June 30 – FIFA’s main crime-buster has expressed his regret at Interpol’s decision to end the two organisations’ “unique collaboration” because of the corruption scandal that has rocked world football’s governing body.
Under an agreement signed four years ago, the two bodies had been co-operating to crack down on match-fixing but the international police agency is freezing the €20 million donated by FIFA for the 10-year “Integrity in Sport” training programme.
“They were a major partner for us because they organised those training programmes,” said FIFA head of security Ralf Mutschke.
“This was a unique, global anti-match fixing prevention programme where we got incredibly positive feedback and therefore we are really sad that Interpol suspended the co-operation unilaterally.”
Muschtke told Reuters he didn’t understand the reasons for Interpol’s decision but that FIFA would continue the fight without them.
Interpol blamed “current context surrounding FIFA” but Mutschke said: “For me, this co-operation has nothing to do with the investigations ongoing now in Switzerland and in the U.S.”
“The fixers are not suspending their programme against football, therefore we cannot wait for Interpol to come back. We cannot wait to fight match-fixing.”
“FIFA will continue with its programme. My team are all former police officers. We know how law-enforcement acts. We went through three very good years with Interpol involved in all the training, so we will continue it and we will look for new partners.”
“We have established a very comprehensive approach (involving) a threat assessment involving the FIFA security officers, having an integrity manager in the stadium and approaching teams and referees before the competition. We have hotlines for athletes and we certainly do the live monitoring of the betting. We can immediately react on any kind of allegation.”
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