World Cup Star Elye Wahi Arrested Over 'Match-Fixing Offences’

Hal picked up his MA in Sports Journalism and NCTJ qualification from St Mary's University Twickenham, Hal has since been part of Valnet since late 2021.

He started as a freelance football writer for This Is Futbol and carried that on over to FootballFanCast before becoming their social media editor. He now works as an editor for GiveMeSport, predominantly focusing on Premier League, Champions League, and English football.

He also helps GiveMeSport cover other major sports such as MMA, boxing, darts, tennis, and golf. Key events like the summer and winter Olympics are also highlights when they appear on the sporting calendar.

Hal is an Arsenal and Three Lions fan, but keeps an eye on the All Blacks, his favourite rugby team, having grown up in New Zealand. Sign in to your GiveMeSport account There has already been so much to talk about regarding the 2026 World Cup. On the pitch, Lionel Messi showed there's still magic in his boots as he bagged a hat-trick for Argentina vs Algeria, while FIFA president Gianni Infantino has regularly made negative headlines with his behaviour behind the scenes.

Geopolitical issues also continue to cause concern, with Iran players forced to leave the United States immediately after their 2-2 draw with New Zealand, as they had to fly back to Mexico just two hours after the final whistle. Adding to the chaos, it's now been revealed that a World Cup star was recently ‘arrested over match-fixing offences’.

The man in question is Ivory Coast footballer Elye Wahi.

As per The Athletic, Wahi was arrested on suspicion of match-fixing offences less than two weeks before the World Cup began. The report adds that, sources with knowledge of events, who have spoken anonymously as they are not authorised to do so publicly, confirmed the 23-year-old is the subject of an active investigation, which is seeking to establish whether the Ivory Coast star, while playing for his club side Nice, deliberately earned a yellow card against Metz on 17 May.

The practice of manipulating events within a game is known as spot-fixing. Wahi received a yellow card in the 35th minute after a late tackle on Metz defender Sadibou Sane. Moments before that, he had committed another foul, sliding in on full-back Bouna Sarr, but avoided a yellow card.

Thanks to the booking, his first of the season at that point, the Nice player was suspended for the first leg of Nice’s relegation play-off against Saint-Etienne on 26 May. He watched from the stands as the game ended 0-0, before then playing in the second leg and scoring two goals as his side won 4-1 to avoid Ligue 1 relegation.

On the same day as his Man of the Match display, 29 May, anti-corruption specialists in the French police arrested Wahi. However, he has not been charged with any crime as the investigation continues.

The exact figure they must raise in transfer sales has been revealed.

Despite that, Wahi has remained part of the Ivory Coast team competing in the US at the World Cup this summer and even started for the Ivory Coast in their opening 1-0 win over Ecuador in Philadelphia, hitting the bar in the second half. Ivory Coast’s next game is against Germany in Toronto on Saturday.

A spokesperson for the Marseille public prosecutor’s office has made a statement, telling The Athletic on Tuesday:

“We can confirm that a 23-year-old football player, competing in France’s Ligue 1, was arrested on May 29 as part of an investigation opened by the Marseille public prosecutor’s office into allegations of organized fraud, organized sports corruption, handling of proceeds of crime and money laundering.

“He was released after he was interviewed in police custody. The investigations remain ongoing. The football player is not a member of the French selection taking part in the World Cup.”

According to multiple anonymous sources with knowledge of the case, the French police probe began after the Ligue de Football Professionnel (the governing body that runs the domestic game in France) 'received several notifications of suspicious betting patterns' in Nice’s Ligue 1 fixture against Metz, involving wagers on Wahi to receive a yellow card.

The footballer only changed allegiance to the Ivory Coast in March this year, having represented France, where he was born, at youth level.