Striker Elye Wahi, who is playing for Ivory Coast at the World Cup, was arrested for alleged spot-fixing in Marseille just a couple of weeks before the World Cup began, ABC News confirmed on Wednesday.
He was taken into custody and released shortly after. The investigation is being handled by the prosecutor in Marseille.
The French football league said Wednesday that an “unusual amount of bets” were placed internationally on Wahi receiving a yellow card during a Ligue 1 game with Nice in May.
Wahi started in attack for Ivory Coast when they beat Ecuador 1-0 in their opening game at the World Cup, hitting the crossbar early in the second half of that match. Ivory Coast faces Germany on Saturday in Toronto.
In a statement, the French league said it was alerted by partners monitoring betting markets about suspicious betting activity at international level concerning Nice’s home game against Metz on May 17, which ended 0-0, and in which Wahi was shown a yellow card.
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“These alerts concerned an unusual amount of bets being placed on a caution [yellow card] being issued to the player Elye Wahi,” the Professional Football League (LFP) said, adding that it immediately passed this information to relevant police and gambling authorities, as well as the French Football Federation.
The LFP has also taken legal steps of its own.
“A criminal complaint against persons unknown has been lodged over alleged acts potentially amounting to sports corruption and organized fraud,” the LFP said, without naming Wahi.
Wahi’s representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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May 17 was the last round of the Ligue 1 season.
Less than two weeks later, Wahi helped struggling Nice stay in Ligue 1 when he scored twice in a 4-1 win over Saint-Etienne in the second leg of their promotion-relegation playoff.
The 23-year-old Wahi had joined Nice on loan from German club Eintracht Frankfurt in January and scored nine goals in 18 games overall, helping Nice reach the French Cup final.
A lively striker with pace and a good first touch, Wahi was once among Europe‘s most promising young strikers, and clubs have paid transfer fees totaling nearly 90 million euros ($104 million) to sign him.
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Three years ago, Wahi joined Lens from Montpellier for 35 million euros after scoring 19 league goals and turning down a move to Premier League club Chelsea.
Lens sold his contract to Marseille for €25 million the following season. Just 13 league games later, Wahi joined Frankfurt on a five-and-a-half-year contract. The German club paid €26 million for Wahi’s contract, getting just one goal in 25 games in return.
Spot-fixing is the illegal manipulation of a specific part of a match, often for betting purposes, typically without affecting the overall outcome of said match.
Information from ABC News and The Associated Press was used in this report.
