Former Kenyan international Willis Ochieng is one of the players who allegedly benefited from match-fixing bribes in the Finnish football league.
According to a report appearing in the Standard, IFK Mariehamn manager Peter Mattson said their former goalkeeper Ochieng was among the 12 players who were involved in the scandal. The keeper was suspected of receiving $70 500 (€50 250) in bribes in connection with two away games the club lost in September and October last year.
"We wondered why he let in a couple of easy goals, but he just apologised and promised to try harder," Mattson said. “He was a good goalie."
Ochieng’ joined the Finnish club in August 2007 and left Finland in October last year. He currently plays for Tanzanian giants, Simba FC.
Police said the match-fixing was connected to Wilson Raj Perumal, a Singaporean man being held in jail and suspected of bribing players in the Finnish league since 2008. He was arrested in February after being caught carrying false identity papers.
Mattson said he was surprised at the scale of match-fixing in Finland, where football is not a popular spectator sport.
"We’ve never seen anything like this before, I’m very, very disappointed," he said.
"Maybe some good has come from it after all. It will make us all the more vigilant in the future," Mattson said.