Afghanistan FA president aided match fixing, former players claim

Several former Afghanistan players have claimed the president of the country's football federation ordered them to fix two matches during a men's tournament in Malaysia.

- Ed Aarons , Romain Molina

The former captain Djelaludin Sharityar and the goalkeeper Aimal Gerowal are among those to have accused Mohammad Kargar - who has been president of the AFF since January 2019 and previously had two spells as coach of the senior men's team- of working in collaboration with the notorious match-fixer Wilson Raj Perumal and Dan Tan to arrange the results of games against Nepal and Sierra Leone at the Merdeka tournament in 2008. Tan was described in 2013 by Interpol as head of the "world's largest and most aggressive match-fixing syndicate" but denies wrongdoing.

In October 2019 Fifa banned for life the former Afghanistan player Mohammad Salim Israfeel Kohistani and six other internationals after "an investigation lasting several years" that centred around matches that the convicted Singapore-based match-fixer Perumal had attempted to manipulate for betting purposes.

Several players who were part of the Afghanistan squad have alleged that Kargar was also involved in a plot with Perumal and his associate Tan in exchange for each player being paid $2,500 at the friendly tournament in Malaysia.

Sharityar and three other Germany-based players in the squad told the Guardian they refused to take part in the alleged fix and the former captain said he pleaded with Kargar not to go ahead with a plan to draw 2-2 against Nepal at the Petaling Jaya Stadium in Selangor on 16 October 2008.