Munich - The European football union UEFA wants to step up
its monitoring system in the fight against match-fixing, a German
newspaper reports Friday quoting a UEFA expert.
From next season UEFA will be expanding its monitoring of UEFA
matches to include all games in the top two divisions of all European
countries, Peter Limacher, UEFA's head of disciplinary services, was
quoted as saying by Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
The organization also intends to set up a databank providing
information on matches and betting flows.
Football authorities have long been concerned about the risk of
match-rigging involving betting syndicates and have followed up a
number of suspicious matches.
A UEFA investigative unit has been looking at suspicious betting
movements, while world governing body FIFA also has an early warning
system for monitoring football betting.
In April, UEFA banned Macedonian club FK Podeba for eight years
from European events over a match-fixing scheme in a Champions League
qualifying tie.
Asia, where nine out of 10 betting fraud cases are believed to
originate, continues to be the focus of investigations.
'The problem is the enormously high liquidity in Asia's betting
market and the dirty money it often attracts,' Limacher said.
A report released Wednesday by the Financial Action Task Force
(FATF) warned that football risked being used by criminals for money
laundering purposes.
The FATF, an independent inter-governmental body that develops and
promotes policies to protect the global financial system against
money laundering and terrorist financing, says criminals are buying
clubs, transferring players, betting, using image rights and
sponsorship or advertising arrangements.
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