Football fixing: 22 from Laos, Cambodia get life bans

Kuala Lumpur : Match-fixing has stretched its root in the entire sports fraternity. From cricket to football to tennis, every sports have got the infection of fixing.

In one of Asian football’s biggest mass punishments for match-fixing, twenty-two players and officials from Laos and Cambodia have been handed life bans.

The Asian Football Confederation said the action follows an investigation that started in 2014, and that it will seek to have the bans extended worldwide.

Fifteen of those banned are current or former players of the Laos national side or Vientiane-based Lao Toyota FC.

Details of the games involved were not released, but four of the players had been provisionally suspended in November.

Poorly paid Asian footballers and officials have long been vulnerable to advances from match-fixers seeking to manipulate games for betting purposes, giving rise to a long list of scandals.

Among the largest was China banning 33 players and officials for life in 2013, following a three-year investigation into notorious corruption in its domestic leagues.