Why Elye Wahi Is Playing the World Cup While Suspected of Match-Fixing
Wahi was arrested over a suspicious yellow card betting scandal on 29 May. He now plays in the World Cup for Cote d'Ivoire. The Sports and Crime Briefing explains the whole case.
The crossbar was still ringing when Elye Wahi turned away, hands on his head. Fifty-six minutes into Côte d’Ivoire’s World Cup opener against Ecuador, in front of a full house in Philadelphia, the striker had come within inches of scoring on his tournament debut. Côte d’Ivoire beat Ecuador 1-0 that afternoon of 14 June.
Wahi came off to applause, a France youth international who had switched to the country of his father. He had stalled at Eintracht Frankfurt, barely featuring in the Bundesliga, before a January loan to Nice revived him thanks to five goals in 14 games.
But two weeks before the applause in Philadelphia, Wahi was arrested in Marseille.
On 29 May, hours after he scored twice to keep Nice in the top flight, anti-corruption police detained him on suspicion of spot-fixing. He was questioned and released without charge, and the investigation remains open.
What they were looking at was not a thrown match or a bought result. It was a single yellow card, the kind of spot-fix we have covered closely before at the Sports and Crime Briefing, picked up in a goalless game against Metz on the final day of the French season.
What happened against Metz?
In the final round of the Ligue 1 season, Nice received Metz at home in the Allianz Riviera.
Metz had nothing left to play for. They had been relegated two natchdays earlier, bottom of the table and already down.
Nice had everything to play for.
