Bri­an Lewis, the chair­man of the Sport In­tegri­ty Glob­al Al­liance (SIGA)-Gen­der, Race, In­clu­sion, and Di­ver­si­ty (GRID) Sports Com­mit­tee is call­ing on the T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion to ad­dress al­le­ga­tions ur­gent­ly of match-fix­ing that have been brought to them.

The scourge of match-fix­ing which has neg­a­tive­ly im­pact­ed near­ly every ma­jor pro­fes­sion­al sports league in the world, es­pe­cial­ly foot­ball and crick­et, has reared its ug­ly head in lo­cal foot­ball.

Guaya Unit­ed coach, Travis Mul­raine, has called on the TTFA to in­ves­ti­gate con­cerns of match-fix­ing which has emerged in the lo­cal game, ad­mit­ting that he has had to get rid of five play­ers who were de­ter­mined to be the cul­prits.

In­cred­i­bly, Mul­raine told Guardian Me­dia Sports that when in­formed about the pos­si­bil­i­ty of games be­ing fixed in Tier 1 and Tier 2 of the lo­cal Pre­mier Foot­ball League, rather than launch an im­me­di­ate in­ves­ti­ga­tion, the TTFA’s re­sponse was for them (Guaya) to pro­vide the ev­i­dence first.

This ap­proach was rub­bished by Lewis, who said: “Now that the coach of Guaya Unit­ed has made such an al­le­ga­tion, to sim­ply say to bring the ev­i­dence is tan­ta­mount to hid­ing your heads in the sand.

"Al­le­ga­tions of match-fix­ing in lo­cal foot­ball is some­thing that the TTFA must ad­dress and take se­ri­ous­ly. It is not the first time that there have been those al­le­ga­tions, and the re­al­i­ty is that it is well es­tab­lished that there is an in­ter­na­tion­al bet­ting syn­di­cate, and SIGA has been speak­ing about it, ad­vo­cat­ing and try­ing to get au­thor­i­ties all over the world to ad­dress the threat and the is­sue."

The im­me­di­ate past pres­i­dent of the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC) went on, "It is some­thing that the TTFA, Con­ca­caf, the Caribbean Foot­ball Union), and all the rel­e­vant au­thor­i­ties must take se­ri­ous­ly and ad­dress. I am sure that the SIGA will be more than hap­py to as­sist in what­ev­er way it can, as like every­thing else neg­a­tive, it must be nipped in the bud. We can­not turn a blind eye and not take it se­ri­ous­ly or ad­dress it, as it is a cause for grave con­cern."

As to the lo­cal match-fix­ing, Mul­raine, a for­mer na­tion­al mid­field­er now turned coach, de­scribed it as be­ing run by an in­ter­na­tion­al bet­ting syn­di­cate that al­lows lo­cal play­ers to be paid based on the re­sults of their match­es.

He be­lieves the TTFA should do more than just ask them for con­crete proof, “The on­ly form of ev­i­dence we had was from peo­ple who spoke about the ac­tu­al play­ers plac­ing bets, fol­lowed by the re­sults of the games. I be­lieve once an al­le­ga­tion of that na­ture has been re­port­ed, the TTFA should do every­thing in its pow­er to in­ves­ti­gate it."

SIGA, a Gene­va, Switzer­land-based non-prof­it glob­al in­de­pen­dent or­ga­ni­za­tion, is con­sid­ered the world's lead­ing or­gan­i­sa­tion for Sport In­tegri­ty and is co-chaired by Karin Ko­rb.