The Eagle Online: Former Nigerian international, Sam Sodje, and his brother, Akpo, have been granted conditional bail by the UK Police authorities after facing a round of questioning following their alleged involvement in match-fixing in England and the forthcoming Brazil 2014 World Cup games.
A competent source close to the Sodjes family hinted that the players were released on Monday to their elder brothers, Bright and Efetobore, an ex-international, who promised to make the accused persons available for further questioning whenever the Police demand for it.
“Sam and Akpo have gained their freedom today (Monday) but investigations are still ongoing as we speak and I doubt if anyone of them will be willing to grant interviews on the matter,” the source stated.
Super Eagles’ Korea/Japan 2002 defender, Efetoborie Sodje, also declined comments when a call was put through to him.
“As I said, no comment,” the Macclesfield Town player-manager said.
The former Portsmouth defender, Sam Sodje, told an undercover reporter he was another culprit of the global match-fixing epidemic.
Sodje was filmed by the Sun on Sunday describing how he punched an opponent in a League One fixture – the third tier of English football – to deliberately get a red card in exchange for £70,000 while playing for Portsmouth, the last club of his career.
Sodje was sent off in the 50th minute of Portsmouth’s League One match against Oldham Athletic on February 23 after twice lashing out unprovoked at another player.
He was suspended for six games and the club’s manager at the time, Guy Whittingham, said nobody could understand why he reacted in that way.
According to the paper, Sodje, who once played in the Premier League for Reading and has won four caps for Nigeria, allegedly also boasted he had arranged for a fellow professional in the Championship, the second tier of the English game, to get a yellow card in return for tens of thousands of pounds, and that he could even rig top-flight fixtures.
Meanwhile, Football League Chief Executive, Shaun Harvey, encouraged anyone with any evidence to report it to the police.
Harvey said: “We treat any allegations of criminal activity in our competitions with the utmost seriousness.
“We will be giving our full assistance to the police during their investigation.”
