A-League Players Banned Over Spot-Fixing Tied to South American Crime Group
Posted on: December 19, 2025, 12:33h.
Last updated on: December 19, 2025, 01:12h.
- Three former A-League players were banned for deliberate yellow-card fixing schemes
- Illegal betting syndicate paid players to manipulate in-game yellow cards
- Investigation exposed international crime links
Three ex-players for Australian soccer’s top tier, the A-League, have been handed lengthy bans from the sport for spot-fixing.
Former Western United midfielder Riku Danzaki, along with ex-Macarthur FC duo Clayton Lewis and Kearyn Baccus, have all been sanctioned for deliberately receiving yellow cards in A-League matches as part of illegal betting schemes.
Danzaki, a Japanese midfielder, has been banned from all football-related activity for seven years, with the suspension backdated to June 1 this year, when Football Australia imposed a no-fault interim ban.
New Zealander Lewis and South African Baccus admitted they were paid AU$10K each by former team captain Ulises Davila to pick up bookings in a match in December 2023, according to Football Australia.
South American Crime Group
Davila, a Mexican national who once signed, but never played for EPL giant Chelsea, pleaded guilty to facilitating and engaging in conduct that corrupts the betting outcome of an event in October and is awaiting sentencing. He was arrested along with Lewis and Baccus in May 2024.
The New South Wales Organized Crime Squad’s Gaming Unit said at the time it had launched an investigation into the players in December 2023, after receiving a tip-off from the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC).
Investigators said they had uncovered evidence that a “senior player” was being paid by a South American crime group to arrange yellow cards during matches. Police said the player was in contact with a “controller,” described as an organized crime figure based in South America.
The player’s role was to “ensure that certain events occurred within games to permit illegal gambling on those events” in return for AU$10K a piece, they added.
Hundreds of Thousands Paid
The December 2023 match under scrutiny was a 2-0 victory for Macarthur against Sydney FC in which four yellow cards were shown to the winning team’s players, including Dávila, Lewis, and Baccus.
Two weeks earlier, Macarthur earned a 1-1 draw against Melbourne Victory that saw Davila and another player carded.
Det. Supt. Peter Faux said there were “multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars being paid out” to gamblers in these games.
Top-Tier Spot-Fixing Rare
Where spot-fixing does occur, it is most commonly found in lower-tier football, where comparatively low wages can leave players more susceptible to bribery.
While A-League soccer is moderately popular in Australia, it’s well behind the AFL (Australian rules football), the NRL (National Rugby League), and cricket, which dominate Australian sport culturally, commercially, and in media coverage.
Nevertheless, its players are relatively well compensated, earning an estimated AU$135K to AU$150K per year. However, if Davila had made it at Chelsea, he’d likely have made that in a week.
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