I-League 2017/18: Minerva Punjab FC report match-fixing advances to AIFF and AFC

What’s the story?

Ranjit Bajaj, the owner of I-League club Minerva Punjab, has brought to light an incident involving his players who were offered money to fix matches of the ongoing season. Bajaj was quick to take action as he informed the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and Asian Football Confederation (AFC) about the matter and took to Twitter to disclose the news.

In case you didn’t know...

Minerva Punjab, which made its first I-League appearance in the 2016-17 season, currently occupy the top spot in the table. The team in its very second season has performed brilliantly to surge ahead of football powerhouses like East Bengal and Mohun Bagan while they have also managed to negate the challenge of Neroca FC and Aizawl FC.

Minerva have 22 points in their bag from nine games and are currently three points ahead of East Bengal, who have played one game more.

The heart of the matter

Bajaj who is very active on the micro-blogging site twitter informed that two of the Minerva players had come to him with screenshots of match-fixing offers of Rs 30 lakhs. Bajaj reported the matter to AIFF integrity officer and AFC so that strict action could be taken regarding the issue.

2 of my players came to me with screenshots of match fixing offers of 30 lakhs/I reported it to Aiff integrity officer&also AFC thru their integrity app/really hope these unscrupulous elements are not successful in getting thru2other players and match officials @ILeagueOfficial pic.twitter.com/Hs28ljflvb

— Ranjit Bajaj (@THE_RanjitBajaj) January 17, 2018

He then sent out a tweet asking the football fraternity of the country to be extra careful about these traps and ensure that the game isn’t affected by such unscrupulous practices.

We need to be ultra careful now /the cats out of the bag / it has arrived in our country /the curse of horrible people trying to ruin our beautiful game with the immediate lure of easy big money / really hope NO MATCH OFFICIALS or PLAYERS fall in this trap 🙏🏽😢@ILeagueOfficial

— Ranjit Bajaj (@THE_RanjitBajaj) January 17, 2018

What’s next?

Bajaj has the proof and now it remains to be seen what action is taken by the football governing body of the country. The miscreants should be tracked down as soon as possible.

Author’s take

We have seen these shameful incidents happening all over the world over and over again. Before the image of the beautiful game is tarnished in India, strict action should be taken against the guilty party.