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November 20 – Europe was riddled with a match-fixing betting scandal involving more than 200 suspected members who fixed or tried to fix around 200 matches across the continent, it has been claimed by police in Germany today.
The matches concerned included three in the UEFA Champions League.
Police in Germany, Britain, Austria and Switzerland staged simultaneous raids, arresting 15 people and seizing one million euros (1.49 million US dollars) in cash or goods in the betting affair across nine European leagues.
Bochum Police said at a press conference today that 200 people were suspected of being part of the ring that tried to rig about 200 matches.
German prosecutors and police said on Friday that the gang allegedly obtained more than €10m ($15m) in illegal betting proceeds by manipulating the outcome of games in nine countries, including three in the European Champions League.
Some 32 matches in Germany’s lower divisions as well as dozens of First or Second Division matches in Turkey, Bosnia, Hungary, Croatia, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia were under investigation.
Twelve matches in the Europa League, the second-tier club competition behind the elite Champions League, were also under suspicion, Bochum Police said.
UEFA Europa League spokesman Peter Limacher described the scandal as the biggest to hit European football.
He said: ”Clearly this is the worst ever match-fixing scandal in European football.
“We at UEFA are stunned by the magnitude of this.
“We feel a certain satisfaction [that the matter is being brought to a head], but on the other side we are deeply affected by the scope of game manipulations by international gangs.”
UEFA says it has been actively involved in the investigation and has given assistance through its Betting Fraud Detection System.
This system monitors all UEFA competitions and European national league First and Second-division matches for suspicious betting patterns.
The information on a number of matches was passed to the German authorities upon their request.
UEFA’s general secretary, Gianni Infantino said: ”UEFA will be demanding the harshest of sanctions before the competent courts for any individuals, clubs or officials who are implicated in this malpractice, be it under state or sports jurisdiction.”
Andreas Bachmann, head of the police team in Bochum leading the investigation, said that the estimated criminal proceeds, number of games involved and circle of suspects could increase.
He said: ”This is just the tip of the iceberg.
“We must assume that the actual figures will be much higher.”
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