Premier League footballers have been accused of involvement in an international match-fixing ring after evidence allegedly linking England’s top-flight players to betting scams was discovered during a Swedish police raid but never acted upon, a former crime unit chief has revealed.
Fredrik Gardare, who once led a Swedish police team investigating organised crime in sport, has claimed a 2021 raid on an illegal casino uncovered incriminating material linking players in England’s top flight to betting scams. The explosive allegations have prompted the Football Association to express keen interest in reviewing the findings, though Swedish authorities have yet to share the evidence.
The claims centre on what Gardare describes as the most “clear-cut” case of corruption he encountered during a career spanning hundreds of investigations. “It was very high priority from my side, I set my whole team on this investigation,” he explained. But at the same time, the police said, ‘We are finished with this’ in December that year.
According to Gardare, multiple mobile phones were seized during the raid, but one in particular contained extensive conversations about fixing games across Europe, including Nations League fixtures. The former detective made the startling claim that evidence of multiple Premier League players was discovered on the confiscated device.
There was more than one Premier League player (found on the phone),” he claimed. “Betting on yellow cards, corners and other aspects in matches. That phone is either sitting with Stockholm police or the national police force.
The Swedish investigator expressed frustration that the evidence has remained untouched since his specialist unit was disbanded shortly after the discovery. Gardare insists the evidence should have been acted upon immediately, either by the Swedish authorities or by passing the material to their English counterparts.
We also gave the information to the football federation here in Sweden directly and said, ‘This is serious. Hopefully they called the English FA, but I don’t know,” he said.
The former crime unit chief stressed the international implications of the alleged corruption. This is important for both Swedish football and football in several countries. It’s important for England and international football to stop ongoing match-fixing.
Gardare’s credentials in exposing football corruption are well-established. He oversaw the 18-month inquiry that ended with former Manchester City midfielder Dickson Etuhu being found guilty of bribery in Sweden and banned from football for five years.
Etuhu, a former Nigerian international, was flagged by a fellow team member for attempting to influence the outcome of a game between AIK, the team Etuhu joined as a free agent in 2014, and IFK Gothenburg in May 2017. After AIK’s first choice goalkeeper was out of the game with an injury, reserve goalkeeper, Canadian-born Kyriakos Stamatopoulos, was approached by Etuhu and another player, former IFK Rössjöholm Alban Jusufi, and offered SEK2 million /£160,000/ to underperform during the game.
Instead, the former Canada keeper reported the bribery attempt and the match got flagged and postponed. Following a lengthy investigation and court proceedings, the Swedish Football Association handed Etuhu a five-year ban from all football activities in the country in April 2020.
The latest revelations about Premier League players allegedly involved in match-fixing represent a significant escalation from previous Swedish football corruption cases. Yet this latest investigation was effectively halted when his unit was disbanded, leaving the alleged evidence untouched.
“I have worked on hundreds of match-fixing cases, and this was the clearest case you could have,” he said. “It doesn’t get any clearer than being found on a confiscated mobile phone. It is a very good opportunity to do something about this.”
The Football Association has not received any material from the Swedish police, though officials are said to be keen to review the findings, according to the Mail. The governing body’s interest in examining the evidence underscores the seriousness of the allegations and potential ramifications for English football.
The Swedish FA confirmed they had been alerted to the case in late 2021 but stressed they were not given specific details. Integrity officer Johan Claesson said: “It is correct that the Swedish FA, back in 2021, received general intelligence from the police that they had found information regarding match-fixing on both national and international level in a phone after a raid against an illegal casino, but the intelligence we received did not contain any specifics (due to the secrecy of the on-going police investigation) that we could act on.
The timing of the unit’s disbandment has raised questions about why such potentially explosive evidence was not pursued further. Sweden has faced ongoing challenges with match-fixing in recent years, with the Swedish Football Association agreeing that Sportradar will monitor more than 2,000 matches from the Swedish Ettan, Division 2, U21 Allsvenskan, U19 Allsvenskan, and club friendlies involving Swedish teams during the 2021 season using Sportradar’s Fraud Detection System (FDS).
In 2021, the Swedish Football Association suspended four players for betting and match-fixing breaches. The players received bans of four, five, six and seven years respectively. These cases demonstrate Sweden’s ongoing battle against corruption in football, making the decision not to pursue the Premier League allegations all the more puzzling.
The alleged involvement of Nations League fixtures adds an international dimension to the scandal, potentially implicating players beyond England’s domestic competition. The discovery of Telegram messages between footballers and criminal fixers suggests a sophisticated operation spanning multiple countries and competitions.
Match-fixing remains one of football’s most serious threats, undermining the integrity of the sport and potentially involving organised crime networks. The prospect that Premier League players may have been compromised represents a significant challenge for authorities already grappling with betting-related scandals.
The revelation that crucial evidence may be sitting unused in Swedish police custody while match-fixing potentially continues unchecked has sparked calls for immediate action. With the football Association expressing interest in reviewing the findings, pressure is mounting on Swedish authorities to share the evidence that could expose corruption at the highest levels of English football.
As questions mount about why the investigation was abandoned and what the confiscated phones might reveal, the football world awaits answers about allegations that could shake the foundations of the Premier League and international football.
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