Moses Swaibu, once a promising defender for Crystal Palace and Lincoln City, was sentenced in April 2015 to sixteen months in prison for conspiracy to commit bribery, following a wide-ranging National Crime Agency investigation into match-fixing in English lower-tier football.

Since his release, Swaibu has emerged as a prominent advocate for integrity in sport. He founded GameChanger360, advising institutions such as The Football Association, FIFA, the Premier League, and the International Olympic Committee. His candid account of corruption in football was shared in the 2024 BBC Sounds podcast “Confessions of a Match Fixer” and detailed in his memoir Fixed: My Secret Life as a Match Fixer.

In his revelations, Swaibu describes how criminal syndicates from Russia, China, and Singapore recruited vulnerable players in non-league clubs with offers of large cash payments—sometimes delivered in bags at discreet locations like hotels or restaurants. Targets were groomed over time and pressed to fix match outcomes or actions such as conceding goals, often timed to influence lucrative betting markets.

He also recounts being drawn in via trusted teammates like Delroy Facey. One of the earliest approaches involved a Russian fixer placing sixty thousand euros on a bed and urging players to ‘sleep on it’ before agreeing to throw a match. Later, at a meeting in a luxury hotel bar, syndicate operators detailed precise match outcomes, offered brown paper bags with payouts, and arranged follow-up deliveries of vast sums of cash across London—moments Swaibu describes as “dangerous,” but also “addictive.”

Swaibu’s exposure of this underworld extended beyond cases in lower leagues. He revealed that at least five Premier League players were approached—some outside training grounds or in London casinos—underscoring match-fixing’s reach across football’s hierarchy.

Now, using his experience as a tool for reform, Swaibu works to educate players on how to resist corrupt approaches and how to report wrongdoing. His message is urgent: with increasing digitalization, online betting, and data analytics, the risk of manipulation is greater than ever.

Moses Swaibu’s journey—from a bright young talent to criminal conspirator, and now sports integrity advocate—serves as both a stark warning and a potent example of accountability and redemption in modern sport.