The European police (Europol) has uncovered a crime syndicate, which organized fixed football matches all around the world. The investigation has revealed hundreds of fixed matches including qualification games for European and World Cups. Knowing the score in advance the malefactors made millions of dollars on football pools.
The investigation that took 18 months revealed 380 fixed matches in Europe, while 300 more games in Africa, Asia, South and Central Americas also aroused suspicions of the investigators. The center of the syndicate was based in Singapore. Until now scandals with fixed matches have never gone worldwide, former professional football coach Valery Gladilin says. "Let’s take Italy, for example, a country where football is a well-developed industry and that won the World Champion several times. There they downgraded such an outstanding club as Juventus to the second league. Also other serious European clubs were punished and some excellent players were disqualified. In Africa and Asia where the football industry is only developing, as well as and in South America corruption in football is flourishing." The investigation has revealed that the crime syndicate had been active since early 2009 bribing players, coaches, referees and football officials. The scale of match fixing is impressive but to all who love and know football this is not a revelation, Boris Bogdanov a reporter with the Sport Express newspaper says. "The very fact of the existence of fixed matches is not new and I don’t think that it can shock anyone. Inetrepol is a serious organization and it won’t make such high-profile statements without a reason. So the new thing is that such a powerful crime syndicate was uncovered and the case will be completed which means that the guilty will be punished." Prevention of match fixing requires an interaction of all members of the international football community. FIFA and UEFA must speak out on the issue and act tough to clean football up. Fortunately, the Europol has intervened in this business and this will oblige football organizations to conduct relevant investigations. By now 50 people who are involved in organizing fixed matches have been arrested. The Europol also suspects more than 400 football officials and players and the investigators are confident but this is only the top of the iceberg. Source: Voice of Russia
