Finnish police investigating Kenyan goalkeeper Ochieng for match fixing

Veikkausliiga team Mariehamn IFK, who are currently 4th in the league after six matches of the new season, are the third Finnish football club to have one or more members of the playing staff under suspicion of involvement in match-fixing.

On Wednesday morning, MIFK published a notice on its website to the effect that the National Bureau of Investigation - Finland's central criminal police - are looking for the team's former goalkeeper, Kenyan Willis Ochieng.

According to the MIFK statement, it is believed that the Singaporean businessman Wilson Raj Perumal - being held in custody on charges of passing bribes to players in order to secure the desired results - would have paid Ochieng a total of EUR 50,000 for two games in which he was involved last autumn.

Kenyan international goalkeeper  Willis Ochieng

MIFK has been kept informed of the suspicions by the NBI during the course of the spring.

According to the police, the allegations concern matches played on September 20 2010 and October 2 2010. Both these games ended in 2-1 defeats for Mariehamn.

The police have not as yet managed to contact Ochieng. According to the MIFK Chairman Peter Mattsson, the Kenyan keeper left Mariehamn for places unknown last autumn.

The club has since heard that Ochieng has recently signed on the roster of Simba SC, a side based in the Tanzanian capital Dar es Salaam, although this is not confirmed on the Simba SC website.

Mattsson reports that he has been kept abreast by the NBI of developments as they involved the former goalkeeper since the beginning of April.

Mattsson is also naturally at pains to point out that the MIFK organisation is not under suspicion, nor are any other members of the current playing staff.

The case of Wilson Raj Perumal and nine RoPS players will begin in June.

Elsingin Sanomat

International Edition - Sport