A Singaporean has claimed that he helped fix Nigeria's qualification to the 2010 World Cup hosted by South Africa.
According to Wilson Raj Perumal, in his new book; Kelong Kings, written in conjunction with investigative journalists, Alessandro Righi and Emanuele Piano, he had a hand in the Super Eagles' qualification for their fourth World Cup outing by influencing results of some matches to favour Nigeria.
Perumal, a self-confessed match-fixer who was part of a syndicate that has been placed at the heart of a sophisticated network responsible for fixing hundreds of matches around the world, claimed that he promised the Mozambique FA the sum of $100,000 as bonus if they were able to hold Tunisia to a draw, which would hinder Tunisia from overtaking Nigeria on the log and Mozambique eventually defeated Tunisia 1-0.
He further said that he influenced three players on his payroll to ensure Nigeria's victory in one of the qualifiers for Nigeria to go through.
"My plan had worked and I was the unsung hero of Nigeria's qualification to the final rounds of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa," Perumal said in his new book.
In a shocking claim, the match fixer said that Nigeria football authorities promised him the right to organise their pre-2010 World Cup friendlies as well as part of the money FIFA pays to help teams prepare for the tournament.
Apart from helping Nigeria to the World Cup in 2010, Perumal also claimed he ferried Houduras to the same competition.
His words: "Ferrying Nigeria and Honduras to the World Cup was a personal achievement. I got two teams to qualify for the World Cup but I cannot tell anyone."
However, former President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Alhaji Sani Lulu in a recent reaction, denied the allegations, saying the Super Eagles qualification to the world football showpiece in 2010 was as a result of hard work by the team and the NFF.
Lulu stated that no match was played without him at the time, in the core of its organization and the NFF had no arrangement of any form with Perumal during or after the qualification stage, infact he stated that the NFF never met Perumal and they don't know him.
The former NFF boss further challenged Perumal to come out with any proof of such transactions between himself and NFF.
"Let him bring out evidence of any transaction he had with the NFF if any,
"no government agency could have done anything of the sort without the consent of the NFF. Let him bring evidence of the transaction he had with any body."
"I followed due process in everything We did and the three friendly matches we had before the World Cup were against Austria in Saudi Arabia, played against Columbia in London and finally against Korea in South Africa before the World Cup. In fact we paid Columbia $100,000 because we needed the match dearly.
"In all the cases, we never met anybody called Wilson Raj Perumal. I don't know him," Lulu said.
Tunisia, Mozambique and Kenya contested the World Cup ticket with Nigeria in the African qualifying Group B.
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