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El Salvador 'refuse bribe to fix match'

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Goat

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El Salvador's national football team say they have refused a bribe to fix Tuesday's World Cup 2018 qualifying game against Canada.

At a news conference, team members played an audio recording of the person allegedly offering various incentives.

Canada must beat El Salvador - who cannot qualify - in Vancouver, and hope Mexico defeat Honduras in the final round of Group A games to stand a chance of progressing.

Fifa confirmed it is investigating.

"It's the most dramatic thing in football I've seen for some time" investigative journalist Declan Hill told the BBC World Service. "The entire team came in with their coaches and said they had been approached on Saturday.

"They played an 11-minute conversation with the attempted match-fixer. He was offering each player a variety of money per minute depending on the result they could get. The most they would have got for allegedly fixing the match would have been about $3,000 per player."

Hill said the offer was allegedly made by an El Salvadorian who knew some of the players, but who wanted to aid the Honduras national team.

The BBC has approached the Honduras football association for comment.

A Fifa spokesman said it is "aware of the claims" and that "in co-operation with the respective organisations and authorities, Fifa is looking into this matter".

Canada, El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico are members of the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf).

Three Concacaf nations will automatically qualify for the 2018 World Cup, which is being staged in Russia, with a fourth entering a play-off against a team from the Asian Football Confederation.
 

How the hell would El Salvador fixing the game -- by losing deliberately, one would suspect, given my national team couldn't beat an egg -- aid Honduras?
 

Wouldn't be surprised if someone offered Trinidad and Tobago the same sort of deal in their match with the USA. T&T are already qualified for the Hex and for all intents and purposes, so are the Yanks.
 
How the hell would El Salvador fixing the game -- by losing deliberately, one would suspect, given my national team couldn't beat an egg -- aid Honduras?

A man from Honduras offered El Salvador a bonus if they beat canada, a smaller bonus if they drew with them, and a still smaller bonus if they lost by only one goal.

All of which would see Honduras finish above canada.

It's not match fixing, it's offering bonuses for doing well to a team with no motivation to win as they can't qualify.
 
A man from Honduras offered El Salvador a bonus if they beat canada, a smaller bonus if they drew with them, and a still smaller bonus if they lost by only one goal.

All of which would see Honduras finish above canada.

It's not match fixing, it's offering bonuses for doing well to a team with no motivation to win as they can't qualify.

Then the story should have said incentives being offered, not a "bribe to fix the match" as that implies taking a dive. And given the state of the Canadian men's program, El Salvador hardly needs bonuses to give them the winning edge.
 

A man from Honduras offered El Salvador a bonus if they beat canada, a smaller bonus if they drew with them, and a still smaller bonus if they lost by only one goal.

All of which would see Honduras finish above canada.

It's not match fixing, it's offering bonuses for doing well to a team with no motivation to win as they can't qualify.
Are such payments legal?
 

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