YouTube video links "showing how easy it is to make a bad refereeing call" in football were used in a bid by Singapore businessman Ding Si Yang "to fix games," according to Tan & Vallikappen of BLOOMBERG. Ding, 31, was charged with three counts of corruption in April for "allegedly providing women to give free sexual services" to three officials in an attempt to fix an Asian Football Confederation Cup match. He faces as many as five years in jail and a $79,000 fine on each corruption charge, if convicted. Referee Ali Sabbagh and assistants Ali Eid and Abdallah Taleb "pleaded guilty last month to accepting sex from the women provided by Ding." At the start of Ding’s trial in a Singapore subordinate court, Prosecutor Alan Loh said, “In this case, the very officials who were meant to uphold sporting excellence and sportsmanship bartered away their professional integrity in return for free sexual services.” Sabbagh said that Ding sent Sabbagh an email in August with about 25 links to YouTube video clips "that showed how wrong decisions were made" at matches. Sabbagh, who was handed a six-month jail term for corruption on June 11, said, “He wanted me to learn how to make these kind of decisions in my matches in the future" (BLOOMBERG, 7/15).
