kelong kings the matches
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KELONG KINGS - THE MATCHES is a collection of the highlights from some of the matches that were fixed by Wilson Raj Perumal during his long and prolific career. Each match is coupled with a short excerpt from the book regarding that specific fixture. Click and see for yourself!

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While in Hanoi, we arranged a meeting with the Lebanese players. We asked them for a total of three goals; they agreed, delivered and Vietnam cruised 3-1 over Lebanon.
"We need four goals", we told them, "you can either score or you can concede". After 30 minutes, Sierra Leone scored the opening goal. Then, during the second half, they netted another. When there were fifteen minutes left in the game, they conceded the third and fourth goal. We wanted Sierra Leone to qualify for the final but the extra-time ended nil-nil, they lost the penalty kicks and were booted out of the tournament, which Vietnam went on to win.
Despite being lectured by Dan for two full days, the ref had failed to deliver and to walk away with the 60 thousand US dollars that we had promised him and his linesmen; a sum that they will probably never see again in their entire lives. "I didn't see the ball touch the player's hand", Kokou defended himself. "Fuck you", shrieked Dan, "even if you don't see it, you still give the penalty".
...when USA vs El Salvador kicked off, the volumes suddenly rose to 12 thousand dollars per click; they were huge. Harry, however, decided to act on his own. He joined hands with Danny, who had by then revealed the two-extra-players plot to him, and the duo decided to double cross me. Harry pulled Ah Kang into the fix then, at half time, instructed the El Salvadoreans to concede two goals before the end of the match.
...My plan for the Africa Cup of Nations followed the usual scheme: target the teams that are out of contention and fix their last group stage matches. My first victim was Malawi. Malawi had lost its first two matches against Algeria and Angola and had nothing left to play for when they faced Mali for their last group stage game. I managed to bring a few Malawian footballers to my side and they granted me a 3-1 loss against the Malians.
In early February 2011, I received an unexpected call from Dan. "Today something happened", he sounded excited. "Your share is about 60 thousand. I will do the calculations tonight and will give you your part of the profits". "Which matches?" I asked. "Napoli vs Sampdoria 4-0 and Brescia vs Bari 2-0". "Fuck", I was shocked. "You've got the Italian Serie A?"
I gave Ibrahim instructions as commanded by Dan to provide a total of three goals in Ecuador vs Venezuela. This was the very last international friendly match that I organized. In the first five minutes of the game, Ecuador scored two goals, then, by the end of the first half, the third goal was netted and Ibrahim's work was done. It was an easy job for him; final score, 4-1 in favor of Ecuador.
It was October 7th, 2010, FIFA calendar day, and the TV showed the highlights of a match between Venezuela and Bolivia, final result 3-1. "Fuck", my eyes caught a glimpse of the ref. "That's Ibrahim!" I gave Dan a call. "Dan", I said, "I was watching a match between Venezuela and Bolivia. I think that the referee was Ibrahim. I am not sure because the image was fuzzy but for a second I thought that I saw him". Dan didn't confirm nor deny.
While fixing the Sierra Leone match in South Africa in June of that year, I had built a relationship with one of the Sierra Leone FA's officials, a guy called Abu Bakar. A few months before the cup, I sent Abu Bakar an e-mail. "Just assemble a team", it read, "I will pay the FA, I will pay for everything. Wilson Raj". Abu Bakar assembled a Sierra Leone team that could dance to our tune and sent them over to Malaysia.
The next match of the 2008 Merdeka Cup was Mozambique against Vietnam. This time around we put the boys in a room and explained clearly what was needed of them. The players were forthcoming and Mozambique lost by four second-half goals as requested...
The Yobe brother who had been substituted joined me in the stadium's bathroom as Mweetwa waited outside. Once inside, I gave him 50 thousand euro to share with his brother. Then I gave Mweetwa five thousand for bringing the Yobe brothers to me and Musonda two thousand for bringing Mweetwa over. It was their commission.
In their last match, Lesotho lost 4-nil to Malaysia, which went on to win the final. Thana's boss was very happy but couldn't express his gratitude directly to me as my cut was always channeled through Thana and Yap, who acted as a filter between him and me. This is a very dirty business, you know, people will undercut you if you let them get too close to your private dealings.
I had selected and instructed a Kenyan referee to officiate the fixture; he awarded three penalties and, by the 70th minute of the match, I left the stadium to collect my winnings. I didn't even need to watch the rest of the game. Why wait for the match to end when you've already won? Fuck that, three penalties, three goals, end of the story. Malaysia won the game by 4-1. My move from players to referees was beginning to pay off.
"Where the fuck were you guys for the past two matches?" they asked. "Your guy said not to trouble you during the first two games", I argued. "Fuck him", they replied. "We're not going anywhere. We're never going to win the Gold Cup; it is either the US or Mexico. It's always the same story and we have no intention to rewrite history, we just want to take some money home". And so they did. Honduras vs Grenada, 4-0.
"Mega", I told him, "you take a seat, relax and watch me walk in like a Zidane football agent". I strolled in and approached two or three of the players; their English was very poor so I kept it simple. "I'm a football agent", I said as I extracted my name card from my pocket. "What's your name? You want to come and play in Singapore? Give me your number and I'll ring you up".
Bana couldn't get the national team to travel because the official squad was set to play in Botswana a few days before our fixture, so he just assembled a bogus team and sent it over to Bahrain...Why would someone need to send a fake team when the real team, or rather a patchwork-team of Under-23 domestic players, could be formed? They could have worn a Togo jersey, played, and flown back home; as simple as that.
We wanted El Salvador to lose by two goals but, before I could place any wagers on the match, Bee Hoon had already splashed 200 thousand dollars of his own on it, thus ruining the odds for me. Unluckily for him, Honduras played a very cautious match. They rarely attacked and settled for a single goal, which they netted in the second half. Unbeknownst to them, I had contributed to Honduras' qualification to the 2010 World Cup.
Benin was to face Egypt, while Mozambique challenged Nigeria. Since I had obtained the contacts to some of the Beninese players through some Togolese acquaintances of mine, I called Dan for a formal proposal. "Dan, I don't have enough money left on me", I said to him, "I need more to pay the Benin players. Are any of your runners available to fly over to Angola and deliver the cash to them?"
Zimbabwe conceded two goals within a three-minute time span. Danny was enraged with the players; he called me and we both felt that someone else, maybe another fixer, had bypassed us and made a different agreement with the Zimbabweans. The first name that came to our mind was Nguyen, the Vietnamese fixer that I had met in Hanoi. We were operating in his region and Danny had spotted him in Zimbabwe's hotel prior to the match.
The Panamanians clobbered Isidro Metapan 6-0. We had attacked the odds to overcome the loss from the lack of live betting, but had come one first-half-goal short of the jackpot. "Wilson", asked Anthony, "should I go and fetch the deposit back from the players?" "It doesn't matter", I answered. "Let the players keep it; they still did a good job".
We told the Zimbabweans to lose the match by 2-nil. I don't know why the final score ended up being 4-2. I had some money of my own and was using it to place bets on the matches in Singapore. Singapore's victory was paying four dollars for every one dollar wagered. I placed between 20 to 30 thousand dollars on the match and walked away with about 100 thousand dollars in my pocket.
Lengyel let the match play and play and play until the 11th minute of stoppage-time, when he finally awarded a dubious penalty in favor of the home side. The Argentinians managed to score the penalty and seal their 1-0 victory. After the final whistle blew, all hell broke loose. One of the Bolivian players was so frustrated that he ran up to Lengyel and spit right in his face.
"Go and play this game, Dan", I told him, "it's fixed". "I know", said the arrogant fuck, "Alassane called me to say that the ref is the same one that officiated the Guatemala game". "Go and play", I ignored his comment, "there will be two goals in the second half of the match".
The Guatemalans didn't argue: Ibrahim was the uncontested boss on the pitch and was too fucking brave; beyond believable. "Fuck, this guy is for real", I bounced from my seat. "He is daring". Final score, 5-0; again, three penalties awarded, one missed.
During the half time break, the Colombians made a big fuss and threatened not to play on if the referee were to continue with his absurd calls. But that was not the end of it. Ten minutes into the second half of the match, Samwel awarded another, dubious, penalty kick in favor of South Africa which they readily scored, setting the final result at 2-1 in favor of the home team.
"No problem", I said, "you'll have your three points. I can do that for you. But in the next season, when you play al-Nawair, if you are not fighting relegation, can you return the favor? If you are struggling to stay up in the league I will not disturb you, but if you are safe..." "Sure", he smiled. "If we are still in the top league, I'll gladly return the favor". I kept my promise and on May 8th, 2009, Tishreen thrashed al-Nawair 5-1 at home and got the three points.
I got two rookies to fly over from Singapore and run our show. One was an Indian-Singaporean called Vicky and the other a Chinese-Singaporean called Ricky. Vicky was tasked with briefing the players on what to do while Ricky was a runner and carried the money for them. Vicky and Ricky were promised 60 thousand US dollars for their trouble. "Concede five goals", Vicky told the Tanzanians, and they did.
"Boys", I told them, "help Nigeria win. Try to get this done for me". The game kicked off but the Nigerians were playing like a bunch of pussies. After 15 minutes, they were already down by one goal. Then there was a blatant penalty against them which could have increased Kenya's lead but the referee looked the other way and waved to play on. Nigeria eventually won the match as expected, but not by a two goal difference; the final result was 3-2.
Pal had decided that Singapore was going to win the 1994 Malaysia Cup final against Davidson's team. He had many of Pahang's players under his influence but not the Australian defender so, during the semi-final between Pahang and Kedah in Alor Setar, Malaysia, with the help of a complacent referee, Pal managed to get Davidson sent off and suspended in view of the final...
The Singapore Lions' coach, P. N. Sivaji, was a soft-spoken man who was harshly criticized for not bringing the trophy home. Little did he know that someone else had already decided where the cup was going to showcase...
In early June, Arttu brought a football match to my attention: Nigeria vs Argentina, an international friendly played in Abuja, Nigeria. The final score was 4-1 for the Nigerians with two penalties awarded by our star referee, Ibrahim. (cont.) Nigeria vs Argentina was Ibrahim's last match before retirement. Through the mediation of Prince, Anthony and the others must have convinced someone in the Nigeria FF to designate Ibrahim for the game.
...The game kicked off and, by the end of the first half, Nigeria was down by two goals. The Nigerian girls never managed to concede the third goal because, being two goals ahead, the North Koreans were just passing the ball around, waiting for the final whistle to blow. At the end of the match, the result was left unchanged: 2-0 in favor of North Korea; one goal short of what we had asked the girls.
...She chose a local club, Monomotapa United, to pose as the Zimbabwean national team and provided them with the national team's jerseys. I was never personally involved in picking the players for a national team so I was not informed - until it was later exposed - that the team representing Zimbabwe was actually a local club.
... the US went ahead with Jozy Altidore: one-nil. Then Jozy scored a second goal: two-nil; we needed just one more. In the 90th minute, Altidore took yet another shot from the edge of the box, not an irresistible effort, but the goalie fumbled and let the ball slip below his arms and into the net. The T&T goalkeeper was not on my payroll but the way he conceded Jozy Altidore's third personal goal made it look like he was.
...That evening I left Boston for Glendale, Arizona, to speak to the Nicaraguan players. Nicaragua had lost to both Mexico and Guadalupe in their preceding fixtures, were also out of contention and were set to play their final group stage match against Panama on the following day. I invited the Nicaraguan players out to a strip club. "Sit down, let's have a drink".