Pay players well to avoid betting on matches – Nii Lantey Vanderpuye to club owners

Nii Lantey Vanderpuye, the MP for Odododiodoo Constituency, has urged local clubs to pay their players worthy salaries to prevent them from engaging in betting schemes and match fixing.

Speaking on the floor of Parliament on Wednesday, Mr Vanderpuye expressed concern over the number of players who deliberately engage in match manipulation so they are able to earn some cash from betting companies.

He noted that the meager salaries players are given by their management has contributed to the growth of match-fixing.

“How do you expect the players to play in those matches? Because there are people with the betting companies who already know that a huge number of people have bet on a positive result for Kotoko or Hearts. So they tell those players and they also bet on the other side so when the result turns out, the players will be richer.

“So players are no more playing for clubs because they love the clubs, game but because of their pocket.”

Mr Vanderpuye therefore encouraged the various local clubs to incentivise their players adequately.

“Mr Speaker, we must also insist that the clubs also take good care of their players. If a player is receiving GH500 a month, the player will definitely be interested. How do you expect the player to survive?

“So it is important that our clubs also take a look at themselves (and) how they will be able to make sure that they take the welfare of the players very important to prevent those players from being influenced by these betting companies so they can influence the outcome of their matches.”

Unlike Ghana where it is believed that players engage in betting, Europe, the MP said frowns upon such actions.

According to him, players are sanctioned when found to be influencing the outcome of their matches or betting to earn extra cash from matches they are involved in.

He cited the issue of Paul Scholes who was fined £8,000 for breaching the Football Association’s betting rules to buttress his point.

“In Europe, betting is a very serious crime even though these betting companies are also sponsoring  teams. But because there are checks and balances to be able to know, they dare not try to influence results in matches outside the country.

“In Europe if you are a player or a former player and you are caught betting in a game, you are banned. Recently an old player like Paul Scholes faced the hatchet for betting on the result of a match. But here we have players who are playing Hearts of Oak, Kotoko, Olympics and the rest betting on their own matches.”

The former Manchester United midfielder placed 140 bets between August 2015 and 2019, contrary to FA rule E8.

FA rule E8. 4.4 states that “a participant shall not use any information relating to football which the Participant has obtained by virtue of his or her position within the game and which is not publicly available at that time for or in relation to betting.

One bet was on Valencia beating Barcelona and two other bets on matches involving Oldham, a month before he was appointed manager at Boundary Park, Sky Sports report.

During the period, Scholes was a part-owner of non-League side Salford City.

Scholes admitted fault, explaining that it was not a deliberate action since he believed there was no personal connection to the matches in question.

“I accept last week’s ruling. I would like to apologise and I understand and fully accept the fine imposed by the FA. It was a genuine mistake and was not done with any deliberate intention to flout the rules.

“I wrongly believed that as long as there was no personal connection between me and any of the matches that I bet upon then there would be no issue.”

With regards to match fixing in Ghana, the Ghana Football Association discovered that Ashantigold SC had manipulated their 2020/21 Ghana Premier League Matchday 34 game against Inter Allies FC.

The club has therefore been demoted from the Ghana Premier League to the Division Two League.

Some players of Ashantigold SC including Stephen Owusu Banahene, Dacosta Ampem and Frank Akoto have been banned for 24 months each in accordance with 34.5(d)(i) of the Ghana Premier League Regulations 2019.

Source: The Independent Ghana