Killing The Ball

People & Power investigates how a match-fixer and his syndicate corrupted global football.


It is an odd place for the fate of the world football to be under consideration, but a drama that has been playing out in a Hungarian courtroom for almost a year now is, in its way, as important to football's future as any international tournament. It is certainly crucial to perceptions about its integrity.

The trial is all about match-fixing. Over the past few years, global investigators and police from several countries have unveiled an intricate international criminal network, run from Singapore. For well over a decade, prosecutors allege, this sophisticated syndicate manipulated and rigged football games at all levels around the world, from amateur matches, through professional leagues and international friendlies and all the way to the FIFA World Cup.

The trial has been taking place in Budapest because the syndicate had dealings across eastern Europe - in Bulgaria, Slovenia and Hungary - and most of the 12 defendants had specific local connections, but the principal defendant is actually being tried in absentia. According to Hungarian prosecutors, Singaporean national, Tan Seet Eng, also known as Dan Tan, was the group's financier and mastermind, ensuring that its members and investors made many tens of millions of dollars by gambling on the games they fixed. He has been in custody in Singapore since October 2013 under the Criminal Law (Temporary Provisions) Act, which allows for indefinite detention or organised crime suspects.