Need help from police to rid Goan football of match-fixing: Caitano

Panaji: The Goa Football Association (GFA) will approach Goa police after it receives a report from its ethics committee which is probing match-fixing in the Goa Professional League.
Following a complaint from Chapora Yuvak Sangh, whose president Pravin Dabholkar accused nine of his own players of meeting an alleged match fixer – identified as Sandy -- and fixing GPL matches for monetary gains, GFA tasked its ethics committee to probe the matter. Retired deputy superintendent of police (DySP) Sandesh Chodankar was also appointed as the integrity officer and asked to investigate.
Chodankar’s investigation has concluded that there is definite match-fixing in the Goan football and 14 players have now been chargesheeted. They’ve been provided with ten days to file their replies.
“The ethics committee will meet to deliberate on the replies and impose sanctions,” GFA president Caitano Fernandes told TOI on Sunday. “We are expecting the entire report to be sent to the executive committee by the second or third week of March. The committee will then meet to implement and action the ethics committee report with only one item on the agenda. Based on the recommendations of the ethics committee, we will also think of filing a complaint with the Goa police.”
The GFA had previously filed a complaint with the crime branch of Goa police. Players were summoned but there appears to be no headway, at least till now.
“When I took over GFA (in 2022), there were already allegations of match fixing plaguing the league. We immediately filed a complaint with crime branch, the investigation of which is still pending. Since that complaint, the number of red-flagged matches have come down considerably. In fact, Genius Sports were highly appreciative of our efforts, and the red-flagged matches have been reduced by more than 80%. We need police help to rid Goan football of this menace,” said Caitano.
Genius Sports, an international betting monitor, are the integrity partners of GFA. In 2020, the London-based company first red-flagged matches in Goan football which had suspicious betting patterns, indicative of match-fixing. A match is red flagged when betting monitors are unable to express confidence in the integrity of the match since there is “something genuinely concerning” about the betting.
GFA said it has been active in combating match fixing with integrity workshops for all teams, police complaints and regular interactions with Genius Sports, its data partner which also tracks betting patterns across the world.
“I was vocal during the last tenure as well about match-fixing when several matches were repeatedly red flagged,” said GFA vice president Jonathan de Sousa. “When I got elected as vice president (in 2022), I told the president that the first thing we needed to do was to eradicate this menace. The president and entire executive committee has been very supportive in working towards cleaning up the system and ensuring that all involved face the strictest punishment.”
For the past five years, international betting monitors have told GFA about suspicious betting patterns. Such attempts have continued unabated since none of those involved has been caught by the police or punished by the authorities.