FIFA partners with Interpol to combat match-fixing
The $20 million deal aims to combat social evils in sports, especially football.
The International Football Federation (FIFA) and the International Police Agency (Interpol) have just announced a $20 million agreement on coordination, support, prevention and resolute elimination of match-fixing in football.
The agreement, which is for 10 years, focuses on programmes to prevent social evils in sports, especially football.
The match between Latvia and Bolivia is suspected of being match-fixed.
Senior investigators from Finland and Germany, who are investigating match-fixing involving hundreds of club and national team matches, will travel to Zurich this week to brief FIFA President Sepp Blatter and the FIFA Secretary General on the nature and severity of the problem, as well as the preliminary results of the investigations.
Last week, Interpol confirmed for the first time that it and FIFA investigators were jointly investigating a number of international match-fixing schemes. According to Interpol, international friendly matches are a major target for criminal gangs in this area.
Police have arrested Wilson Raj Perumal, who is believed to be running a soccer match-fixing network that spanned three continents. Perumal, a Singaporean national, is currently in custody in Finland, where he is accused of bribing players and officials to fix the results of multiple matches in the Finnish league.
In Germany, police in the city of Bochum have also uncovered a match-fixing network that is believed to have involved 300 different matches. Ante Sapina, a Croatian who was convicted of fixing matches in 2005, was put on trial along with six others for fixing 47 matches.
Under the new agreement, announced jointly by the FIFA President and the Interpol Secretary General, FIFA will provide funding for Interpol to conduct prevention programmes for players, managers and club officials, to raise awareness and identify the methods used by criminal gangs to fix football matches.
One of the project’s top priorities is the education of young players. In addition, FIFA and Interpol have agreed on awareness-raising and monitoring programmes for match officials, which are crucial in preventing match-fixing.
FIFA's Head of Security Chris Eaton said FIFA was concerned about the possibility that criminal gangs had approached and used bribery methods on players and team officials preparing to participate in the U17 and U20 World Cups in Mexico and Colombia this summer.
According to FIFA, the financial resources of this football organization will not be used directly to serve the investigations. However, the cooperation project between FIFA and Interpol is considered a necessary initial step to clean up football matches.
According to VOV
