GOALKEEPER Bruce Grobbelaar pulled off two "blinding" saves to help his losing Liverpool team mates to a 3-3 draw but lost around £120,000 in the process, a court heard yesterday.
The soccer star allegedly said later that instinct" made him pull off the saves, adding: I am my own worst enemy. I don't like to lose."
The draw meant he lost around £120,000 - cash which prosecutor Mr David Calvert Smith, claimed at Winchester Crown Court yesterday would have come from an international betting syndicate hoping for a "big one" win from a rigged game.
Mr Grobbelaar's admission is said to have come in taped conversations with business associate Mr Christopher Vincent, a key prosecution witness in the player's trial. He allegedly said: "I don't like to lose. It's instinct."
The prosecution counsel said the alleged conversations between the men were taped as part of a "sting" operation by the Sun newspaper.
Mr Vincent went to the Sun after he quarrelled with fellow Zimbabwean Mr Grobbelaar. In the "sting", Mr Vincent is said to have offered Mr Grobbelaar £2,000 as a first payment for helping a betting syndicate fix games. Unknown to Mr Grobbelaar, the syndicate scheme was fictitious.
Mr Calvert Smith told the jury they would see video film of the former Liverpool and Southampton keeper picking up cash at an arranged meeting in Southampton.
Also charged with Mr Grobbelaar are Dutch born former Wimbledon goalkeeper Hans Segers (25), and former Aston Villa and England striker John Fashanu (34).
The prosecution claims Mr Segers also received money to throw games while television Gkidiotors presenter Mr Fashanu was said to be a go between with a Far Eastern betting syndicate. Alongside them in the dock is a Malaysian businessman, Mr Heng Suan Lim (31), said to be the syndicate's British link. All four men deny conspiracy to give and accept corrupt payments and Mr Grobbelaar alone denies corruptly accepting £2,000 from Mr Vincent.
Mr Calvert Smith told the jury that the Liverpool Manchester United game on January 4th, 1994, was a marvellous game. "If this was the big one and Mr Grobbelaar had been hoping to do enough to make Liverpool lose, he had failed because it was a draw."
In the Manchester United game alone, the player allegedly said, he lost around £120,000. Mr Grobbelaar allegedly explained to Mr Vincent: "I could have done something... because in the second half I made two blinding saves. As I was diving the wrong way - and that is true as living God I dived the wrong way and went `phew' and it just went and hit my hand."
The jury also saw brief footage of a game between Norwich and Liverpool on February 5th, 1994, which was a two all draw. On the night before the game, Mr Grobbelaar had driven to London and met Mr Lim, whom he called the "short man", it was alleged. Mr Lim went to the match and after the game, Mr Grobbelaar said the short man would be as "mad as a snake".
Video clips of the Coventry Southampton game on September 24th, 1994, were also seen by the jury. Mr Grobbelaar had transferred to the south coast club by then and the jury saw him leap to a chipped ball from striker Dion Dublin. Mr Grobbelaar got a hand to the ball but it continued into the net.
Mr Calvert Smith said of a Grobbelaar conversation with Mr Vincent: "Mr Grobbelaar is explaining that he had been told they had to lose the Coventry game, that he pushed the ball into the back of the net to make it 1-0 to Coventry and then, no fault of his, Southampton score three and it's a 3-1 win to Southampton.
Mr Segers said he had a Swiss bank account containing £160,000. Much of the money, he said, came from car crime while he was playing in Holland. He had "salted away" the cash before coming to England in 1984.
He claimed to have had an account in a Jersey bank containing some £250,000 from which he transferred sums to the Swiss account. He sent cash to the Swiss account from two businesses he ran - a firm selling ties and a goalkeeping school at Wokingham. However, the prosecution suggested that the firms never made much cash and could not account for the large sums in Switzerland. The case continues.