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KonkNaija Media | May 2, 2016

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Scotland v Nigeria friendly match being investigated by police over match fixing fears

Scotland v Nigeria friendly match being investigated by police over match fixing fears

| On 28, May 2014

Officers are investigating match-fixing claims over tonight’s World Cup friendly between Nigeria and Scotland, Sky sources say.

The game is due to be played at Fulham’s Craven Cottage ground in London.

The National Crime Agency, which investigates serious and organised crime, is now probing what it thinks could be an attempt to fix the match.

Scotland v World Cup-bound Nigeria is part of a series of warm-up matches ahead of the tournament in Brazil next month.

There is no suggestion that the game at Craven Cottage will be scrapped.

Stephen Keshi, Nigeria’s head coach, said his side were just focused on preparing for the World Cup.

“We are not here for that – we are here to play and to, you know, see our team improve and get ready for the World Cup so I don’t know, maybe some sort of joke is around the corner and it is not very pleasant, you know?”

The investigation was launched after the match was “red-flagged” over the weekend.

Nigeria is the ‘home’ side and selected the Fulham ground as the venue. The National Crime Agency (NCA) is investigating what it believes may be an attempt to fix the match. No Scotland players are involved or under any suspicion but the NCA has been liaising with the football authorities in Scotland and Nigeria.

The Scottish Football Association has said it is liaising with the relevant authorities and is preparing for the game as normal.

It appears the gambling commission has also issued an alert – a warning – to bookmakers around the world to keep an eye on betting patterns ahead not only of the Nigeria/Scotland game but other friendlies on Wednesday evening.

A spokesman said the agency “will from time to time provide operational detail necessary for public reassurance purposes”.

He added: “It does not routinely confirm or deny the existence of specific operations or provide ongoing commentary on operational activity.”

The spurt of allegations may of course simply be due to a fluctuation of bidding/betting by Nigerians in droves who ordinarily do not gamble and are hoping to make good innings on speculations about who will win the match, whichever the case, this kind of ridiculous allegation casts aspersions on Nigeria where citizens already proceed with the stigma of being prone to brown envelope methods.

From a broader perspective, the sudden investigation makes the UK police system begin to appear to be rather idle and seeking any reason to delve into and attack Nigerian players because the scottish players manager was completely unaware of any such investigation although its been on live news repeatedly in the last day and this turn is now being cited by critics as a move which has devalued the game which was due to be screened live on many TV stations this week and undermined its purpose.