By Andrew Warshaw
December 13 – UEFA have responded to the latest wave of match-fixing by drawing up an 11-point plan which they hope will be applied by all 54 member federations. The draft plan, which calls on the membership to agree to the same sanctions on a consistent basis, will be put before the UEFA Congress in Kazakhstan next March for approval.
“For UEFA, the fight against match-fixing is a top priority but it is important that all over Europe there is as uniform an approach as possible against it,” UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino told reporters after a meeting of his executive committee in Bilbao.
“It cannot be that in one country you have one sanction and another one in a different country for the same offence which goes straight into the soul of football.”
“We also want to strengthen the effective partnership between sports bodies and state authorities which is crucial in the fight against match-fixing.
“Even one match fixed is one match too many and we have to fight against this in the most efficient way.”
No details of the 11-point plan were disclosed but Infantino hinted that kicking the culprits out of European competition was one of the recommendations.
“UEFA has excluded from its competitions this year two teams from Turkey and one from Ukraine because of matches which were fixed at national level not European level. We have also suspended an Armenian referee for life. Sanctions must be very, very harsh,” he said.
Meanwhile UEFA also confirmed that Gibraltar, their newest addition, would be kept apart from reigning champions Spain in the qualifying groups for Euro 2016.
Gibraltar, with a population of just 29,000, became a full member of UEFA earlier this year despite strong opposition from Spain, which claims sovereignty over the tiny British Overseas Territory.
The draw takes place on February 23 in Nice and Infantino said: “Gibraltar is a full member and will participate in the draw on February 23, but it will not play against Spain. That was one of the criteria that was decided.”
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