The Australian police arrested three professional footballers this Friday in Sydney, including the Mexican Ulises Alejandro Dávila Plascencia, for their alleged participation in controlling the number of yellow cards in several matches, which was directed from South America to corrupt the results of bets. .
Police in the Australian state of New South Wales said in a statement that a veteran player, whom they did not identify, was allegedly receiving instructions from a man believed to be in a South American country to “organize the accumulation of yellow cards during certain matches.” in exchange for benefits.”
This veteran player would be the captain of the Macarthur club, the Mexican midfielder Ulises Dávila, 33 years old and who was the first player from his country to sign for Chelsea of ??the English Premier League in 2011. He also went through Sabadell, Córdoba and Tenerife when he began to leave the English club on loan, whose debut never occurred.
The New South Wales police, who are looking for a fourth player, alleged that this footballer managed to manipulate yellow cards in matches played by his club between November 24 and December 9, 2023 (when Macarthur faced Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC, respectively).
Likewise, Dávila tried, without success, to control the number of yellow cards during the matches played by this club in the southwest of Sydney on Saturdays, April 20 and May 4, 2024.
The deputy commissioner of the New South Wales Police, Michael Fitzgerald, explained at a press conference in Sydney that it will be alleged that “the imposition of four yellow cards and the subsequent sanctions derived from them could have changed the result of the match.”
The Police also accuse the veteran player of paying his teammates about 10,000 Australian dollars (6,662 US dollars or 6,135 euros) to seek to have these cards imposed on them, following the instructions of a South American gangster.
For his part, Detective Superintendent Peter Faux, of the Organized Crime Squad of the New South Wales State Police, explained at the press conference that the bets, estimated at “several hundred thousand dollars”, were placed “predominantly in South America.”
The other two players detained are the New Zealander Clayton Lewis and the Australian of South African origin Kearyn Baccus, also from Macarthur FC, according to the news portal news.com.au. The state police specified that the three players, detained in three locations in Sydney, will be charged with two counts of participating: in conduct that corrupts the result of betting on an event, and two counts of facilitating conduct that corrupts the result of the bets on an event.
The arrests were made by the Beaconview unit, which was created in December 2023, with the assistance of the United Kingdom Gambling Commission, to investigate this yellow card manipulation scandal, according to the police statement.
