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Integrity drive gains impetus

UEFA identifies match-fixing as a serious danger to football's health - and the enhanced role of its Integrity Officers in each UEFA member association is stepping up the fight to protect the game across Europe.

UEFA Integrity Officers from 26 national associations came to Zeist
UEFA Integrity Officers from 26 national associations came to Zeist ©UEFA

As UEFA continues to step up its fight against match-fixing in football, the role of its network of Integrity Officers across Europe is taking on greater influence.

Integrity Officers representing 26 UEFA member associations met at the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) Campus in Zeist for a workshop organised by the anti-match-fixing unit within the new UEFA Protecting the Game division.

UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin’s vision for clean football has been reinforced by the creation of the new division, designed to provide a more direct and unified approach to tackling integrity problems within the European game.

UEFA Integrity Officers act as liaison officers between the football authorities and state law enforcement agencies with regard to suspected match-fixing.

They exchange information and experience with the UEFA administration, monitor disciplinary proceedings and coordinate relevant action, as well as holding invaluable education programmes for players, referees and coaches.

UEFA identifies the fight against match-fixing as one of its priority activities, with Mr Čeferin describing the phenomenon as "a disease that attacks football’s very core.” Discussions in Zeist focussed in particular on the threats currently faced by European football through the manipulation of matches.

The value of UEFA’s betting fraud detection system, which monitors more than 30,000 matches each year, was highlighted at the workshop as a vital source of evidence in determining match-fixing, and specifically in helping the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to reach verdicts in recent cases.

The Council of Europe convention on the manipulation of sports competitions was also hailed as an invaluable means of promoting coordination between the police and judicial authorities in different countries, as well as strengthening cooperation and information exchange between state bodies and sports bodies such as UEFA.

A new Integrity Officers’ concept is being put in place by UEFA to boost communication and information-sharing across Europe. The officers will have access to a system in which education, investigations, monitoring, prosecutions and regulations relating to match-fixing will be harmonised into a single coherent structure.

As a result, Integrity Officers can be trained, as well as train other persons within a UEFA member association, in a similar way throughout the continent.

The new system will strengthen the liaison work not only between Integrity Officers themselves, but facilitate contacts with the public authorities in their respective countries. Lisbon will host the next Integrity Officers’ workshop in May.

 

 

 

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