By NOEL MURPHY
GEELONG author Neil Humphreys feels “a bit like Nostradamus” over Victoria’s A-league soccer scandal.
The central character in his 2010 best-selling novel, Match Fixer, trials at Melbourne Victory and lives in Geelong – a little close for comfort given this week’s multi-million-dollar corruption in the sport.
“I feel a bit like Nostradamus … but even I couldn’t have predicted match-fixing would’ve reached Victoria within a couple of years of the novel’s publication,” Mr Humphreys told the Independent from his base in Singapore.
“This is, of course, the last thing the round ball game needs in Australia. The pro-AFL crowd rarely need an excuse to give soccer a kick.”
Mr Humphreys described match-fixing as a “cancer eating the game from the inside out”.
The inspiration for his book, convicted Singapore match-fixer Wilson Raj Perumal, allegedly directed the $2 million Australian rigging while assisting police investigating similar activities in Europe.
“Match-fixing is a hydra – chop off a head and another half a dozen will immediately mushroom,” Mr Humphreys said.
“Wilson Raj Perumal represents one match-fixing syndicate. There are at least half a dozen we know of in Singapore right now.”
Mr Humphreys doubted authorities could clamp down on the illegal practice in an age of borderless media.
“What can Victoria really do when a Singaporean match-fixing kingpin is allegedly rigging games from house arrest in Hungary?
“I’ve actually seen Wilson Raj Perumal’s phone contact list – the full list of contacts he had when he was arrested in Finland back in 2011. There are names on the list linked to alleged syndicates in Asia, Africa, Asia-Pacific.
“There are more than 200 names so this is just the tip of the iceberg.’’
Mr Humphreys, a former international sports journalist, has written four books with sales of more than 100,000 copies. He lived at Highton before recently moving to Singapore with his young family.
