The former head of an international crime investigation unit has claimed Premier League players are guilty of match-fixing.
Fredrik Gardare, who led a Swedish police unit targeting organised crime in sport, claims crucial evidence, uncovered in a casino raid, has been ignored.
The bombshell revelation leaves the FA facing serious questions over how widespread the issue is and whether sanctions will be pursued.
Daily Mail Sport understands that the FA have not received the investigation’s findings from Swedish police and are keen to assess them.
Among Gardare’s previous cases included an 18-month investigation exposing ex-Manchester City midfielder Dickson Etuhu of bribery for attempting to fix matches in Sweden.
Etuhu was found guilty and banned from football in Sweden for five years.
Yet, Gardare’s final investigation into match-fixing after gathering months of intelligence resulted in a raid on an illegal casino in late 2021 to catch match-fixers in the act.
Multiple phones were confiscated in the hit, but one phone was said to have extensive evidence on messaging app Telegram of players co-operating with a criminal over fixing matches across European leagues, which included international games in the Nations League.
Multiple Premier League players were involved, claimed Gardare.
Though, the Stockholm police and Swedish police authority (the national police force) decided not to take the investigation further. He wants answers as to why it has been shelved, and says the phone is still with the police. It was the unit’s final investigation before it was disbanded.
‘It was very high priority from my side, I set my whole team on this investigation,’ he told Daily Mail Sport.
‘But at the same time, the police said, “We are finished with this” in December that year.
‘We also gave the information to the football federation here in Sweden directly and said, “This is serious”. Hopefully they called the English FA, but I don’t know.
‘This is important for both Swedish football and football in several countries. It’s important for England and international football to stop ongoing match-fixing.
‘There was more than one Premier League player (found on the phone). Betting on yellow cards, corners and other aspects in matches.
‘That phone is either sitting with Stockholm police or the national police force.’
He is calling for the police or Swedish FA to act.
He added: ‘I have worked on hundreds of match-fixing cases, and this was the clearest case you could have. It doesn’t get any clearer than being found on a confiscated mobile phone. It is a very good opportunity to do something about this.’
Swedish FA integrity officer Johan Claesson told Daily Mail Sport: ‘It is correct that the Swedish FA, back in 2021, received general intelligence from the police that they had found information regarding match-fixing on both national and international level in a phone after a raid against an illegal casino, but the intelligence we received did not contain any specifics (due to the secrecy of the on-going police investigation) that we could act on.’
The Stockholm police, Swedish police authority and Premier League were approached for comment.
