Former head of a Swedish police unit specialising in organised crime in sport, Fredrik Gardare, has accused Premier League players of involvement in match-fixing.
Gardare, who previously led investigations that exposed bribery in football, claims that crucial evidence uncovered during a casino raid has been ignored.
His revelations now put the FA under scrutiny over how widespread the problem might be and whether any sanctions will follow.
Daily Mail Sport reported that the FA have yet to receive the findings from Swedish authorities and are eager to assess the evidence.
Gardare’s track record includes an 18-month investigation that exposed former Manchester City midfielder Dickson Etuhu for attempting to fix matches in Sweden. Etuhu was ultimately found guilty and received a five-year ban from football in Sweden.
However, Gardare’s final investigation into match-fixing, which followed months of intelligence gathering, culminated in a raid on an illegal casino in late 2021.
During the operation, multiple phones were confiscated, one of which reportedly contained extensive evidence on Telegram of players collaborating with criminals to manipulate matches across European leagues, including Nations League fixtures.
“Multiple Premier League players were involved,” Gardare claimed.
Despite the evidence, both Stockholm police and the Swedish national police authority chose not to pursue the investigation further.
Gardare now demands answers as to why the case was shelved, adding that the phone remains in police custody. This investigation was the unit’s final case before being 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 further emphasised the severity of the case, “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 confirmed the organisation had received some intelligence, “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.”
