The Asian Football Confederation has imposed lengthy bans on a female referee and a player from Mongolia after they were found guilty of attempting to fix a match in the 2025/26 AFC Women’s Champions League preliminary stage for betting purposes.
“Following a thorough investigation, the AFC Disciplinary and Ethics Committee has taken decisive action against attempted match manipulation by suspending Mongolian referee Ms. Munkhtsetseg Batkhuu and player Ms. Namuuna Narmandakh from all football-related activities for ten and five years, respectively,” the AFC stated.
The match in question was played on August 25, 2025, between the Philippines’ Stallion Laguna FC and Mongolia’s Khovd Western FC, which ended in a 6-1 victory for Stallion Laguna.
According to the match-fixing report, both individuals were found to have conspired to influence the outcome of the game, breaching Article 66.1 of the AFC Disciplinary and Ethics Code.
The investigation was carried out under the four-year Memorandum of Understanding signed between the AFC and the International Betting Integrity Association in 2024. This agreement allows both organizations to work together to identify irregular betting patterns and suspicious activities in football matches across Asia. The IBIA shares real-time data on suspicious betting activity with the AFC through its Monitoring and Alert Platform, enabling the AFC to probe potential match manipulation.
The AFC emphasized that these sanctions reaffirm its zero-tolerance stance against any form of match manipulation and its ongoing commitment to protecting the integrity of Asian football.
