By Andrew Warshaw
February 11 – FIFA’s former head of security, Chris Eaton (pictured), says the recent revelation of a virtual epidemic of match fixing should serve as a wake-up call for authorities across the world.
European police forces last week announced they had come up with 300 new cases of potential match-fixing played between 2008 and 2011 and linked to 380 cases already uncovered in Europe.
One of them was a Champions League tie played in England, the 2009 fixture between Liverpool and Hungarian club Debrecen.
The European Union’s law enforcement agency, Europol, said it had identified an organised crime syndicate based in Asia that was co-ordinating the operation.
Eaton, who used to work at Interpol and is now helping to run the Qatar-based International Centre for Sports Security, says there is no credible evidence of match-fixing in England but that everyone should be on their guard.
“You hear a lot of allegations, but I have never had any credible evidence about fixing in the Premier League,” Eaton told the BBC’s Sportsweek programme.
“(But) You must be vigilant, this is the most watched league in the world, the most gambled league in the world and therefore the one who has to be the most vigilant.”
Eaton revealed there are many different ways matches could be rigged.
“There is no standard form, with a lot of different styles engaged by match-fixers over the years. Organised crime take an interest in this, which is not because of the growth of match-fixing, but because of the great growth of gambling in south-east Asia.”
Last week, FIFA president Sepp Blatter told reporters during a visit to Mauritania that football was almost powerless to prevent the fixers.
“We know there are games that are manipulated and we also know it is very, very difficult to get the organisations (behind the scams),” said Blatter. “This is a serious danger. If games are rigged, there is no interest in watching football.”
Eaton believes it is the responsibility of governments to act.
“The real issue is betting fraud, without that there would be no money to fix matches. So governments have to regulate international gambling at a global and collective level. Not a national level or regional level. Governments around the world need to realise the massive amount of money that is available for organised crime through manipulating sports results.”
See Mihir Bose’s column – Why match-fixing can’t be fixed
http://www.insideworldfootball.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=75:mihir-bose-blog&layout=blog&Itemid=103
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