Daily Times

KARACHI: Organisers of a local football tournament in Karachi have expelled a team from an ongoing Ramzan tournament in the city after it was confirmed that the team was involved in match-fixing. Nasir Ismail, the tournament secretary, confirmed that National Shaheen Football Club was expelled from the tournament after its game against Babul Sports Football Club was found to be fixed. The match was played on Thursday evening in which National Shaheen was aiming to win by not less than a margin of three goals, and it did with a margin of 6-3. The video of the match went viral as several viewers suspected wrongdoing by the players during the final minutes of the match.

Ismail said Saturday that the tournament committee investigated the matter and agreed that players were involved in fixing, however, they cleared match officials of any wrongdoing. “As a result of our investigation, we have expelled National Shaheen FC from the semi-final and Burma Sports, the next better-ranked team, has been included in the semi-final line-up,” he said. “The other team was also eliminated from the race to the final four and it was their last match,” Nasir confirmed.

He also expressed his disappointment at the incident and said that such actions were not a good sign for football and that’s why action was taken against the team and players. Meanwhile, Babul Sports Football Club has also confirmed that its players were involved in match-fixing and multiple players were suspended. “It has come to our knowledge that players did some chats during halftime and subsequently played a fixed game in the second half of the game,” the club said in the statement. “We have suspended a few players for four months and have also imposed a fine on three players as they also looked suspicious during the play,” the statement concluded.