Global match-fixing scandal: 74 players and officials have their sentences increased by FIFA

Yesterday, the World Football Federation (FIFA) decided to increase the penalties for 74 players and officials involved in the match-fixing scandal in Italy and South Korea.

There were 4 cases of involvement in match-fixing and score-fixing activities in Korean football discovered in mid-2011.

Specifically, 70 players and related figures under the management of the Italian Football Federation (including 11 cases that have received permanent bans from football activities) have their punishments increased: Banned from participating in all football-related activities worldwide due to incidents discovered after 3 investigations in 2012. Similarly, 4 cases of participating in match-fixing and score-fixing activities in the Korean football village discovered in mid-2011 also received punishments at the same level.

According to the conclusion ofFIFA, these people are said to be “directly involved or neglecting to report match-fixing, illegal betting and corruption”.

Notably, this information from FIFA was released just 2 days after they announced that 58 Chinese football players and officials would be banned from football-related activities worldwide.

FIFA's tough move is considered a declaration of war against acts that distort fairness in world football.

FIFA has been particularly concerned about the issue of corruption since the European anti-crime agency Europol announced on February 4 that up to 680 matches worldwide were suspected of being fixed by a global criminal organization based in Singapore.

It is also worth noting that Asian football was previously rocked by another match-fixing scandal when the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) investigated and punished 24 Lebanese players for their alleged involvement in match-fixing. Last week, the AFC also confirmed that it had set up a task force to help combat match-fixing on the continent.

According to Bongdaplus - DT