European Soccer Investigators Identify Eight New Suspect Games 28/09/2009 |
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A specialist 16-man detection force set up by European soccer’s governing body is investigating eight new suspected match-fixing cases from this season’s Champions League and Europa League qualifying rounds.
Some of the games involve teams from Russia, Hungary and Greece, said Peter Limacher, head of disciplinary services at UEFA. The organization’s fraud detection team was already studying 40 suspect matches that date back four seasons.
“The problem is getting bigger,” Limacher said in a Sept. 25 interview at the World Sports Law Report’s sports, betting and sponsorship conference in London. “We are finding it, but we want to educate the national federations to take action.”
The eight cases come less than three months after investigators began work in London using UEFA’s new Betting Fraud Detection System. They are supported by lawyers, former police detectives and a network of informers or “wise guys” hired across Europe, Limacher said.
The majority of the cases under scrutiny concern eastern European leagues where some clubs face financial difficulties and players’ earning potential is far lower than in the continent’s biggest leagues.
“Everything is possible,” the UEFA official said. “These gangs are very sophisticated with a wide network of associates all over Europe.”
Clubs Probed
Last month, three Macedonian clubs were being investigated by UEFA after it banned the former champion FK Pobeda from European competitions for eight years. In 2005, a referee was jailed for accepting bribes from a Croatia-based gang to fix four matches in Germany.
Limacher said financially stricken clubs are seduced by the riches promised by match-fixers.
“A club president gathers the players and says ‘We can’t pay salaries’ a few days before a game and tells the players what they can do,” said Limacher, UEFA’s highest ranking disciplinary official.
The problem has been exacerbated by the rapid growth of online gambling and in-play betting. UEFA is lobbying the betting industry to help share the costs associated with monitoring 29,000 games per season.
“We spend millions and the betting industry doesn’t give a penny,” he said. “What we do will have a positive impact on the betting industry as well.”
(Source: Bloomberg)
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