Ex-Portsmouth player Sam Sodje plans legal action against 'Fake Sheikh'
Friday 7 October 2016 19:38, UK
Former Portsmouth defender Sam Sodje and his brother Stephen plan to pursue legal action against the 'Fake Sheikh' Mazher Mahmood.
Investigative journalist Mahmood - who had worked for The Sun on Sunday newspaper - was convicted of perverting the course of justice this week.
Sam Sodje was among 13 footballers arrested in 2013 for spotfixing following a sting by Mahmood before the case later collapsed due to a lack of evidence.
In the aftermath of his arrest, Sodje claims both that his negotiations with Portsmouth over a new contract broke down and that he had to retire as he could not get a deal at another club.
The 37-year-old and his sibling had been flown to Dubai believing they were travelling there to discuss a possible charity football match which would benefit their charity, the Sodje Foundation.
Sodje claims conversation turned to match fixing and Mahmood filmed him saying he had accepted a £70,000 payment to get deliberately sent off against Oldham.
He punched opponent Jose Baxter twice in the groin during the fixture in February 2013 and was consequently dismissed five minutes into the second half of a 1-0 defeat at Boundary Park.
Sam Sodje - who stopped playing the following summer - told Sky Sports News HQ: "No amount of money you pay will give me back what I've lost.
"It's not really about the money. It's about the principle. You can't just do that to people. Everything I've worked as a young man - trying to be good to society and working really hard - he took everything away.
"From the day this whole thing came out, that was the end of my career. I tried to stay positive and say 'I'm a fighter' but he ruined me. Life after football is tough and he made it 10 times worse for me.
"All I had - like every footballer - was my reputation and he killed it. There's nothing I can do any more, he took everything away from me."
The Crown Prosecution Service say they are reviewing 25 past convictions that were made using Mahmood's evidence.
Former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson and Pakistan international cricketer Mohammed Amir are two others who have also threatened to pursue legal action.
Stephen Sodje added: "Everyone knows the Sodje family, everyone knows the Sodje brothers. We're very tight, we've been brought up together.
"Not only did it ruin our careers, it ruined our reputation in football. People started looking at us in a certain way.
"We weren't able to do what we wanted to do with a football project because we lost all our sponsors. What [Mahmood] has been doing - or what he did to us - we want him to come out and admit to it.
"The word 'entrapment', a lot of people don't believe in it but it's a massive word. We were completely set up. We were completely entrapped into a lifestyle which was unknown to us."
