Just a week after news broke that West Ham’s Lucas Paquetá could face a ten-year ban for match fixing offenses, reports have emerged from Australia of a growing soccer match-fixing scandal involving multiple players.
On Thursday, court documents accused Macarthur FC’s Matthew Millar and Jed Drew of being participants in a match-fixing scheme involving A-League teammates—club captain and ex-Chelsea player Ulises Dávila, Kearyn Baccus, and Clayton Lewis.
Police claim Dávila paid junior players up to $10,000 to purposely “give away yellow cards in at least one game last year.”
very troubling news for the Australian football community.”
Authorities accused Millar and Drew of being part of the scheme Football Australia CEO James Johnson said was “very troubling news for the Australian football community.” Police have not charged them yet, however.
Police arrested and charged Dávila for allegedly paying Baccus and Lewis to deliberately receive yellow cards that led “to hundreds of thousands of dollars being paid out in winnings.” An AFC referee handed out yellow cards to the entire trio of accused soccer stars at a December 9 game against Sydney FC.
According to 9news, the soccer players are allegedly linked to an illegal network under the “instruction and direction of an organized crime figure currently offshore in South America.”
Football Australia has hit Dávila, Baccus, and Lewis with no-fault interim suspension notices under their code of conduct. The news comes hot on the heels of revelations that West Ham United’s midfield general Lucas Paquetá faces a ten-year ban for seeking out yellow cards