Six people linked to a Victorian Premier League (VPL) football team have been charged over an alleged international match-fixing ring.
Head Coach of Southern Stars Football Club was arrested on Sunday, along with nine players.
Police say they have so far identified more than $2 million in betting winnings from the alleged syndicate.
At an out-of-session hearing in St Kilda on Sunday evening, police prosecutors claimed Gerry Gsubramaniam, 45, was a key contact between the international fixers and the Southern Stars.
Prosecutor Scott Poynder alleged that Subramanian advised the team how to play and told them what scores to aim for.
Subramanian was charged with five counts of conduct that corrupts betting results, as well as five additional counts of conduct that facilitates corruption of betting results.
Acting Senior Sergeant Poynder argued that Subramanian posed an unacceptable flight risk and that phone records revealed he had attempted to change his passport and plane ticket details.
Subramanian was remanded in custody to appear in the Melbourne Magistrates Court this morning.
The Purana Task Force and Sports Integrity Intelligence Unit began their investigation in August after a tip from Football Federation Australia (FFA).
The court heard the investigation focused on four Southern Stars football matches.
British citizen and professional footballer Joe Wooley, 23, also appeared in court charged with four counts of conduct corrupting betting results.
Wooley, one of the Southern Stars’ goalkeepers, has been described as another key figure in the ring.
He has been released on bail and is due to appear in Melbourne Magistrates Court on September 20.
A third player, Reiss Noel, 24, faced the same charges and was released on bail.
Players risk lifetime and worldwide bans
FFA chief executive David Gallop said his organization would also seek to take action against those arrested.
“We will initiate procedures in accordance with our own codes of conduct,” he said.
“You can be sure we will throw the book at these authors. That means lifetime bans globally.”
The FFA was alerted to the betting activity by its monitoring service Sportradar, an independent agency which also works with the Union of European Football Associations and European competitions.
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Gallop says there is no evidence to indicate similar betting patterns are taking place in other state leagues.
But he says limited media coverage of semi-professional football means those competitions could be under threat.
“It’s probably fair to say that this highlights the fact that lower league matches, which are not subject to the scrutiny that live TV broadcasts are, are potentially more susceptible to this type of activity,” Gallop said.
Gallop says the arrests should serve as a warning for all sporting competitions in Australia.
“It’s clearly distressing for everyone in Australian sport – we knew this threat existed,” he said.
“What we can say is that the detection measures we have put in place have worked and that is a sign that we are working in the right direction, but we must remain vigilant.”
Southern Stars sit bottom of the VPL table, having won just one match in 21 this season and with a goal difference of minus 43.
