About the Book

Match Fixer takes place inside the murky underbelly of Asian Football. The so-called squeaky clean city-state of Singapore plays host to betting syndicates which have for decades fed off the insatiable illegal gambling habits of the local population and in the process made a select few bookies very rich and far too powerful.
     Neil Humpreys, a former Football correspondent for the national Singapore press, lifts the lid off a previously unexplored - but very real - subject. In his debut novel,corruption is destroying the Beautiful Game in Asia and has spread its tentacles into the UK via spread betting cartels that have already knocked out floodlights and caused chaos in the English Premier League.
     Against such a background, former West Ham United apprentice striker Chris Osborne arrives in Singapore for a final roll of the dice to get his once promising career back on track. However not even a boyhood spent growing up in the East End prepares him for the crooked shenanigans, bloated former British footballing jetsam and the underground party drugs scene that welcomes him to life in paradise.

What others are saying about the book:

"If you're looking for something that will engage you as an Asian, as well as a football fan, how about a bit of this one... Match Fixer is a fun, fictional yarn...Go buy it."

-John Dykes, ESPN First Edition

"Neil Humphreys' hilarious and spot-on portrayal of the various caricatures that inhabit Singapore had me laughing out loud throughout Match Fixer. It is deeply insightful seeing ourselves from his Ang Moh, yet true-to-life, perspective."

-Shazmin Shamsuddin, Radio BFM 89.9, Malaysia

"Wickedly close to the bone... seems more like fact than fiction."

-Jason Dasey, South China Morning Post

"A great read. Having played and coached in Singapore, reading Match Fixer was like going back in time! A warts and all look at life and football in Singapore. I couldn't put it down."

-Scott O'Donell, National Coach of Cambodia

"Knowing Singapore rather well, and now that I find myself working in the game, I think Match Fixer has an intriguing insider's perspective of both worlds. It's an engrossing look at the Asian football scene."

 -Nick Leeson, author of Rogue Trader and Galwya United CEO

"Being an old West Ham boy who grew up in East London and played in Malaysia, it's clear to me that Neil Humpreys knows this world. Match Fixer paints a vivid picture - colourful, exciting and unpredictable. It really is a fascinating book."

-Tony Cottee, former England, West Ham, Everton and Selangor striker

"A brilliant journey from the harsh realities of makign the grade in the English Premiership, via the A-League and onto the sobering realities of football corruption in Asia - 9/10"

-Trevor Treharne, Australian FourFourTwo magazine

"Football, sex, drugs, gangsters and match fixing in squeaky-clean Singapore? Humphreys exposes the dirty underbelly of soccer corruption in the way only an insider truly can. I know its fiction, but like the Da Vinci Code, the underlying truth in Match Fixer leaves you wondering what's real and what's not."

-S.Murali, The New Paper (Singapore)

"Riveting and uncompromising, Match Fixer sucks you in, and never relents until the sobering end. A fascinating read."

-Chia Han Keong, My Paper (Singapore)

"When East End dreams turn into Far East nightmare. Match Fixer is a rattling good read. It's gripping stuff."

-Tony McDonald, Ex-Hammers magazine editor and author of West Ham United: The Managers

"Americans may not know anything about English football- heck, we're not even sure that short-pants stuff really is football. But there's nothing we love more than a scandal that runs all the way up to the big guys. Neil Humpheys delivers that and more in the form of a bang-up tale of an English footballer adrift in the perplexing land of Singapore, a hard-edge odyssey of sex, drugs and football that will keep you turning pages to the very end. I friggin' loved it."

-Jake Needham, author of best-selling crime fiction novel, The Big Mango