On April 9 this year, a game played between Port Talbot Town and Rhyl ended 5-0 in favour of Rhyl, forcing investigation into the game by the South Wales police.
The police had received information regarding the soccer betting pattern of the game, as it ended with surprising results. Rhyl had nothing to lose as they were already relegated, yet they thrashed their rival with that huge goal margin. Ordinarily, nothing would have been suspected as things happen in football regularly. However, Port Talbot replaced them by dropping out of the Premier League at the season’s end due to financial problems.
According to reports from Wales Online, the police made a move to arrest ten people on Wednesday. The ten suspects include seven males and three females. The case was sent to the Gambling Commission by the Football Association of Wales. The Chief Executive Jonathan Ford said regarding the case:
“These arrests are as result of a thorough process of evidence gathering and close co-operation between the FAW, South Wales Police and the Gambling Commission. The FAW remains committed to our Integrity Education Programme which began in 2014, as well as the monitoring and reporting systems we have in place which have contributed to these arrests. The FAW will not bring any sporting sanctions against any individuals while the police investigation is ongoing.”
The police give the breakdown of the details of the suspects as seven individuals from Swansea with the men aged 20, 35, 48, 21 and 27, and two women aged 33 and 43. Also, two males were discovered to be from Port Talbot, a man and a woman aged 23 and 28 respectively. Then the final suspect is a 28 year old man from Neath. The Gambling Commission programme director Richard Watson said the Sport Betting Intelligence Unit (SBIU) provided the information to the police that aided the arrests of the suspects in a bid to crackdown on soccer gambling.