Yet another incredible piece of the puzzle has been added to the match-fixing allegations in Ligue 2 which have gripped the nation.
Already we’ve heard about how cases of Nîmois wine were reportedly ordered at half-time in the game for the Caen players after their 1-1 draw which secured the Normandy side promotion and the Languedoc outfit salvation from relegation.
Then, this morning, the French satirical paper ‘La Canard Enchaîné’ published transcripts of conversations between the Nîmes shareholder Antoine Emmanuelli and a number of key members, including Nîmes President Jean-Marc Conrad.
The tapes potentially expose Nîmes, Bastia, Caen and Dijon, and in another turn an anonymous player who claimed he had been approached by Nîmes in the last three league games has spoken to RMC.
“After a game, my agents came to tell me they had been contacted by an intermediary to offer me to more or less throw the match against Nimes. I was made make a decision there and then. I said it did not interest me at all. It shocked me and my guys that they could offer me such a deal. I’m a father and I’d have no dignity to be willing to accept this kind of deal.”
This was confirmed by Pierre Ducrocq, the technical director of a consulting agency for players:
“I was actually contacted with an offer of corruption for us. It was immediately refused but we talked to our players because it is our role to prevent, to avoid an approach with another person. He told me he wouldn’t touch it. People who call you for these kind of things are not very direct. They do this subtly but you understand very quickly that they are not there for the correct reasons.”
Follow the latest developments in this extraordinary match-fixing scandal with Get French Football News.
K.G.
