Hamburg  - A match at the 2006 World Cup involving five-time world champions Brazil may have been rigged by an Asian betting syndicate, an investigate journalist claims in an interview with the German magazine Spiegel.

In the report to appear Monday, the Canadian journalist Declan Hill said his research had shown that an Asian syndicate wanted Ghana to lose the quarter-final match by at least two goals. Brazil went on to win 3-0 in Dortmund.

Hill, who has a book on match-fixing published in Germany on Tuesday, said three years of research had shown that a former Ghana international had acted as middleman between Ghana's players and the head of a betting syndicate in Bangkok.

Spiegel said its own research had meanwhile shown two matches in Germany to be suspicious after huge sums were placed on them by a Malaysian who has been convicted of attempted match-fixing.

According to the report, William Bee Wah Lim placed 2.8 million euros (4.1 million dollars) with Asian bookmakers on Kaiserslautern losing a first-division match at Hanover on November 26, 2005. As a result of Hanover's 5-1 victory he won 2.2 million euros.

He placed almost 4 million euros on Karlsruhe beating Sportfreunde Siegen in a second-division match on August 7, 2005. Karlsruhe won the game 2-0.

The report said investigations had produced evidence that Lim had contacts with players from Kaiserslautern, Karlsruhe and Sportfreunde Siegen, although the players have protested their innocence.

Lim was sentenced to a jail term of two years and five months a court in Frankfurt in June 2007 after being convicted of attempted fixing of matches in the German regional league (then third division) and the Austrian first division. The two Bundesliga matches were not part of the court proceedings.

He was released on conditional bail of 40,000 euros but has since left the country. A warrant for his arrest was issued in January. (dpa)