Four Laos players suspended in fixing probe

THE Asia n Footba l l Confederat ion said yesterday t hat it had prov isiona l ly suspended fou r Laos nat iona lteam members as it investigates suspected manipu lat ion of “mult iple matches” going back years.

T he players – Say na k honev ieng Phommapanya, Chinta na Sou k savath, Moukda Souksavath and Phatt ha na Sy v i lay – were prov isiona l ly suspended for 60 days for “va r ious v iolat ions . . . related to suspected match manipulation”, the AFC said in a statement.

The Kua la Lumpur-based federation added t hat ot her footba llers a lso were under i nvest igat ion, wit hout naming them.

A l l fou r of t hose suspended were active for t he ongoing AFC Solidarit y Cup – a compet it ion contested by tea ms eliminated f rom World Cup and Asian Cup contention – and had competed i n Laos’s f i rst ga me last week, a 2-1 v ictor y over Sri Lanka, the AFC said.

They were sidelined because “their ongoi ng pa r t ic ipat ion prov ided a di rect t hreat to t he i nteg r it y of t he competition”, it said.

“The provisional suspensions relate not only to t he AFC Solida r it y Cup but a lso to suspected manipulation of mult iple matches committed by t he represent at ive tea ms of L aos since 2010.

“The investigation is ongoing and not limited to those players provisiona l ly suspended.” The A FC gave no f urt her details.