Kelong Kings: Confessions of the world's most prolific match-fixer (66 page)

Finally, I received
feedback from the source that I had hired in Singapore to track
Joseph Xie Tan down. He informed me that Joseph's address had changed
and that he could not be reached. He also added that the ticket to
Rovaniemi that Joseph had used to fly there and fix me up was issued
by Cosmos Travel, Dan's travel agency. The credit on my SIM card was
running out and I was left with just enough for one more call. I
didn't want to speak to Anthony because I was certain that he had
betrayed me so I decided to invest the last of my credit on Dan. His
telephone rang a couple of times before the fucker picked up.

"Dan", I
started, "did you fix Cuba at the Gold Cup?"

"No", he
replied, "I didn't fix Cuba. The Cubans will take anyone's
money".

"Don't play
this game with me Dan", I said bitterly, "you better give
me my share".

"Wilson",
he replied defensively, "you misused my money in Finland and
all. I'll give you 50 thousand".

"Dan, this guy,
Joseph Xie Tan. My people went to his address and he wasn't there".

"He probably
moved".

"Dan, Joseph
was in Antalya with Anthony".

Dan paused.

"Wilson",
he finally spoke, "I don't know this Joseph Xie Tan. Maybe
Anthony was hiding this guy somewhere. I don't know".

"Dan, did you
fix me up?"

"No, I didn't.
Anybody could have done it. Maybe Anthony was the one that set you
up".

"OK, good".

Chicken shit.

I was facing five
years of prison in Singapore. I couldn't go back and serve more time;
I would have gone fucking mad. So long as there was a life buoy to
save myself, I didn't give a fuck who else died. Despite Dan's
denial, I knew that he was the first one not to give a fuck about my
fate. He knew that I would serve five years if I were deported to
Singapore but had no mercy on me. Why should I have mercy on him? In
our line of business, you don't run to the police to iron out
differences. Either you destroy me, or you sit at the table and
thrash things out with me so that we can find an amicable settlement.
And Dan should have destroyed me when he had the chance.

My turning
prosecution witness wasn't going to be the first step on a righteous
path to redemption. I was doing it out of constraint: I needed to
survive. You see, we all come into this world as animals; predators.
We prey on weaker people to make money and survive. Dan, Pal, Bryan,
myself and all the others: we are match-fixers; it's our profession.
We cannot go to McDonald's and wrap burgers for a living. The police
will continue to do what they have to do and we will continue to do
what we have to do. None of us will turn over a new leaf and start
preaching; it's a simple and inescapable fact of life.

Arttu had suggested
that I try to apply for protection with other investigators from
abroad that wanted to hear my story. An Italian prosecutor visited me
in Oulu prison but I could not provide him with any useful
information. Anything about Italy coming from my mouth would have
just been hearsay in the eyes of the law.

"I've never
been to Italy", I told him. "I don't know anything. Dan, or
rather Tan Seet Eng, gave me money for two matches, 60 thousand,
Serie A".

As the winter drew
near, a Hungarian prosecutor also came to see me in prison. He placed
a voice recorder on the table and pressed the REC button.

"Do you have a
witness protection program?" I asked.

"Yes we do",
the Hungarian prosecutor said.

"OK", I
smiled, "work on it and keep me posted".

Acronyms

FA - Football
Association

ASEAN - Association
of South-East Asia Nations

FIFA - International
Federation of Association Football

CAF - Confederation
of African Football

CONCACAF
-
Confederation
of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football

UEFA
-
Union
of European Football Associations

AFC - Asian Football
Confederation

WAFU - West African
Football Union

CECAFA - Council for
East and Central Africa Football Associations

S-League - Singapore
League

FC - Football Club

FF - Football
Federation

SC - Soccer Club