By Andrew Warshaw
July 30 – Asian football is stepping up its collective effort to tackle match-fixing by distributing a detailed booklet to member federations throughout the Continent highlighting the dangers of being drawn into manipulation.
Asian illegal betting gangs are at the heart of the global scourge of matchfixing and Sanjeevan Balasingam, director of the AFC’s integrity unit, hopes the pocket-size publication will step up awareness across the confederation’s 47 federations.
Match-fixing is rampant in Asia, with recent cases reported in Vietnam, Malaysia and Australia, and the booklet will be distributed at all AFC competitions to educate stakeholders.
“It is among a number of mediums which will be used in an effort to enable targets of match manipulation to recognise, reject and report any attempts to fix the outcome of matches in AFC competitions,” said Balasingam.
AFC officials recently met FIFA – represented by security chief Ralf Mutschke – and INTERPOL at its Kuala Lumpur headquarters, with Mutschke calling for a unified stance.
“Our efforts can only be successful if we unify our resources and ensure none of them is being used in an overlapping manner,” he said. ”Criminal organisations are deeply involved in this menace in football and we cannot leave it to law enforcement alone to tackle this issue.
“From our collective side as football bodies, prevention is the only solution, that is, by strengthening football from the inside.”
Meanwhile, Turkey, another country hit hard by match manipulation, is reported to have blocked access to 110 illegal gambling websites over the last five years, according to an annual report released by the country´s telecommunications authority.
The National Lottery and Turkey’s telecommunications authority have joined forces to combat online betting and gambling.
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