“I fixed EFL matches, I’d have bags of cash in changing rooms and once took home £500k”- Former Crystal Palace Young player of the year and academy graduate reflects on match fixing addict that ended his football career

Moses Swaibu had a bright future at Crystal Palace – but it was soon replaced by the dark reality of match fixing.

The 35-year-old was just 17 when he scooped Palace’s Young Player of the Year and Scholar of the Year awards. But he failed to make a first-team breakthrough after Neil Warnock took charge in 2007, being released a year later.

Swaibu slipped down the leagues, spending two years with Lincoln City in League Two. It was there he was first introduced to the underworld of fixers, who would offer tens of thousands of pounds for players to influence the outcome of matches. He and three of his team-mates were promised the equivalent of £60,000 in euros to make sure they were losing 1-0 at half-time of their next fixture.

However, the temptation for Swaibu only grew greater as he continued to fall down the English footballing pyramid. By 23, he was expecting a baby with his partner and playing regularly in defence for National League South side Bromley. That was all the motivation he needed.

Explaining his middleman role of organising meetings and setting up players with fixers, he said: “I would go to established businesses – say a restaurant – open up a locked door that would look like a toilet or a store cupboard and find piles of money stacked up.

“It would be a lot. It was piled up to my torso and I am 6ft 3in. I would bundle it up in rubber bands and seal it with cling film. I would be carrying a big bag – like I was going to the gym – but, it was a towel over the top and then just cash underneath. One night, I brought home £500,000.”

Swaibu was well aware of the dangerous waters he was swimming in. But he embraced it all the same and couldn’t help but continue to cash in illegally. He continued: “It made me so paranoid. I didn’t wear anything flashy, I rarely drove, I was always thinking, who else is on this train? What might my neighbour have seen?

“But despite the paranoia, I liked it. I was getting money fast and quick – 45 min and 90 min – that became an addiction. But it wasn’t the money after a certain stage, a lot of it came from power.”

There was only so long the suspicious betting activity on the sixth tier of English football from syndicates across the other side of the world could go unnoticed, though. The FA opened an investigation in the 2012/13 season, by which point it had become an open secret at multiple clubs.

The NCA (National Crime Agency) had followed him to a meeting and before he knew it, Swaibu was in cuffs and charged with conspiracy to defraud in January 2014.

He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit bribery in April 2015 and jailed for 16 months. Fast forward nearly a decade and Swaibu’s now looking to use his knowledge of fixing for the good fo the game, working with FIFA, the Premier League and the Sport Integrity Global Alliance to identify and prevent players from falling into the same trap he did.