By Andrew Warshaw
February 22 – A two-day conference on match-fixing at which the dangers facing Asian football were starkly underlined have resulted in the Asian Football Confederation setting up a task force to try and clamp down on arguably the most serious crisis facing the game.
South-east Asia has become the central hub for organised gangs financing matchfixing and Soosay said: “The conference held in Kuala Lumpur, with the help of Interpol and FIFA, raised awareness about the seriousness of this threat in our game.”
“By setting up this task force, we would like to coordinate the education, training and implementation of measures through one platform.
“The Chinese Football Association banned 33 people, including two officials, club owners, referees and several star players for life recently which will surely send a strong message to the negative elements.
“Also, the Football Association of Malaysia has initiated polygraph tests for players and this had a positive impact in their fight against match-fixing.
“I would like all our members to follow these examples and join this fight to strengthen the fair play in the game.”
Meanwhile in Italy, police have taken into custody an associate of alleged match-fixing mastermind Tan Seet Eng, also known as Dan Tan. Slovenian citizen Admir Suljic was arrested when he arrived in Milan from Singapore, one of the epicentres of match-fixing, following a tip-off.
Interpol chief Ron Noble said: “The man is wanted by the Italian authorities for his alleged involvement in match-fixing under the organisation based in Singapore and controlled by Tan Seet Eng.”
Italian police issued a warrant for Tan’s arrest after accusations that he heads a global match-fixing organisation. Europol announced earlier this year that they were investigating a staggering 680 games in connection to match-fixing including some 360 suspicious fixtures in Europe.
Italy has witnessed a plethora of match-fixing cases which have seen the arrests of more than 50 people, with another 150 placed under investigation, over the past two years. Suljic has been on the run since December 2011 and his arrest will be a huge boost to those trying to nip the scourge of match-fixing in the bud.
Interestingly, one of the complaints raised at this week’s Kuala Lumpur conference has been that the Singapore authorities are not doing enough to combat game rigging. But Noble believes Singapore and south-east Asian countries are being restricted in what they can and can’t do because European police were not sharing enough information internationally.
As a result, according to reports, a team of senior Singapore officers will shortly be travelling to Interpol headquarters in Lyon, France, to assist in match-fixing investigations. The Singapore team will work with Interpol on information exchange in a joint approach which it is hoped will pave the way for further progress.
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