His father exposed gambling scandal – had to live with bodyguards

His father exposed the big gambling scandal – which led to the whole family living under death threats and the family being torn apart. Now Tom Malmquist has written a book about the scandal:
– I wanted to give him a saving grace. I wanted to give him a big hug – because I understand now how tough he was.

Author Tom Malmquist has written an autobiographical novel about how his father’s investigation into a major gambling scandal in the 90s changed the family’s life overnight.

“Didn’t dare sleep alone”

In 1990, Thomas Malmquist, who was then sports manager at Expressen, began one of his articles with:
“What I am now going to write is about Swedish sports’ biggest scandal ever.”

He describes how Swedish bandy and hockey players at the highest level have accepted bribes and that criminals have thereby been able to extract millions from fixed matches.

The review hit like a bomb. But Thomas Malmquist himself was questioned, discredited and threatened, and his family was forced to live with bodyguard protection.

– I didn’t dare to sleep by myself when I was eleven and I was afraid of cars coming up the driveway. But my strongest memory is that I thought it was cool with well-trained bodyguards with guns, but it was only when the bodyguards left our house that I got really scared, says Tom Malmquist in Nyhetsmorgon.

Asks the son to sign on his deathbed

He believes that the father was dismissed as sports manager at Expressen.

– It was so humiliating – from being the great journalist to chasing stray cats in Flen as a Swedish reporter at Expressen. He started drinking a lot during this time, it wasn’t easy for him, says Tom Malmquist.

On his deathbed, Thomas Malmquist asks his son to write about the Gambling Scandal, but it takes ten years before Tom has the courage to undertake the task.

– I had lost my partner just a month or so before my father died and I had just become a father. I had a baby on my shoulder when dad died, I couldn’t handle his scoop. It is only now, ten years later, that I was able to meet father.