Ivory Coast forward Elye Wahi, who started Sunday’s World Cup win over Ecuador, was arrested last month in France as part of a spot-fixing investigation, The Athletic reported Wednesday.
Sources told The Athletic that French authorities are trying to establish whether he deliberately earned a yellow card while playing for Nice against Metz on May 17. Wahi, 23, was arrested on May 29 but has not been charged with any crimes to date.
Spot-fixing is the term for the practice of manipulating events within a game.
A spokesperson for the public prosecutor’s office in Marseilles, France, issued a statement to The Athletic on Tuesday.
“We can confirm that a 23-year-old football player, competing in France’s Ligue 1, was arrested on May 29 as part of an investigation opened by the Marseille public prosecutor’s office into allegations of organized fraud, organized sports corruption, handling of proceeds of crime and money laundering,” the statement read. “He was released after he was interviewed in police custody. The investigations remain ongoing.”
The yellow card in question was Wahi’s fifth of the Ligue 1 season, which earned him a suspension for the first leg of Nice’s relegation playoff against Saint-Etienne on May 26. Nice drew 0-0 in that match, but Wahi scored two goals in the second leg in a 4-1 victory as Nice avoided relegation.
Wahi played 55 minutes in Ivory Coast’s 1-0 win over Ecuador in Philadelphia in their Group E opener. Their next match is Saturday against Germany in Toronto.
–Field Level Media
