By David Owen
June 10 – FIFA has urged member associations to designate one individual to be responsible for all matters related to manipulation, as world football’s governing body looks to step up the battle against match-fixing. In the run-up to this week’s Congress, FIFA has distributed a 23-page booklet of guidelines to member associations entitled, ‘Specific Recommendations to Combat Match Manipulation’.
The document states, “It is clear that the world of football is under threat from organised crime and others attempting to corrupt players, referees and other officials in order to unduly influence football matches…
“We must strengthen our defences…by establishing these outlined integrity initiatives within each [member association] and implementing these specific recommendations.”
In a covering letter, Jérôme Valcke, FIFA’s Secretary General, said: “Match-fixing is a known problem in international sport. Where football is concerned, legal proceedings around the world have provided evidence that it is a global concern that can no longer be ignored.
He went on: “At the 63rd FIFA Congress in May 2013, FIFA member association delegates were presented with a thorough report on FIFA’s ongoing fight against the scourge of match manipulation and were called upon to implement their own national integrity initiatives with FIFA’s guidance and support…
“Match manipulation has no place in football. For prevention to be effective, the football community must collaborate in a concerted and cohesive manner by enhancing the exchange of information and best practices, overcoming loopholes in existing legislation, improving legal and judicial cooperation, ensuring that administrative systems with effective and appropriate legal means are established and creating preventive measures and relevant training programmes.”
FIFA’s guidelines come hard on the heels of a ‘Good Practice Guide’ produced by international footballers’ association FIFPro, UEFA, the European football body, and London’s Birkbeck university.
Such initiatives are part of an attempted clampdown by authorities, as the realisation has apparently dawned in recent times of how serious a potential threat to the integrity of international sport manipulation poses. In another recent move, CONCACAF, the confederation covering North and Central America and the Caribbean, last month signed a memorandum of understanding covering sports integrity initiatives with Interpol.
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