Finnish footballer reports bribery attempt

John Ahlberg says he was asked to make team lose by five clear goals

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John Ahlberg, who plays as a striker in the Finnish 1st Division football team Viikingit, says that on Tuesday evening last week he received a telephone call from a foreign-sounding man, offering Ahlberg money if he would help make his team lose its match on Thursday.
      Ahlberg says that he immediately informed his coach, Jari Europaeus about the call. Europaeus made sure that none of the other team members had been approached in a similar manner. He also informed the Finnish Football Association.
      "An older man introduced himself as an Albanian, and said that he wanted to talk about Thursday's match. He asked if six other players and myself could make sure that our team would lose to PK-35 by five clear goals, for instance by a score of 2-7 or 1-6", Ahlberg said on Friday.
      The man, who spoke English with an accent, had offered to give Ahlberg EUR 10,000 in exchange for fixing the game. The other players would have got the same amount each.
     
"I did not like getting a call like that at all. I immediately started to wonder how he had got my phone number. I cannot say why I was called", Ahlberg pondered.
      "I said that I was not scheduled to play on Thursday, but he said that it did not matter, and that I would get the money if I arranged the defeat."
      Ahlberg said that he was eager to report the incident, because he does not like "types who try to spoil Finland's reputation".
      The Finnish Football Association reported the matter to the police, and to Veikkaus, the state-run lottery company which organises legal fixed-odds and variable-odds sports betting in Finland.
      "We noted that there was no cause to suspect wrongdoing after Viikingit had reported the contact. Nevertheless, we followed the match more closely than usual", said Juha-Matti Mäkilä, head of sports betting at Veikkaus.
     
The match played in Finland's second-tier league, ended in a heavy defeat for PK-35. The margin was 5-0 to Viikingit.
      Petri Heikkinen of the Finnish Football Association said on Friday that PK-35 was not told of the attempted bribe offered to the opposing team.
      Both Heikkinen and Ahlberg feel that the call was probably a genuine bribe attempt.
     
The odds were against PK-35, which had lost its two previous matches 0-5 and 3-5. Viikingit went into Thursday's game as strong favourites.
      PK-35 coach Mikko Lappalainen feels that the Finnish Football Association should have informed all parties involved - including PK.
      The subject is of interest since allegations of bribery and attempted match-fixing have swirled around Finnish football in the past year or so, following claims that the former Vantaa league side Allianssi would have been involved in illegal match-fixing attempts on Asian betting markets (see attached article).


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finnish Football League to probe new match-fixing claims (13.12.2005)

Helsingin Sanomat