Football chairman in Pakistan scandal found dead

The chairman of a non-league English football club embroiled in the Pakistan cricket team ‘fixing’ scandal is believed to have killed himself, it emerged Monday.

Croydon Athletic chairman David Le Cluse, 44, was found dead on Saturday with gunshot wounds in a garage near his home in Sutton, south of London.

The owner of the club, Mazhar Majeed, was arrested in August following allegations members of the Pakistan cricket team were involved in ‘spot-fixing’ during their recent tour of England.

Le Cluse, married with two children, was said by the team’s former manager to have been deeply distressed when the side were linked to the accusations.

A statement posted on the side’s website said: “Croydon Athletic are deeply shocked and saddened by the sudden tragic death of their chairman, David Le Cluse, on Saturday October 2.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with David’s wife and children, and we would ask everyone to respect their privacy at this devastating time for them.”

Croydon Athletic’s former manager Tim O’Shea told The Times: “He was very upset at the allegations and the club getting involved.

“It probably hit him harder than most because of his personal friendship with Majeed.

“He wanted nothing more than for the club to succeed and he was probably upset and affected by it more than anybody else.”

Majeed was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud bookmakers and released on bail following allegations first published in Britain’s News of the World Sunday tabloid he’d been involved in a plot that led to Pakistan bowlers deliberately bowling no-balls during a Test match against England at Lord’s as part of a betting scam.

In video footage football released by the paper, undercover reporters from the News of the World, posing as gamblers, alledgedly paid a middleman 150,000 pounds on return for exact details of when the no-balls would be delivered.

Le Cluse’s body was discovered in a garage in Park Gate Road, Sutton at 10.40am (0940GMT) on Saturday and the Metropolitan Police said: “A 44-year-old man suffered what is believed to have been a gunshot wound to the head.

“He was pronounced dead at the scene.

“The circumstances of his death are being treated as unexplained. Inquiries are ongoing.”

Pakistan Test captain Salman Butt and bowlers Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif were all provisionally suspended by the International Cricket Council (ICC) after they were all named by the News of the World in its report.

The ICC then launched a separate inquiry into last month’s one-day international after a tip-off from The Sun, the News of the World’s daily ‘sister’ paper, which claimed Pakistan’s scoring pattern in the match was pre-arranged with bookmakers.

Last week, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ijaz Butt apologised to his English counterparts, and the England team, for suggesting the hosts were paid “enormous amounts of money” to lose at The Oval deliberately.