FA admits inquiry into match-fixing allegations

The Football Association was yesterday forced to confirm it is investigating allegations of match-fixing surrounding the Championship match between Norwich City and Derby County on 4 October at Carrow Road.

Derby won 2-1 but the game was reportedly the subject of irregular betting patterns on gambling websites based in Asia. The FA was given documentation last Friday of an undisclosed nature relating to the betting patterns, and said at the weekend it would "consider any evidence which is brought to our attention".

Football's governing body did not, at that time, make public any details of the game, but it was forced to make public that information yesterday after two MPs, both Norwich fans, tabled questions in Parliament about the state of the inquiry.

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While it is understood the FA has investigated alleged irregularities in matches over the years, it rarely makes any public comment on details. Yesterday's forced announcement was the first time in almost a decade – since the "floodlight scam" instigated by a Malaysian syndicate in the late 1990s – that the FA has actually named a specific match under scrutiny for alleged fixing.

By last night, however, the FA had yet to involve either Norwich or Derby in the investigation, nor had it spoken to a British-based spread betting company, Spreadex, whose traders had played a role in the betting patterns becoming public knowledge. Spreadex observed no irregular trades by its own customers on the match but did so while monitoring the trading patterns of Asian competitors within the industry.

Neither the FA nor the Gambling Commission has any jurisdiction to force Asian-based firms to comply with any investigation, which might hamper their work in trying to establish what irregularities, if any, took place. It is understood the FA has already alienated both clubs by its inaction. The Independent understands that Derby asked for "help and advice" to clear themselves of involvement in anything unethical as early as Monday. The FA has yet to get in touch with the club.

FA sources say that until it has gathered evidence to the contrary, there is no reason to believe the Norwich-Derby game is any more likely to have been fixed than any other. Rather a source confirmed the match was being scrutinised only after the intervention of Ian Gibson, MP for Norwich North, and Norman Lamp, MP for Norfolk North, who were both at the game.

After the pair had called on the FA to make an "urgent statement" on the subject, the FA issued a statement saying: "The FA can confirm that it is investigating an allegation regarding the match between Norwich City and Derby County on 4 October. We are looking into whether there is any substance to this allegation. There is no fixed timescale to our inquiries and there will be no further comment at this time."

Speaking to The Independent last night, Gibson said: "It is part of our work as MPs to scrutinise things. It came to my attention on Monday that these allegations involved Norwich and it's important that the FA acts and is seen to act. The FA has to get to grips with problems within the game, and, in an era where greater transparency is being called for in all walks of public life, the FA should be more transparent too.

"If the allegations around the Norwich match are unusual, we would like to know that. If not, then precisely how many times have similar cases come across their desk? Football is a huge industry. There needs to be greater transparency, and greater scrutiny of betting."

In the match in question, Derby took a first-half lead through a Rob Hulse header. Norwich equalised with a penalty early in the second half after Derby's goalkeeper, Roy Carroll, was adjudged to have caught Leroy Lita in the head with his foot in the area. Sammy Clingan scored the spot-kick.

Derby's winner was scored by Nathan Ellington after a mix-up in the Norwich defensive led to the home goalkeeper, David Marshall, rushing from his area to leave the goal exposed.

The FA's chairman, Lord Triesman, insists a "thorough" investigation is under way. "We're gathering the information and doing it very thoroughly – and thoroughness doesn't mean doing that in a very short time and failing to be thorough. We'll see what information there is and make an assessment at that point. The last thing we need is guesswork."

Industry sources at major UK-based firms told The Independent they had yet to be asked if they had seen irregular betting on the game. As it happens, neither Spreadex nor Betfair – the market leader in "exchange betting" – recorded any oddities at all in bets wagered on the game.

Derby's chairman, Adam Pearson, hit out last night at the MPs who called on the FA to make their investigation public. "I think they should be looking at events closer to home, at crime on their own doorstep, people getting murdered in their city centres and the financial turmoil," he said.

Football and gambling have gone hand in hand since the game began, although betting scandals, in Britain at least, have been rare. The game's most prominent problems with betting have involved players needing help for gambling problems. Cases in the last few years have included Matthew Etherington, Eidur Gudjohnsen, Carroll and David Bentley, among many others.