January 16 – The Asian Football Confederation says every effort is being made to avoid match-fixing at the Asian Cup.
Asian football has been plagued by rigging in recent months, with a series of scandals across the continent, and in a statement on its website, the AFC said “extensive measures have been implemented to combat this threat ” during the ongoing tournament in Australia.
The statement said that “collaboration” with the Australian Government and law enforcement, Football Federation of Australia, Local Organising Committee and betting monitoring service provider Sportradar was pivotal in “proactively integrating an action plan to uphold the integrity of the tournament.”
AFC general secretary Alex Soosay added: “Like any global football event, the AFC Asian Cup attracts a vast global betting turnover and therefore the need to have measures in place to successfully prevent, detect and respond to the threat of match-fixing is the main objective of the integrity action plan.
“The effective implementation of this plan has been evident thus far as all the monitored pre-tournament friendly matches have identified no evidence of match-fixing, which is an encouraging sign. The Asian Cup itself has started positively and we are quite confident that it will remain so throughout the competition.”
