CLAUS LUNDEKVAM, A former skipper of Southampton, has revealed he and his team-mates were involved in betting rorts in their Premier League days.
Lundekvam – speaking in an interview in his home country Norway – revealed he placed non-result related bets on matches – such as which side would win the first throw-in – via club staffers.
The 39-year-old said it was not a one-off thing, and that he and his team-mates pursued the illegal activity for years.
“It’s not something I’m proud of,” Lundekvam said. “For a while we did this almost every week. We made a fair bit of money.
“We could make deals with the opposing captain about, for example, betting on the first throw, the first corner, who started with the ball, a yellow card or a penalty.
“Those were the sorts of thing we had influence over.”
The veteran of 40 caps for his country, Lundekvam said he would have never placed a wager to influence a match’s result.
The results were never on the agenda. That is something I would never have done. We were professional competitors,” he said. “Even though what we did, of course, was illegal, it was just a fun thing.”
A former team-mate of Lundekvam, Matthew Le Tissier has previously revealed in his autobiography, Taking Le Tiss, that he spread £10,000 across multiple bet options regarding the minute mark of the first throw-in.
Le Tissier said the match in question was against Wimbledon in 1995, and he failed to profit out of the exercise.