Match-fixing fears as Harimau Muda A joins Aussie league

UPDATE Feb 17, 9.39am: "I am saddened that our participation in Queensland has been put in the spotlight for the wrong reasons. Tigers A will play in Queensland to prepare for the Asian Games." - FA of Malaysia general secretary Hamidin Amin.

Read more here.

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One of the world's foremost authorities on football match fixing has warned the inclusion of a Malaysian side in the upcoming National Premier Leagues Queensland could expose the competition to the influence of Asian betting syndicates.

But Football Queensland has dismissed the possibility, saying it was a "long bow" to draw.
Harimau Muda A, the Malaysian under-22 side, will play for competition points in the 14-team NPL Queensland competition from next month.

However, the side will be ineligible to make the finals and will instead use the competition as preparation for Asian international competitions.

International match fixing expert Declan Hill, the author of The Fix and The Insider's Guide to Match Fixing, told Fairfax Media that situation left the NPL Queensland more open to corruption.
Hill was quoted in the article as saying:
"You have these guys saying 'what does it matter?'. It should be a case of if they win it, then great, let them win it - everyone else can lift their games next season.
"I can't understand why a league administrator would have a team play on these terms."
However, Football Queensland chief operations officer Ben Mannion, the head of NPL Queensland said:
"We've gone through the right channels with the (Football Federation of Australia), the (Asian Football Confederation) and also FIFA, who are across it, and we've got Sportradar that we work with at the FFA level, which is an internationally renowned agency to monitor sports betting and stop match fixing.
 "We write to those departments within 48 hours of every match, with all the official things that happened within the game, so that they can register any abnormal betting trends and report back to the FFA and back to us."

Read the full article here.

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