|
Uefa unit to crack down on football betting
By Roger Blitz in London
Uefa is to set up a gambling monitoring unit after it disc-overed irregular
betting patterns in 25 Uefa Cup matches. European football's governing
body has called for support from governments and police to tackle the
problem.
Uefa said 10 matches from this season's Uefa Cup and 15 matches from last
season's tournaments both involving the preliminary rounds were under
review.
Uefa is following in the wake of other sporting bodies - the Association
of Tennis Professionals, the International Cricket Council and the British
Horseracing Authority - all of which have set up internal integrity units.
They are aimed mainly at deterring sports individuals and teams from "throwing"
matches as part of lucrative betting scams.
Gianni Infantino, Uefa's legal affairs director, told Reuters the unit
would be fully operational from next season and will bring in experts
to review matches in all European competitions, including the Champions
League. It will set up a six-man unit and has handed a report to Interpol
detailing matches that have caused concern. "We will start recruiting
immediately," Mr Infantino said. "We need additional expertise.
We have to set up the necessary tools to fight against this."
He added that there was a limit to how far sports governing bodies could
look into these issues. They needed "full support from authorities
who have access to information they don't have."
The decision to set up the unit was made at an executive committee meeting
in Bordeaux at which Uefa gave its blessing to Poland and Ukraine to stage
the European Championships in 2012 but rebuked the host countries for
their slow progress.
Michel Platini, Uefa's president, said that "any slackening could
put in doubt the organisation of this tournament in these countries",
adding that Uefa reserved the right to reduce the number of venues and
matches in either country.
David Taylor, Uefa's general secretary, said it was essential that capital
cities Warsaw and Kiev were among the venues. "If they are not, I'm
afraid that would be the end for the country concerned," he said.
Uefa also revamped the Uefa Cup, the club tournament that has become a
poor relation to the prestigious Champions League, renaming it the Uefa
Europa Cup and reorganising it around a 48-team group format.
ft.com,
September 27 2008
|
|
