By Andrew Warshaw
January 11 – The boss of Israeli football Avraham Luzon (pictured) insists the country is not one of those caught up in the scourge of global match fixing.
Israel Football Association (IFA) chairman Luzon was questioned for several hours last weekend in connection with an investigation into alleged interfering in the selection of officials.
The meeting was part of a general inquiry opened several months ago by Israeli police probing a number of club and match officials.
“I can promise…that Israeli soccer is clean, as is the chairman of the IFA,” Luzon said in a radio interview.
“I can say with all certainty that no referee fixed any match.”
Luzon is a UEFA Executive Committee member and is steadfastly resisting pressure to step down over the inquiry saying he has done nothing wrong.
“There will be elections for the IFA chairmanship in 2014, so I may stay on until 2018,” he declared.
“Or if people annoy me I’ll continue until 2022.
“I am not at liberty to discuss the investigation; I wish I could.
“But I am more than happy if the police want to publish all the details from beginning to end and not just a snippet.”
The Israeli case is the latest addition to a string of countries where match fixing is being investigated.
This week FIFA’s head of security Chris Eaton (pictured) warned the global crisis, centred in the Far East, was so intense that players were in danger of losing their lives.
Eaton’s office is about to open a hotline and website offering a three month amnesty to anyone reporting credible match fixing evidence.
Turkey, Croatia and Italy have all been highlighted in recent weeks and Eaton promised FIFA would protect witnesses who helped in the syndicate busting campaign.
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