The Malaysian Insider :: Sports
The Malaysian Insider :: Sports |
| Hong Kong arrests nine over possible match-fixing Posted: 07 Jan 2014 03:59 AM PST "Nine persons, including professional football players, were arrested for alleged bribery in rigging the results of football matches involving a local football club," the Independent Commission Against Corruption said in a statement released late today, without specifying names of the players or the club. "Enquiries revealed that the sponsor's representative and the executive officer might have offered advantages to the players of the football club as rewards for their participation in rigging football match results," it said. The Hong Kong Football Association, which regulates the former British colony's professional league, confirmed to AFP that an investigation is underway but refused to comment on the arrests. "It's not a Hong Kong issue, it's a worldwide issue. We have no room for complacency," association chief Mark Sutcliffe said. The southern Chinese city has a low-key football scene, with each top division game often attracting less than a thousand spectators. Sutcliffe admitted that its league could be more vulnerable to rigging as players are poorly paid amid low revenue streams for clubs. "Our league may be more vulnerable than other places because our players and coaches are paid relatively poor wages, compared to leagues in some other countries," he said. The arrests were made on Sunday, according to the southern Chinese city's graft buster, involving six football players, an executive officer of the football club, a representative of the sponsor for the club and a "corrupt associate". Hong Kong-based newspaper South China Morning Post has reported several Happy Valley players were being investigated after a match between the First Division club and Sun Hei Sports Club, in which Happy Valley lost 5-0. Last month, another First Division club Tuen Mun was embroiled in a controversy after one of its defensemen headed into his own net to allow the other side, Yokohama Football Club, to win 2-1 in stoppage time. Match-fixing has proved a chronic and growing blight on international football and can involve cross-border syndicates. In Britain, two Singaporean men were arrested for suspected match-fixing over lower-league English football games in November of last year. In Singapore, 14 people were held in raids in September last year for match-fixing after a crackdown on one of the gangs linked to hundreds of rigged football games worldwide. - AFP, January 7, 2014. |
| Mattek-Sands upsets top seed Radwanska in Sydney Posted: 07 Jan 2014 03:54 AM PST Mattek-Sands, ranked 48, upset the world number five 7-5, 6-2 in just over 90 minutes to disrupt Radwanska's lead-up to next week's Australian Open in Melbourne. Radwanska's defeat was the first time since 1998 that the women's titleholder has lost her opening match in Sydney. "She was really playing aggressive today. It didn't matter if it was my first serve, second serve, or anything, she was really going 100% for every ball," Radwanska said. Former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova is the highest seed left in the draw after ousting American Christina McHale for the loss of just one game. Kvitova will next play Czech Lucie Safarova, who eliminated Danish sixth seed Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 7-6 (9/7). Radwanska, who will now head to Melbourne ahead of the Open, said she did not think the early loss would upset her preparations. "I had a lot of good matches last week (in the Hopman Cup)," she said. "It's not like I'm playing bad. I'm not worried about that. I just think it's not my day." The former Wimbledon runner-up has not won a match or even a set since last October, after losing all three of her round-robin encounters at the season-ending WTA championships in straight sets. Radwanska's losing run is a stark contrast to last year, when she went into the Australian Open on a nine-match winning streak after picking up back-to-back titles in Auckland and Sydney. China's Li Na ended her winning sequence at 13 with victory over Radwanska in the Australian Open quarter-finals. Mattek-Sands now has a quarter-final against fellow American Madison Keys, who ousted Croatian wildcard Ajla Tomljanovic in three sets. "I've played her a couple times and I've never beaten her, so it's probably one of the best wins of my career," Mattek-Sands said of her upset triumph over Radwanska. German fifth seed Angelique Kerber is also through to the tournament's last eight, where she will meet Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro after ousting Estonian Kaia Kanepi 6-3, 6-4 in her second-round match. Suarez Navarro knocked out Russian Ekaterina Makarova 7-6 (7/4), 6-3. In the men's draw Croatian seventh seed Marin Cilic advanced with a three sets win over Germany's Jan-Lennard Struff. Defending champion Bernard Tomic took just under an hour to demolish world number 36 Spaniard Marcel Granollers 6-3, 6-0. After losing the first game the Australian went on to win 12 of the next 14 to set up a second-round meeting with Slovenian qualifier Blaz Kavcic. Australian Marinko Matosevic overcame German Florian Mayer 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, while Czech Radek Stepanek came from a set down to defeat Australian Sam Groth 6-7 (6/8), 7-6 (7/5), 6-2. Matosevic's next match is against Italian third seed Andreas Seppi. - AFP, January 7, 2014. |
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