Arrests, charges follow raids on Melbourne soccer club

Anti-gang and sports corruption detectives are investigating suspected match-fixing involving a National Premier League semi-professional soccer club, raiding the team’s headquarters and the homes of club supporters and a senior official.

Officers from Victoria Police’s sports integrity unit and Viper taskforce swooped on the headquarters of the Dandenong Thunder and several nearby homes on Wednesday morning searching for evidence that matches may have been rigged to deliver betting windfalls.

Victoria Police raiding the clubrooms at NPL soccer club Dandenong Thunder FC on Wednesday.Credit: The Age

The raids were not limited to suspected sports corruption offences. Police have also laid several drugs charges relating to possessing narcotics and cultivating cannabis.

One of two men arrested and bailed over the drug offences was a senior club official who appeared last year alongside ALP state politicians to announce a taxpayer-funded $700,000 grant for the Thunder’s home ground.

An investigation by this masthead can also reveal that the Thunder is one of two Victorian National Premier League clubs with deep links to suspected organised crime figures.

In NSW, organised crime squad detectives have charged three A-League players with sporting corruption offences over unrelated allegations involving an unnamed organised crime figure in South America.

A man is led away by officers during raids targeting the Dandenong Thunder soccer club.Credit: The Age

Two confidential sources who have had extensive dealings with the Thunder tipped off this masthead about the police activity after word of the raids spread on Wednesday morning.

Because they are members of the Albanian community, the sources requested confidentiality.

Police subsequently confirmed the raids and arrests, saying in a statement they related to “an ongoing investigation into a sporting club”.

The police statement said that in addition to drugs offences, one of the duo to face charges was accused of refusing to provide police access to his phone.

A man is taken from a house by police on Wednesday during raids targeting the Dandenong Thunder soccer club.Credit: The Age

The Dandenong Thunder compete in the second tier of Australian soccer, playing matches in the National Premier League of Victoria, the state’s most senior competition.

The NPL sits a rung beneath the A-League and its players are often recruited from professional leagues in Europe and Asia or go on to play in the A-League.

The raids highlight the potential vulnerability of the lower levels of Australian soccer to corruption. Games attract online betting markets and attract soccer players and officials who, because of the lower pay levels, may be vulnerable to approaches from suspect punters.

Australia’s peak sporting integrity agency has warned of efforts by organised crime syndicates to target clubs.

There is no suggestion that any of the Thunder’s players or coaches are implicated in any wrongdoing, and the police raids are yet to lead to any match-fixing charges.

However, they signal that Victorian sporting integrity detectives have received information that those raided are suspected to have sought to corrupt a betting outcome or of using corrupt conduct information for betting purposes.

Match-fixing inquiries are typically triggered by betting data analysis companies that are paid to monitor suspicious punting.

The Dandenong Thunder was founded by Albanian migrants in the 1970s and club membership is mainly composed of Albanians with origins from Kišava, a village in south-western North Macedonia.

The Thunder acts as a hub for Dandenong’s Albanian community, which also congregates around the local mosque and Dandenong market.

In October 2023, Labor minister Gabrielle Williams and MP Lee Tarlamis appeared at a media event to announce a $700,000 upgrade of the Thunder’s main pitch.

Alongside the two state politicians was six-time Dandenong Mayor Jim Memeti, whose recent successful council candidacy was backed by the Thunder.

A Thunder official who appeared at the media event alongside the politicians was one of the two men charged on Wednesday.

At the event, Williams described the Thunder’s home ground, George Andrews Reserve, as “the home of elite football in Dandenong” and said the state and local government funding would enable the club to host broadcast games.

Police at the Dandenong Thunder clubrooms during the raids.Credit: The Age

Several Australian football teams have deep roots within tight-knit ethnic communities, and while the vast majority of supporters, volunteers, players and officials are entirely law-abiding – as in the case of the Thunder – they are also considered vulnerable to infiltration by organised crime groupings within their communities.

One NPL club was until recently led for many years by an entrenched member of Melbourne’s underworld with links to Italian and Turkish crime groups and who infamously ran illegal betting operations across Melbourne in the 1990s.

An analysis of social media and court records shows that several prominent club supporters of the Thunder have been convicted or charged with serious criminal activity overseas or in Australia or have links to Albanian organised crime networks.

This masthead has previously revealed serious concerns held by state and federal agencies about the rapid expansion of Albanian organised crime groups in Australia.

Australia’s semi-professional and professional soccer leagues have featured in the nation’s most serious match-fixing scandals. A leading Melbourne underworld figure was previously convicted for using inside information he had obtained in 2017 from Thunder’s now former coach to bet on a game.

In 2013, this masthead revealed how several players from the Southern Stars soccer club in Melbourne had been corrupted by an infamous international soccer match-fixer in Malaysia, leading to police raids and charges.

In May, three now former players from NSW A-League club Macarthur FC, including the club’s captain, were charged over allegations they deliberately conceded yellow cards to manipulate offshore betting markets.

The scheme was allegedly co-ordinated by a Colombian criminal gang, police claim.

European policing agency Europol has previously detailed how organised crime gangs have infiltrated soccer, describing it as “the most targeted and manipulated sport”.

The international movement of players from countries considered narco-states or deeply corrupted creates added risks.

In 2020, the international Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld a 10-year ban issued by soccer authorities to Albania’s leading football club, Skenderbeu, for its involvement in systemic match-fixing.

Albania has been racked by organised crime and corruption. A major investigation by this masthead and 60 Minutes recently revealed how one of the small nation’s most powerful political figures was suspected by Australian agencies of running an organised crime syndicate in Victoria, South Australia and NSW.

If you know more about this story confidentially contact Nick McKenzie at: [e-mail]