E-Paper
Suspected fixer from France's league at 2026 FIFA World Cup? Shocking revelation after Group E game in Philadelphia
The 23-year-old played 55 minutes before being substituted. Later, the scandalous news broke out.
In a disturbing piece of news coming from the 2026 FIFA World Cup, it has emerged that Ivory Coast attacker Elye Wahi was arrested late last month as part of fixing investigations.
Wahi played Ivory Coast’s opener against Ecuador earlier this week. Last month, he was playing for Nice in Ligue 1 in France. According to reports, the French authorities are investigating if, on May 17 against Metz, he deliberately earned a yellow card. 23-year-old Wahi was arrested on May 29 before being released without any charges pressed against him. However, the investigation is still underway, which means the forward has not got a clean chit as yet.
If found guilty, his offence could come under spot-fixing. In spot-fixing, a player’s actions may not directly lead to defeats, but their actions can eventually translate to losses. In such cases, the connection is often difficult to trace because smaller moments are effected to affect bigger moments during the course of a game. Not always though!
"We can confirm that a 23-year-old football player, competing in France's Ligue 1, was arrested on May 29 as part of an investigation opened by the Marseille public prosecutor's office into allegations of organized fraud, organized sports corruption, handling of proceeds of crime and money laundering," a spokesperson for the public prosecutor's office in Marseilles, France, said in a statement to the Athletic. "He was released after he was interviewed in police custody. The investigations remain ongoing," the statement further read.
Extraordinary turn of events!
After Wahi got that yellow card — his fifth of the Ligue 1 season — he was ineligible to play in the first leg of Nice’s relegation playoff against Saint-Etienne. In his absence, Nice failed to hit the back of the net as both sides played out a goalless draw. Wahi, however, returned for the second leg and scored a brace in his team’s 4-1 victory. Thanks to his exploits, Nice managed to stay in the first division league. It may be noted that the second leg was played after Wahi’s interrogation during his brief arrest. To be precise, it was played on May 30.
Wahi played 55 minutes in his team’s 1-0 win against Ecuador in Philadelphia. Now, they play Germany, one of the big teams in the tournament, on Saturday in Toronto. Now that Wahi’s arrest news has spread like wildfire, it will be interesting to see if he gets another start. And if he does, how it affects his game.
