Organizers of a local football tournament in Karachi disqualify team over match-fixing

Football Club National Shaheen was expelled from the tournament after its game versus Babul Sports Football Club was discovered to be fixed.

April 16, 2022
Football Club National Shaheen (Green Kit) — Facebook Video Screengrab

KARACHI: Organizers of a local football tournament in Karachi have expelled a team from the ongoing Ramzan Tournament in the city after it was confirmed that the team was involved in match-fixing.

Nasir Ismail, the tournament secretary of the Naya Nazimabad Ramzan Football tournament, confirmed that Football Club National Shaheen was expelled from the tournament after its game versus Babul Sports Football Club was discovered to be fixed.

The match was played on Thursday evening in which National Shaheen was aiming to win by not less than a margin of three goals, and it did with a margin of 6-3.

The video of the match went viral as much suspected wrongdoing by the players during the final minutes of the match.

Nasir Ismail told Geo that the tournament committee investigated the matter, and it agreed that players were involved in match-fixing. However, they cleared match officials of any wrongdoing.

“As a result of our investigation, we have expelled National Shaheen FC from the semi-final, and Burma Sports, the next better-ranked team, has been included in the semi-final line-up,” he said.

“The other team was also eliminated from the race to the final four, and it was their last match,” Nasir confirmed.

He also expressed his disappointment at the incident and said that such was not a good sign for football and that’s why action was taken against the team and players.

Meanwhile, Babul Sports Football Club has also confirmed that its players were involved in match-fixing, and multiple players were suspended.

“It has come to our knowledge that players did some chats during halftime and subsequently played a fixed game in the second half of the game,” the club said in the statement.

“We have suspended a few players for four months and have also imposed a fine on three players as they also looked suspected during the play,” the statement concluded.

Faizan Lakhani is Deputy Editor (Sports) at Geo News.

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