Match fixing by organized gangs has become a major threat for soccer’s sovereignty across the world and another example of how these gangs operate is right here. Three Belize national soccer players have disclosed of an advance being made by a man before their CONCACAF Gold Cup group match. Apparently, the man wanted them to fix the match for some monetary benefits and according to Andres Makin Jr., Ian Gaynair, and Woodrow West, who were approached by the unknown man, he first tried to befriend with them and then he started revealing his intentions for the upcoming CONCACAF match. However, players denied agreeing any of his offers, in fact, they immediately parted their ways after knowing who he was. The match in question was against United States to be played on Tuesday night at Portland and later US won that match by 6-1. It could be surprising to see a big winning margin and after knowing the fixing row, it is highly possible that similar offers would have also been given to other teammates, though no other player has come forward and exposed any such approach.
Ian Gaynair described the whole incident in great detail to a news source here in Belize, he said, “He started talking that we don’t really stand a chance to beat the U.S. so he wanted us to promise him that we would lose the game and that he would give us a large amount of money to change our lives in Belize and to help our families.
“Then as he said that my entire features changed and I just felt a different way, I felt really uncomfortable just to be around the guy because I was already aware about the ‘match-fixing’ and I know that I could get banned for life.
“He saw that my features changed and he saw that we weren’t into it so he got frightened and took out a large amount of money to bribe us, a lot of hundred and fifty dollar bills and threw it at us on the table and told us to keep it and to not say anything and to keep the money.”
It has been a proven fact that organized gangs have been doing fixing in every popular soccer league including various world cup events; hence it is very much believable that something like this would have happened, but how could Belize lost by a comprehensive margin still needs to be investigated.