Match-fixers asked me to sign a ball... then they offered me £10k to lose 2-0 at Liverpool

Birmingham City were preparing for an FA Cup replay at Liverpool in January 1995 when goalkeeper Ian Bennett had a brief encounter with football’s match-fixers.

‘We were at the old training ground and were playing Liverpool in the FA Cup when I met these two Asian lads who had been hanging around the place all day,’ he recalls. ‘A few of the lads had been saying, “Who are they?”

‘They called me across and asked me to sign a couple of footballs. Then, like in the space of one  sentence, they went from asking for my autograph to offering me £10,000 to lose 2-0 against Liverpool.

Offered £10,000: The offer was made to Birmingham's Ian Bennett after he was asked to sign autographs

‘I wasn’t sure I’d heard them right. I just said, “Sorry, nice meeting you” and I went.
‘It never entered my head to take it. I told the security guard and he escorted them from the premises.They didn’t show me a bag of money or anything like that but I was taken aback.

‘It was unsettling certainly. I just took it with a pinch of salt at the time.

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‘I’d no idea if these people were genuine or trying it on. There were a few stories flying around at the time.

‘When I went inside and told Barry Fry, who was our manager at the time, he just made a joke of it and said, “You should have taken it because we’ll probably lose to Liverpool anyway”.
‘Birmingham were in the third tier at the time and we had drawn the first game 0-0.
‘In the replay, we drew 1-1 and lost on penalties. I don’t think we scored even a penalty. (Liverpool won 2-0 on penalties.)
‘I never saw those two again and nothing ever came of it as far as I know.
‘I’ve never known anything like it in my years in the game since, but I did hear another story about a  goalkeeper at another Midlands club being approached in a similar way at around the same time.
‘He wasn’t having any of it either. Perhaps they were doing the rounds in the area.
‘It’s nearly 20 years ago now but I can still remember it and it always comes to mind when these stories come out.’

Experienced: Goalkeeper Ian Bennett was Birmingham's first-choice goalkeeper for several seasons