FORMER Thurrock manager Hakan Hayrettin has told of his fears that match-fixing could have been going on in Non-League football for years – and how he voiced his suspicions over players in his own team.
The current Luton coach has watched developments in Australia and England over recent months with growing unease, believing that his team from 2009-10 could have been targeted by criminal gangs.
Hayrettin, the ex-Barnet and Wycombe forward, bossed the Essex side for four years up to October 2010. He then managed Grays to the Ryman One North title before moving to Kenilworth Road in the summer.
His goalkeeper at Thurrock during that Conference South campaign, Joe Woolley, is currently awaiting trial in Australia as one of four English players charged with allegedly helping to rig the results of games with Melbourne side Southern Stars.
Woolley, Reiss Noel, Nick McKoy and David Obaze are in court on December 6 and face up to ten years in prison if found guilty of being part of a £1.17m match-fixing sting in the Victoria Premier League.
The first three were all at AFC Hornchurch last season – one of three Essex clubs, along with Billericay and Chelmsford, some British bookmakers stopped offering bets on before the FA announced they were looking at suspicious betting activity on Conference South matches.
There is no suggestion that inquiry, or the situation Down Under, is linked to last week’s arrest of seven people by the National Crime Agency – dubbed Britain’s FBI.
That number is reported to include three unnamed Non-League players and the former Bolton, Lincoln and Hereford striker Delroy Facey, who is currently signed to Northern Counties East side Albion Sports but thought to be working as an agent.
Defraud
Two men filmed as part of a Daily Telegraph investigation claiming to control players and be able to predict the outcome of games were charged with plotting to defraud bookmakers.
Singaporean fixers Chann Sankaran, 33, and Krishna Sanjey Ganeshan, 43, appeared at Cannock Magistrates’ Court on Friday, and were remanded in custody to appear at Birmingham Crown Court on December 13.
Hayrettin says he watched with incredulity as his high-flying Thurrock team imploded in the final third of 2009-10, when – having been in the play-off spots for virtually the whole campaign – they won just two of their last 13 matches to fall from second in mid-February to a 10th place finish.
“There were noises of suspicion being made, for sure,” Hayrettin told The NLP. “We had a small team like Thurrock second in the Conference South, with a minimum budget and a small squad, beating teams on treble our budget.
“That was an unbelievable achievement, and we were going to go on and win promotion, I’m sure, either with the title or through the play-offs. All of a sudden we started losing games, and my assistant Hassan Oktay and I were stood on the sideline thinking ‘Something’s not right here’.
“We had a good team, so was it just loss of form that meant we went from second to dropping out of the play-offs? I don’t think it was, but we had no evidence.
“There were some strange things happening that we couldn’t put our finger on, that is for sure, and I reported it to Tommy South, the owner, who said to leave it with him.
“The thought of any player potentially doing anything corrupt behind a humble man like Tom’s back disgusts me. That man pays for everything at that club, he mows the pitch, he’s in the office. If anyone did anything to harm that man’s football club, they don’t deserve a career.
“We would all go away at the end of the season; players, staff, committee. I feel sick to the pit of my stomach to think that some players could potentially do things to harm what their mates worked so hard for.
“When you see other clubs implicated, and you think ‘One of my old players from that team is there, another one’s at that club, there’s this situation in Australia’, you think it can’t just be coincidence. You wonder how long this kind of thing has been going on.”
South confirmed that Hayrettin’s suspicions were passed on, adding: “I would like to think that if anything had gone on, I’d have heard about it. We told the FA we were here to help, but nothing was proven at the time.”
Secretary Norman Posner added: “Someone sent an email to us saying they had suspicions that some of our players were involved in something they shouldn’t be.
“We looked into it and decided to send everything to the FA. As a result, one of our players attended a meeting with them and they came back to thank us for our co-operation. We didn’t hear anything else.”
An FA spokesman told The NLP: “We can’t comment on any integrity issues.”
