NSW Police to investigate NRL match-fixing allegations

With NSW Police to investigate allegations of match-fixing during the 2015 National Rugby League season, NRL Chief Executive Todd Greenberg has said anyone found to have involvement in match-fixing would face severe consequences.

Speaking following allegations made in Fairfax media reports alleging match-fixing involving two matches played last year, both involving the Manly Sea Eagles, Greenberg (pictured above) stated "the response from the NRL will be very clear. If any allegation of match-fixing is proven against any person, whether a player or an official, they will face the harshest possible penalties.

"We will ban anyone found guilty for life."

With the NSW Police Organised Crime Squad investigating the allegations, Greenberg said the NRL was cooperating with authorities, advising "whatever the police require, they will get from the NRL and from our integrity unit.

"There is nothing more important than the integrity of our sport."

NSW Police are in the early stages of examining information relating to the allegations relating to two matches in last year's NRL season, the round 16 game between Manly and the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the round 24 match between Manly and the Parramatta Eels.

The allegations involve professional gambler and former brothel owner Eddie Hayson who, with the round 16 game, is alleged to have collected $500,000 in cash to bet on Souths winning by more than eight points.

The final score saw Souths win 20-8.

Hayson, who is a person of interest to the Police investigation, has a long history of placing large bets on NRL fixtures is already banned for life from Sydney's The Star casino, was banned from betting with the TAB earlier this year.

It is not the first time police have investigated match-fixing in the NRL.

The NRL was last hit by match-fixing allegations in 2010 when Ryan Tandy was convicted of trying to fix the early stages of a match between his Canterbury team and North Queensland.

Tandy was fined $4,000 and placed on a 12-month good-behaviour bond after he was found guilty of match-fixing.

A court found there had been a plan to manipulate the first scoring of a 2010 game between the Bulldogs and the North Queensland Cowboys.

Tandy was then banned for life by the NRL and, in 2014, died after suffering a reported drug overdose.

Allegations of match fixing in Australian sport were also a key part of the findings of the 2013 Organised Crime and Drugs in Sport report, although subsequent investigations focused on doping rather than match-fixing.

In May this year, Australian Sports Commission Chairman John Wylie has written to national sporting organisations and professional clubs across the country imploring board directors to follow new integrity guidelines to help insulate their organisations from the growing risks of match-fixing and doping.

In a five-page document, Wylie implores volunteer directors to be vigilant, stating “the integrity risks to sport are increasing in a range of areas, not just in doping and illicit drugs but in match-fixing and areas like that.”

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