

"Yes",
said Deniz. "You are allowed to put them in the team but we make
the final decision on whether or not they will be fielded during the
matches".

"OK",
inquired Zeekay, "what if my players are better than your
players? Are they still going to be on the bench? Then it defeats the
purpose".

"The coach will
make the final decision", Deniz argued.

Deniz was a tough
nut to crack. The Finnish wanted the money but would not budge one
bit. They probably regarded themselves as being some top-class club
or something. We were offering a drowning man a chance to keep his
head out of the water and here he was dictating how we were supposed
to go about doing it. Zeekay asked for a short break, during which he
called Dan.

"Dan", he
said, "this is not going to work, these guys are too stiff.
There is no way that we will be able to do business with these
fuckers".

"If that is the
case", said Dan, "we will pull out from the deal. Ask them
to return our money".

"OK",
Zeekay raised his shoulders. "Your call".

Tampere had already
signed Gabor and one more boy that we had sent from Hungary, so Dan
and Zeekay thought to leave them in the club just in case.

"Let's leave
the two boys", Zeekay suggested, "and we will just agree to
take care of their salary and accommodation".

Then he turned to
me.