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No match-fixing at World Cup, says FIFA

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-06-19 04:36

JOHANNESBURG -- A specialist body which looked out for unusual betting activity at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany has not picked up any signs of match-fixing at the 2010 FIFA World in South Africa, organizers said on Friday.

Marco Villiger, FIFA legal affairs director, was speaking at a media breakfast in Sandton, northern Johannesburg.

He said FIFA had created an intelligence-gathering and monitoring subsidiary company called Early Warning System (EWS), which first got under way at Germany's World Cup in 2006.

He said the system was also commissioned to monitor betting activity around the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

This company now had cooperation agreements with more than 400 bookmakers and betting organizations worldwide, which had agreed to report any irregular betting activities they picked up.

Villiger said that teams would require closer monitoring for "betting Mafia" activity in the next week or so as they battled to survive the first round of the 20201 FIFA World Cup and not be sent home.

"Although it's impossible to guarantee that any competition is safe from attempts to externally influence matches, FIFA is doing everything it can to ensure the risk is minimized," he told the South African Press Association (SAPA).

EWS was also plugged into a range of service providers, specialists and investigation units, through a complex technical system and alarm hotlines. In addition it was linked to Interpol too, to gather a large quantity of betting industry information.

He said that so far, EWS has not found evidence of any match-fixing attempts during matches of FIFA competitions.

"This does not guarantee no such irregularities have ever taken place but EWS is improving every day with a wider network of information providers."

Match-fixing typically involves bribing or blackmailing players, referees and other match officials to turn a game.

SAPA reported Through a complex technical system and alarm hotlines, Villiger as saying processes had also been put in place for players to seek help when put under pressure.

An added complication these days was that the soccer betting market was no longer simply on a win, lose or draw basis, but focused also on separate sections of a match or, for example, when the first yellow card would be shown, he told SAPA.

"We would prefer not to have this live betting but we understand it adds to the excitement."

He said that match-fixing is a far bigger threat to football than doping.

"So much of it happens on the Internet, spanning a number of continents, so it's very difficult to pin down in terms of jurisdiction."