Segers denies ever throwing a game

The former Wimbledon goalkeeper Hans Segers, who is accused of being part of a match-fixing plot, told a jury today yesterday he had never thrown a game in his life.

Segers was giving evidence at Winchester Crown Court where he and former Liverpool and Southampton goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar, 29, the former Aston Villa and Wimbledon striker, John Fashanu, 34, and Malaysian Heng Suan Lim, 31, deny conspiring to give and accept corrupt payments.

Segers told the court that in 1994 he was receiving a wage of pounds 1,000 a week, plus a signing-on fee of pounds 30,000 year, a pounds 50,000 loyalty bonus and a "clean sheet" bonus.

He said the 1993/4 season, the period to which the allegations relate, was one of Wimbledon's most successful.

Desmond De Silva QC, Segers' counsel, asked if he had ever received money or been offered money for throwing a game. "No, never. Nobody asked me to throw a game, I've never thrown a game," Segers replied.

Segers said his principal sources of income at that time, outside playing football, were a tie company, commentary work for Dutch television, and he provided match information and result predictions on Dutch and English matches for Mr Lim.

He said he first met Mr Lim in 1993, and agreed to do forecasts on Dutch matches for pounds 1,500. He said he mainly forecast Dutch matches but would help Mr Lim with information on teams in English matches.

Asked if he knew at the time that what he was doing may have been against Football Association rules, he said: "At the time I was doing it, no."

When he had been questioned by police he told them he did not know Mr Lim. Seger told the court that this was because Lou Macari, a manager at Swindon Town, had recently been banned for a year by the FA for betting on his team, and so Seger had not wanted to admit to forecasting.