Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Soccer leagues around the world are infested with organized crime-BBC

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2/4/13, "Match-fixing: Champions League tie played in England 'was fixed'," BBC

"A Champions League tie played in England is one of 680 matches across the world investigators say was fixed. 

European police did not reveal the identity of the match they believe was corrupt in England.
But Europol did say that they had uncovered an organised crime syndicate based in Asia that was co-ordinating the operation....

Rob Wainwright, director of Europol - the European Union's law enforcement agency, said:"This is the work of a suspected organised crime syndicate based in Asia and operated with criminal networks around Europe. 

"It is clear to us this is the biggest-ever investigation into suspected match-fixing in Europe. It has yielded major results which we think have uncovered a big problem for the integrity of football in Europe. 

"We have uncovered an extensive criminal network.

Europol, which has been investigating for 18 months, said suspected matches included World Cup and European Championship qualifiers, two Champions League ties and "several top football matches in European leagues"....

"Analysis

"These gambling rings are basically having to bribe people to play badly or to fix results and then they are wagering large amounts of money, often in Asia, on the outcome of games knowing that they can cheat the bookmakers because they have inside information.

"It's easy to imagine how you can fix something when it is one person against another. When it's two teams of 11 it is more difficult and presumably you need collusion from more than one person. Referees can give penalties and things can be ruled offside when they are not, but you would imagine they need several people to be sure.""




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