‘I fastened soccer matches – money was left in dressing room and I as soon as received £500k’
Moses Swaibu was tipped for the top at Crystal Palace – but he soon found himself entangled in the murky world of match-fixing.
At just 17, Swaibu was named Palace’s Young Player of the Year and Scholar of the Year. However, his first-team breakthrough never materialised after Neil Warnock took the reins in 2007, leading to his release a year later.
Swaibu’s career trajectory took him down the leagues, with a two-year stint at Lincoln City in League Two. It was here that he first encountered the shadowy figures of fixers, who dangled tens of thousands of pounds in front of players to manipulate match outcomes.
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Swaibu and three team-mates were offered the equivalent of £60,000 in euros to ensure they were trailing 1-0 at half-time in their next game. A duffel bag filled with the cash was presented in the dressing room, but the deal fell through as most of them were left on the bench.
Yet, as Swaibu’s career continued its downward spiral, the allure of match-fixing only intensified. By the age of 23, he was about to become a father and was playing regularly for National League South side Bromley, reports the Mirror.
(Image: PA)
This provided all the incentive he needed. A former footballer has revealed how he was lured into the murky world of match-fixing, starting with a clandestine meeting in a posh London hotel.
Speaking on the BBC’s Confessions of a Match Fixer podcast, Moses Swaibu recalled how an Asian man offered him and four team-mates £20k each to ensure they were 2-0 down to Eastbourne Borough by half-time.
Despite initial hesitations from his team-mates, Swaibu admitted: “I knew my team-mates were hesitant, but, leading up into that game, I was like ‘I am doing it’.”
The plan went off without a hitch, with Bromley conceding two penalties towards the end of the first half – one for a foul by a player unaware of the bribe and one for handball. Both were converted, and Swaibu was hooked.
(Image: Getty Images)
He soon found himself acting as the middleman, organising meetings and connecting players with fixers. Describing his role, he said: “I would go to established businesses – say a restaurant – open up a locked door that would look like a toilet or a store cupboard and find piles of money stacked up.
“It would be a lot. It was piled up to my torso and I am 6ft 3in. I would bundle it up in rubber bands and seal it with cling film. I would be carrying a big bag – like I was going to the gym – but, it was a towel over the top and then just cash underneath. One night, I brought home £500,000.”
Swaibu couldn’t resist the lure of illegal gains, admitting: “It made me so paranoid. I didn’t wear anything flashy, I rarely drove, I was always thinking, who else is on this train? What might my neighbour have seen?”
He added with a chilling honesty, “But despite the paranoia, I liked it. I was getting money fast and quick – 45 min and 90 min – that became an addiction. But it wasn’t the money after a certain stage, a lot of it came from power.”
(Image: Newsteam)
The FA smelled a rat over shady betting patterns in non-league football and began to snoop around during the 2012/13 season by then everybody at club level knew something fishy was going on.
Swaibu, keeping up his activities until quitting Bromley, had one final fixed game ending in a 4-2 loss to Maidenhead just as he wanted.
Though Swaibu ditched his boots post-season, shaking off the match-fixing habits proved harder with a whopping £200k in his pocket. Seduced once more by the chance for a quick buck, Swaibu got involved with what turned out to be fake fixers a sting operation by the National Crime Agency.
Despite smelling a rat, he recklessly promised them a fixed result in an upcoming League Two match between AFC Wimbledon and Dagenham and Redbridge.
However, things didn’t go as planned when Dagenham managed to equalise in the second half. By then, the outcome of the match was irrelevant.
The NCA had tracked Swaibu to a meeting and before he knew it, he was handcuffed and charged with conspiracy to defraud in January 2014.
He was later found guilty of conspiracy to commit bribery in April 2015 and sentenced to 16 months in prison. Fast forward nearly ten years, and Swaibu is now using his experience with match-fixing for the betterment of the sport.
He’s working alongside FIFA, the Premier League, and the Sport Integrity Global Alliance to identify and prevent players from falling into the same trap he did.
