El Salvador’s national team are claiming they’ve been offered financial incentives from a Salvadorian businessman to get a result in a World Cup Qualifying match.
Team members told reporters at a pre-match press conference players were offered money to not suffer a heavy defeat to Canada in a Concacaf qualifying match on Tuesday, according to the BBC.
An audio recording of a 10-minute conversation was played at the presser in which the man promised varying amounts of money to each player from $30 a minute for a win to $10 a minute in a 1-0 defeat.
Should El Salvador lose by a wide margin to the Canadians, it could prevent their neighbours Honduras from progressing to the final stage of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Although Honduras are favourites to progress, a loss to group leaders Mexico coupled with a heavy defeat for El Salvador could see their tournament end at the qualification stage.
Salvadoran newspaper La Prensa Gráfica named the businessman as Ricardo Padilla who allegedly offered the team the money and he appears to be confident that he has done nothing wrong.
“Let them investigate, I’m not worried. Those who want to see it as something bad can see it that way and those who want to see it as something good then they can too.“
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