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East Bengal’s AFC Cup referees charged for receiving sexual bribes

AFC Cup - Tampines Rovers FC v East Bengal Club

The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) of Singapore has charged the three Lebanese referees who were orignally chosen to officiate East Bengal’s 4-2 AFC Cup Group H away win against Tampines Rovers FC on Wednesday. The Lebanese referees received sexual bribes in exchange for fixing the AFC Cup match.

FIFA Referee Ali Sabbagh (34) and his assistant referees Abdallah Taleb (37) and Ali Eid (33) were replaced by officials from Thailand and Malaysia on matchday after the CPIB took the three officials into custody hours before the kick-off.

Sabbagh and Taleb were remanded pending a bail hearing on April 10, while Eid has been hospitalized subordinate court judge Kamala Ponnampalam informed.

The three officials were provided with woman for free sexual services at Singapore’s Amara Hotel in the morning before the match according to the information coming from Singapore.

“Ali Sabbagh, Ali Eid and Abdallah Taleb were produced in court, each with a charge of one count of corruptly receiving gratification, in the form of free sexual service,” the CPIB said in an official statement. “Singapore has always adopted a zero tolerance approach towards corruption, and match fixing of any form is not condoned in Singapore.”

“The CPIB investigates into match-fixing through bribery cases and will not hesitate to take action against any parties involved if they had given or received bribes to fix a match.”

“The Bureau works closely with the Football Association of Singapore and the authorities to keep the local soccer scene clean.”

Lebanese Football Association president Hachem Haydar told BLOOMBERG in an interview: “They are some of the excellent referees here. They are good referees, they have a good performance and their attitude is very good. We are all surprised that something happened.”

“They are the elite. All the people here are shocked, we know them they are very good persons. I don’t know what happened with this exactly,” Haydar added.

The Lebanese officials will face a maximum jail term of 5 years and a fine of as much as $80,700 if convicted.

East Bengal’s AFC Cup match is the first one involving an Indian club which has been connected with match-fixing. Syndicates from Singapore are key parts of global match-fixing rings named by Interpol recently.