• Admits getting £70,000 for red card against Oldham
• Claims players get £30,000 for yellow card, £50,000 for red
• He can get crooked players to manipulate World Cup games
An ex-Premier League footballer faces arrest after he was filmed bragging that he can arrange for professional footballers to get yellow cards or even sent off in return for cash.
Sam Sodje, who played for Portsmouth and also in the top flight at Reading, says he can guarantee certain events in play in return for money.
In the video, 34-year-old Nigerian defender Sodje brags that he can arrange for a player to get themselves booked for a £30,000 pay-out.
Fraudsters can capitalise on this through in-game betting, where they put large bets on incidents like red and yellow cards, penalties and even corner kicks.
In the video recorded by an undercover reporter from the Sun on Sunday, Sodje claims he fixed it for an ex-Premier League player, who now plays in the Championship, to get a yellow card and can even organise similar events in Premier League games – for a much greater price because of the huge fines for players at that level.
He even boasted he can arrange for African players to influence what happens in World Cup games, claiming some players could be easily tempted to fix because they do not get paid as much to represent their national teams.
He added that it was child’s play for a player to get a yellow card, as they are so common no one suspects anything is amiss and the player can continue playing afterwards.
He said: ‘This guy came to meet me at my house and it was sorted. That’s how easy it is – it’s nothing.’
Now police are investigating after the Sun on Sunday handed over information on Sodje, gathered over a period of four months by an undercover reporter posing as a middleman for a betting syndicate based in the Far East.
Sodje and his brother Stephen claim they can even get players sent off – an event which can cripple a team’s chances in a game – for between £50,000 and £70,000.
He even said he could set up a bet an entire week before a game, while he warned the reporter not to pay one player rumoured to be involved in fixing matches because the sportsman was already under scrutiny.
Sodje spoke of meeting a Premiership player in a Manchester hotel room, as well as at the home of another to discuss a potential fix. The footage also shows him admitting punching an opponent in the groin to get sent off for a £70,000 pay-out.
While playing for Portsmouth, Sodje punched Oldham Athletic’s Jose Baxter twice in the game, which took place in February. He said: ‘Do you know how much I got fined? I got fined £10k and I missed six games.’
He said he had to launch the bizarre attack as the referee had not been booking him for tackling. The reporters also claim to have met with Cristian Montano, who was allegedly supposed to get booked in a game against Wolves in the first half – but failed.
