Saints legends deny spot-fixing

Claus Lundekvam: Former Southampton defender has made claims over spot-fixing

Former Southampton stalwarts who played with Claus Lundekvam have distanced themselves from his claims about spot-fixing.

The former defender, who spent 12 years with the club, recently claimed on Norwegian radio that he and his team-mates, as well as opposing captains, regularly made money by betting on events during games.

His revelations have created a furore within football and concerns about how widespread this practice is, prompting an investigation by FIFA into the Norwegian's allegations.

The game's governing body is now contacting former team-mates of the Scandinavian in a bid to gather information about the purported practices.

However, Matt Le Tissier, who is the Saints second-highest scorer, tweeted: "Aside from that one incident in my book I've never been involved in any betting scams and have no idea of Claus Lundekvam's claims."

His rebuttal was further backed up by Francis Benali, who preceded Lundekvam as captain.

No knowledge

"I can say categorically I have no knowledge of the betting allegations made by Claus," he said.

"Dressing rooms are very tight environments and if something was widespread, even if you weren't part of it, you would hear it being discussed and talked about."

Lundekvam has broken ranks with his revelations but seems to be finding very little support from previous team-mates who state that they have no knowledge of such practices.

David Hirst, who was at Southampton during the period when these events were supposed to have taken place, insists he was unaware of the practice.

"It was a massive surprise to me that he came out with something like that," he said.

"I was never aware of anything taking place like that, not at Southampton or Sheffield Wednesday or Barnsley - or England for that matter.

"I have never been involved in anything like that and I have never heard of players doing it anywhere."