November 8 – With the AFC Solidarity Cup in full swing in Malaysia the AFC Disciplinary Committee has stepped in and suspended four Laos players on suspicion of match-fixing.
This is the first time that players have been suspended during a tournament for suspicion of match-fixing and an AFC statement said the investigation “is on-going and not limited to those players provisionally suspended.”
Laos have played two matches in Group B of the tournament beating Sir Lanka 2-1 on November 3, and losing to Macau 4-1 on November 6. Currently place third in the group Laos next face Mongolia tomorrow (November 9) in a match which if they win will put them through to the semi-finals.
The suspensions of Saynakhonevieng Phommapanya, Chintana Souksavath, Moukda Souksavath and Phatthana Syvilay are for a provisional 60 days as investigations take place not only into the Solidarity Cup matches but also into “suspected manipulation of multiple matches committed by the representative teams of Laos since 2010.”
The AFC investigation is being undertaken in conjunction with the FIFA Integrity Unit and Sportradar, the AFC’s betting fraud monitoring partner.
The Solidarity Cup is in its first edition have replaced the old AFC Challenge Cup that was last played in 2014. Nine national teams who were knocked out of the first round of 2018 World Cup/AFC 2019 Asian Cup qualifying were eligible for the tournament though Bangladesh and Pakistan pulled out.
The AFC said it “takes a zero tolerance approach to match manipulation as stated as a core pillar of the AFC Vision and Mission launched in January 2016.”
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