Australian player convicted for match-fixing.

Australian rugby league player Ryan Tandy was fined A$4,000 ($3,843) on Thursday for his part in a match-fixing scandal after a Sydney court found he had attempted to manipulate a scoring play during a National Rugby League game.


The 30-year-old former Canterbury prop was sacked by his club after becoming embroiled in a spot-fixing probe sparked by a betting plunge on the first scoring play of the Bulldogs’


match against the North Queensland Cowboys in August last year.Ryan Tandy is not a registered player with the NRL and no registration would be entertained at this point or until all matters are resolved,” NRL chief David Gallop said in a statement.


Despite its huge popularity in Australia, the NRL has lurched from crisis to crisis in recent years, rocked by scandals ranging from player misbehaviour off the field to illegal player payments.There have been relatively few cases of corruption in Australian sport, but sports-related gambling, worth $A2.8 billion in 2008, is a major growth industry.