Rohan Ricketts: I played in a fixed game

Posted Friday, September 23, 2011 by The Sun

ROHAN RICKETTS has been accused of stealing from his Arsenal team-mates and once found himself in a power struggle between Glenn Hoddle and David Pleat at Spurs.

Yet nothing has prepared this footballing nomad for the last 18 months of his career — a chaotic, bizarre stint which has also been damaging on his bank balance.

Ricketts currently plays for Shamrock Rovers. They are the first Irish side to feature in the group stages of a UEFA tournament and they visit White Hart Lane in the Europa League next Thursday.

The midfielder, whose latest contract ends this January, hopes to put himself in the shop window with a decent performance against the club he left in 2005.

After eventually quitting England for MLS side Toronto, Ricketts moved to Diosgyori VTK in Hungary, Moldovan outfit Chisnau and Wilhelmshaven in Germany.

He has found himself exposed to match-fixing, racism, heavy drinking and smoking. He says he is owed money by all three clubs.

Ricketts, 28, admits he has been a handful in the past, which is probably explained by his number of sides.

Yet the former England Under-18 star, who spent four years at Arsenal before heading to Tottenham, strongly denies accusations that he changed North London clubs after thieving in the dressing room.

And this bright, engaging player sat in a Dublin restaurant yesterday afternoon and spoke about the relief of playing for a club run normally after his previous experiences.

Ricketts said: "Maybe I did not always make the right decisions both with football and within my social circles. I cannot blame everyone else — I do look at myself.

"But I went to Canada in 2008, started to read and found out about myself. I became wiser and calmer.

"I came back to England, should have signed for MK Dons, but then ended up in Hungary. It was a horrible decision. As soon as I landed, the wages on offer changed.

"The coach did not want to sign me, either. The place was dodgy and I am owed money I will never get back.

"As soon as a player leaves England, everyone forgets about him. I had an offer from Azerbaijan and Turkey. Then a Russian agent appeared and said go to Moldova. It was nuts. The players were welcoming but smoked in the changing room and drank four or five bottles of beer before games.

"I was sitting in on meetings about match-fixing. It was strange but almost amusing.

"They were discussing the potential of doing it to help us win the league. We never complied because certain people wanted us to give them our bonuses for stuff.

"But I was still playing some games and I found out that afterwards the game was fixed with one or two players involved.

"The fixing happened in Hungary as well. The coach assumed the game was fixed and that players had taken some money. Lots of stuff was going on.

"Moldova was just horrendous. I had players take things from my room. I was threatened by people to get out of the hotel.

"I left after three months and I submitted to FIFA as I had not been paid any money. I am angry with FIFA for not protecting me or other players.

"Yet clubs do not give a f*** about you. People moan about players with no loyalty but clubs have no loyalty, either.

"This year, I went to Germany in a regional division and the fans would make monkey noises at me.

"In Moldova and Hungary it was not too bad but people would just ignore you – which is as bad as a monkey noise.

"People talk about racism in football but it's everywhere. Some people are just narrow-minded." Ricketts twice won the FA Youth Cup with Arsenal but insists he left when realising he would not make Arsene Wenger's first team.

He loves new media and uses Twitter regularly.

He has launched his own online magazine called Column10.com and is also publishing an ebook aimed at children and parents called Passion for Football.

He said: "When I am on Twitter, people say 'you're a thief, you nicked Thierry Henry's phone' or 'you nicked Dennis Bergkamp's phone'.

"We were involved in a situation at Arsenal. A phone had disappeared but later turned up and it became public.

"My departure was used as the reason. But I was on 700 quid a week so why would I steal a phone — and also from a team-mate? I now get a lot of stick but that's fine. I left Arsenal because I knew I would not get in the team.

"I have seen Coleen Rooney's Twitter page and seen all the Wayne Rooney granny stuff. She has to deal with that.

"But you are public property. In exchange for not having to worry about the electricity bill and worrying about whether you can feed your family, you get a bit of fame and get some stick on Twitter."

As for Spurs, he said: "Glenn Hoddle was great but David Pleat was against me because he bought Jonathan Blondel for one million euros.

"Glenn left and I soon followed so I left with a sour taste in my mouth.

"But I am really looking forward to going back to Spurs with Shamrock and there will be 4,000 or 5,000 Irish fans there.

"At the moment, it is just a novelty being paid on time."