Ex-footballer tells of death threats from bookies

PETALING JAYA: A former footballer involved in match-fixing in the 90s has revealed that players involved in such practices faced death threats when they refused to follow the bookies’ instructions.

According to a report by The Star Online, former Perak player P Ravindran said he had been approached by a bookie in 1992, who asked him to join his fellow Perak teammates in fixing matches.

He said he spoke to his teammates, and they, too, had been approached.

“My teammates encouraged me to do it. We were greedy then. We wanted more money,” he was quoted as saying.

He said on one occasion, after the players had not followed the bookies’ instructions for two earlier matches, the bookies parked their cars outside his home, waiting for him after a game.

Ravindran, now in his 50s, said he had scored the winning goals in both matches and the bookies were unhappy.

He said the bookies’ questioned why he and his teammates did not follow instructions and warned them with guns.

Ravindran, who was banned from football for his involvement in the 1993-1994 match-fixing scandal until it was lifted earlier this month, said the bookies did not stop approaching him after his ban.

He said after the ban, he was banished to Terengganu, but still received calls from bookies trying to hook him up with players in the East Coast to fix matches, but Ravi said he had had enough and told the bookies to leave him and his family alone.

Ravindran was one of 78 football players who had their life ban lifted by FAM early this month.

The FAM executive committee had decided that the players involved in corruption scandals and match fixing in the early 1990s could return to the sports at state and national levels.

FAM Deputy President Afandi Hamzah said the decision was made after obtaining the views of all parties including the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), police and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

However, six more Sabah players in the 1990s who were given life suspensions by FAM will be referred to the International Football Federation (FIFA).

Link to story: Tunku Ismail slams FAM for pardoning footballers

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