PARIS (AP) – The French Soccer League announced Wednesday that an “extraordinary amount of bets” had been placed internationally on striker Eli Wahi, who plays for Ivory Coast. world cupHe received a yellow card in a Ligue 1 game against Nice in May.
Wahi launched an attack on Ivory Coast. 1-0 victory over Ecuador In the opening game of the World Cup, he hit the crossbar early in the second half. Ivory Coast will play Germany in Toronto on Saturday.
The French league said in a statement that it had received a warning from its betting market monitoring partners about suspicious gambling activity at international level regarding the May 17 home game between Nice and Metz, in which Wahi played. was shown a yellow card.
“These warnings concerned an unusual amount of bets being placed on the warning (yellow card) issued to Elly Wahi,” the League of Professional Football (LFP) said, adding that it had immediately passed this information on to the relevant police and gambling authorities, as well as the French Football Federation.
LFP also took its own legal steps.
“Criminal charges have been filed against unidentified persons for alleged acts that may amount to sports corruption and organized fraud,” LFP said, without naming Wahi.
A representative for Mr. Wahi did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
May 17th was the final match of the Ligue 1 season.
Less than two weeks later, Wahi scored twice in a 4-1 win over Saint-Etienne in the second leg of the promotion/relegation play-off, helping struggling Nice stay in Ligue 1.
Wahi, 23, joined Nice on loan from German side Eintracht Frankfurt in January, scoring nine goals in 18 games and helping Nice reach the French Cup final.
A lively striker with great speed and first touch, Wahi was once one of Europe’s most promising young strikers, with clubs paying total transfer fees of nearly 90 million euros ($104 million) to sign him.
Three years ago, Wahi scored 19 league goals and joined Reims from Montpellier for €35 million after turning down a move to Premier League side Chelsea.
The following season, Lens sold him to Marseille for 25 million euros. After just 13 league games, Wahi joined Frankfurt on a five-and-a-half year contract. The German club paid 26 million euros for Wahi, but he only scored one goal in 25 games. ___
AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/fifa-world-cup
