ZURICH: FIFA has confirmed its concern about the latest allegations surrounding matchfixer Wilson Raj Perumal by requesting match footage of a game he claims to have tried to manipulate writes KEIR RADNEDGE.

A match in which Nigeria beat Kenya 3-2 on November 14, 2009, was indicated in a book about Perumal’s activities.

The Singaporean match-fixer claimed, in Kelong Kings, to have been fixing matches for Nigeria since since the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.

Those matches included World Cup qualifiers ahead of the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa.

FIFA has refused to confirm or deny whether its ethics investigator Michael Garcia is checking out all the claims made by Perumal. However the Nigerian Football Federation has said that FIFA had requested match footage of the Kenya game.

Local media reported a spokesman for the NFF as saying: “The core of the match-fixer’s allegations is based on our match against Kenya in Nairobi, which we won 3-2. After some difficulties in getting the match tape, we have finally submitted it to FIFA for them to further study.”

The NFF has denied Perumal’s claims and threatened to take “action” against him. In fact other allegations concerning Nigerian teams go back as far as the 2007 Women’s World Cup in China.

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