Victoria Police forced to drop bid to extradite match-fixing mastermind

Victoria Police has abandoned its bid to extradite the mastermind behind an Australian football match-fixing scandal because he cannot be charged under the state's weak sports integrity laws.

Two detectives flew to Finland in May to interview Wilson Raj Perumal, a citizen of Singapore, after Finnish authorities arrested him on an Interpol warrant in Helsinki.

Mr Perumal has been captured on telephone intercepts allegedly talking to Southern Stars players about fixing Victorian Premier League matches.

He had allegedly orchestrated the Stars fixes while in Budapest, Hungary.

But Victoria Police then discovered Mr Perumal could not be charged because he had never set foot in Victoria, Fairfax Media reports.

Sports integrity legislation introduced by the Coalition last year failed to insert a clause to allow charges against people who were not in Victoria when an offence occurred — a serious omission because the most serious match-fixing cases were likely to have international or interstate links.

Victoria's Office of Public Prosecutions is working on amending the legislation.

Mr Perumal returned to Hungary several weeks after being interviewed by Victorian detectives and remains living there under police protection as he assists them in match-fixing investigations.