Rumours of match-fixing swirled around Finnish football this summer, with Finland's FA probing claims that attempts were made to rig the results of numerous lower league games.
The suspicions centre around teams with squads that include foreign players, some of whom were brought to Finland under false pretenses. An investigative report by Helsingin Sanomat, published in September, revealed that Brazilian players in Finland have been subjected to poor living conditions and left with little or no money for food.
Yle's investigative journalism unit MOT followed the lives of a number of foreign players in the Finnish lower leagues during this autumn and found similar stories as HS reported — of footballers left penniless and stranded in Finland.
Two young Brazilian players have stepped forward to tell their stories.
"We don't deserve what we've been through. I wouldn't wish this on anyone," Juan Pablo Do Carmo told MOT.
Twenty-year-old Do Carmo explained that he was offered money to help fix the results of Finnish lower-league games. He told MOT that he refused, adding that as a result he is now stranded in Finland as he does not have enough money to buy a return ticket to Brazil.
Match fixing refers to the practice of attempting to determine the outcome of a game before it is played, usually by bribing players or officials.
The two Brazilian players interviewed by MOT said they reported their treatment to police in Helsinki, but their case was quickly closed as investigating officers said the suspected crime took place in Brazil and was therefore outside the jurisdiction of the Finnish police.
Yle has seen official documents, bank statements, contracts, as well as voice and text messages that verify the story told by the two Brazilian players in this article.
Cramped apartment and little food
Juan Pablo Do Carmo was playing football in the Brazilian city of São Paulo during the spring, and at the time he knew almost nothing about Finland. It therefore came as quite a surprise when his team's coach told him about an opportunity to play professional football on the outer fringes of Europe.
Despite his surprise, the proposal seemed to make sense to Do Carmo. He read online that Finland was an ice hockey nation, and not so renowned for football, but he could use his time at a Finnish club as a stepping stone to a bigger club and a bigger league.
"I thought that as a footballer I would stand out in Finland," he said.
Do Carmo told MOT that he was promised a place on a team, an apartment and a regular salary.
However, when he arrived In Finland, it quickly became clear that he had been the victim of a scam.
Marco Antonio Silva Pereira, 18, was also sold a false dream of becoming a professional footballer.
A Brazilian national brought Silva Pereira and Do Carmo to Finland and placed them in a studio apartment in Helsinki. The young men described the accommodation as "modest", adding that there were four other South Americans living in the same apartment. It was so cramped, they said, that two players shared a small bed, one slept on the sofa, and the others on the floor.
"I slept on the floor, just on a mattress. There were nights when we went to sleep hungry. It was terrible," Silva Pereira said.
Do Carmo recalled that every ten days or so, the Brazilian man who brought them to Finland gave them about 30-40 euros for food.
"Sometimes we went three days without eating and we had to collect cans so we wouldn't be left without food. We couldn't afford toiletries," he said.
Eventually, they were left to fend for themselves.
Broken promises in Brazil
MOT's investigation uncovered evidence that the young Brazilian players were brought to Finland by a group of three men.
Each of the players was first contacted by a Brazilian scout who is also a former professional footballer.
Although Do Carmo and Silva Pereira lived and played in different cities in Brazil, their stories are strikingly similar. They were both playing youth matches when the man approached them, identified himself as a talent scout and former player, and said he was impressed with their skills.
The man is a well-known former player, so both Do Carmo and Silva Pereira said they had no reason to doubt what he was saying. He told them that he knew of a trustworthy man who could arrange for them to play in Finland.
This "trustworthy" man used to be a coach in Brazil before he was sacked after his club was caught up in a match-fixing scandal. After that, he became involved in sending young players to Finland.
He promised the players a salary of between 500 and 700 euros, as well as insurance, food and an apartment that they would share with only two other players. He told them that their salary would increase if they performed well in games, and he also said that the club would help them if they wanted to find other jobs outside of football.
"I was excited and talked to my dad. We made a plan and we borrowed money from the bank to make my dream come true," Do Carmo told MOT.
Large loans and fictitious fees
The families of Do Carmo and Silva Pereira each paid between 15,000 and 20,000 Brazilian reals, or about 3,000 euros, for plane tickets as well as other expenses they were told they would incur to ensure the young men could come to Finland.
This amount is the equivalent of about six months' average salary in Brazil.
According to Silva Pereira, the payment was supposed to be a security deposit, and they were told that at least half of it would later be returned to their parents. This deposit was to ensure that the players stayed in Finland, they were told. However, the money was never returned.
A breakdown of the expenses charged to the players' families, seen by MOT, includes fictitious fees, such as charges for entering the country as well as social security contributions. Both of the players arrived in Finland on tourist visas, and therefore would not have been liable to make such payments.
"He said we could make a lot of money"
In a statement released at the beginning of September, the Finnish FA said it was investigating FC Finnkurd and two other teams on suspicions of match-fixing.
Commercial broadcaster MTV reported a few weeks later that Finland's National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) had also opened an investigation into the suspicions.
Finnish lower-league games have received a surprising amount of interest in the Asian online gambling market. Analysts have observed suspicious activity in relation to Finnish games, such as sudden changes in the odds offered by bookmakers.
The Finnish league is one of the few in Europe to play during the summer, when most other European leagues take a break. The betting on lower league games is also less carefully scrutinised, compared to the higher divisions.
Do Carmo recalled that his suspicions about match-fixing were first aroused when Finnkurd's coach asked to speak to him after training.
"He said we could make a lot of money if we did what the investors, who I think were Chinese, asked," Do Carmo explained, adding that the coach gave him examples of the kind of outcomes that the "investors" might want.
These included a certain amount of corner kicks per half, his team losing at halftime, but coming back to win the game in the second half, or if he was willing to get booked or sent off in an effort to make his own team lose.
Do Carmo added that he was told it was easy to fix matches in Finland because of the lack of proper supervision.
The coach offered him 5,000 reals, or about 800 euros, to fix a match. Do Carmo told MOT he declined the offer.
"I didn't come here to fool anyone, but to show my football skills," he said.
After he refused, there was a delay in receiving the money he needed for food. The Brazilian man who had brought them to Finland also began to avoid contact with them.
As it turned out, Do Carmo never played for Finnkurd. He refused to play because he was not going to receive the salary he had been promised in Brazil. Silva Pereira did line out for the team in a few games.
In Do Carmo's view, the mistreatment of the players was linked to the attempts to fix matches. He noted that he was driven to the brink of despair, and then offered the chance to fix football matches as a way out.
"When I explained the situation to my parents, my father was nervous, but he said that he was proud of me and that God would give us direction through the darkness and bring us light," he said.
However, the lack of food meant that the young men sometimes had to queue for handouts at a local church.
Then a Brazilian woman, living in Helsinki, came to their rescue.
Good Samaritan threatened with "drug gang" reprisal
Petrania Ferreira Lopes moved to Finland from Brazil about 20 years ago.
She heard about the plight of the two young footballers through Helsinki's Brazilian community, and she decided to let them stay in her apartment.
By the time Do Carmo and Silva Pereira moved in with Lopes, they had not eaten in three days.
"I started crying when I thought they had not eaten and just drank a lot of water before going to bed," Ferreira Lopes said.
She told MOT that she has become a kind of surrogate mother to the young men, but because she works as a care assistant, she does not have the space or the money to support them for an extended period of time.
She also said that she was threatened by the Brazilian man who initially brought Do Carmo and Silva Pereira to Finland.
"He said that if I go to Brazil, a drug gang will come and do something bad to me. I'm not afraid. I was a police officer in Brazil and I have a lot of friends," Lopes said.
Club reports no issues
MOT made an attempt to reach out to the Brazilian man who brought the young men to Finland, as well as trying to contact Finnkurd's coach. MOT called the phone numbers the two men used to communicate with Do Carmo and Silva Pereira, but when MOT tried to call, the numbers were no longer in use.
MOT also attended an FC Finnkurd match, in an effort to speak with the coach. However, even though he was listed in the match programme, he was not present at the game.
FC Finnkurd chair Mücahit Yilmaz did however agree to an interview with MOT, during which he said that nothing untoward has occurred in the club's fixtures.
"If someone intentionally does something, I will notice," Yilmaz said.
He added that he was unaware that the team's players were living in poor conditions or suffered from a lack of food, as no one had reported such issues.
Yilmaz also confirmed to MOT that FC Finnkurd does not pay any salary to its players, but the club has had a number of Brazilian players on its books over the years. He noted, however, that any costs related to these players were borne by the people who brought them to Finland.
Police close case
The players filed a report about their treatment with police in Helsinki at the end of May. It was initially investigated as a suspected case of aggravated fraud, but police closed the file in the middle of September.
Helsinki police told MOT that the case was closed because the agreements had been made in Brazil and the fees charged to the players' parents had been paid into Brazilian bank accounts.
Therefore, the potential victims of any possible crime would be the parents of the players, and they live in Brazil.
In a statement to Yle, investigating officers were unwilling to comment on reports of how the young Brazilian men were treated in Finland, for example, their living conditions or lack of food. The police only stated that "the players themselves have not incurred any financial loss or expenses for their stay in Finland".
Dreaming of home
For Do Carmo, his experience in Finland has destroyed his dream of becoming a professional footballer.
"Now we need to take some time off and forget about this misfortunate episode in Finland," he told MOT.
Both Do Carmo and Silva Pereira long to go back home to their families, but they do not currently have the money to do so.
Brazilian nationals are permitted to visit Finland for three months without the need for a visa. At the time of publication, Do Carmo has been in the country for more than three months, meaning he is now in Finland without residency rights.
The players' families are unable to borrow any more money, and the Brazilian embassy in Helsinki said it cannot pay for the airfares. The young men have received some financial support from Helsinki's social services to cover everyday expenses.
Shortly before the publication of this article in Finnish, private individuals once again came to the aid of Do Carmo and Silva Pereira. A Finnish-Brazilian couple heard about their plight and bought them plane tickets to Brazil. Their return flight is booked for the end of October.
"I still wish I could make my dreams come true, but now all I'm thinking about is being with my family," Silva Pereira said.
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