The former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson recently made some bold claims and said that North Korean representatives tried to get him to fix the 2010 World Cup draw. The Sweden International had managed England at the 2002 and 2006 tournaments and was a member of the FIFA Football Committee ahead of the 2010 edition. Sven-Goran Eriksson came up with huge allegations as he claimed that he was approached about fixing the draw during a visit to North Korea.Â
Sven-Goran Eriksson opens up on the matter
In a recent BBC podcast about sporting conman Russell King- called Sport’s Strangest Crimes: The Trillion Dollar Conman, Eriksson
Sven-Goran Eriksson said: “They (North Korean representatives) knew I was a member of FIFA Football Committee. They said, ‘Can you please help us?’. ‘Of course I can help you, if I can’, I said. I thought they wanted balls or shoes or something like that.”
Sven-Goran Eriksson added: “They said, ‘We want to have a simple draw’. They wanted to have help with the draw. Of course, I said, ‘Do you really mean what I [think]? I can’t do that. Nobody can do that. That’s absolutely impossible and it’s criminal, even to try.’ But they never believed me. The amazing thing is that it looked like they don’t believe that I can’t do it – they believed that I just didn’t want to do it. Very strange.”
It was noted that North Korea were drawn in a difficult group. They were drawn against five-time world champions Brazil, a Portugal side featuring Cristiano Ronaldo, and an Ivory Coast team led by Didier Drogba and Yaya Toure. North Korea did not have a great campaign as they lost all three games and finished bottom of Group G.
They put up a fair fight against Brazil in their tournament opener but suffered a narrow 2-1 loss. They were then on the end of a 7-0 thrashing defeat by Portugal, before finishing with a 3-0 loss against Ivory Coast.
