UEFA and Europol strengthening joint actions to protect integrity of European football

UEFA and the European Union's law enforcement agency Europol have renewed and extended their Memorandum of Understanding, focused on protecting the integrity of European football and preventing and combatting crime. The memorandum was signed today at UEFA headquarters in Nyon by the President of UEFA Aleksander Čeferin and the Executive Director of Europol Catherine De Bolle.

The agreement builds on the institutions’ past cooperation, particularly focused on the fight against match-fixing, while broadening the scope of cooperation around how to respond when faced with new and developing organised crime-related challenges. This includes cooperation, exchanging of information and the provision of expertise in the areas of major football events, sports corruption, match-fixing and money laundering in football, racism, xenophobia and violent extremism as well as illegal activities around the unlawful streaming or transmission of audio-visual content, where related to serious or organised crime affecting two or more EU Member States.

The areas of cooperation extend to the detection of suspicious transactions and activities around transfers of players, investment in clubs, trading of football-related financial assets, sports betting and the awarding and organising of sports competitions, which can be abused by criminals to launder illicit proceeds or for corruption purposes.

Europol and UEFA pledge to cooperate in joint activities and in implementing relevant projects. Europol will also provide expert assistance and advice to UEFA and its 55 national member associations.

“As the governing authority for European football we collaborate closely with European institutions and agencies, including Europol, to safeguard the integrity, credibility and long-term sustainability of the game at every level. Through our partnership with Europol, we remain committed to enhancing our coordinated actions to prevent and tackle the criminal exploitation of our sport,” said UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin.

This was reiterated by Executive Director of Europol Catherine De Bolle: "Football provides a universal language that transcends borders, fostering a shared passion among diverse groups of people. At the same time, we have to note the criminal abuse of this wonderful sport: as with every major societal movement, football is vulnerable to criminal exploitation. Europol stands ready to support UEFA and all competent national authorities in safeguarding the integrity of this beautiful game.”

During her visit to UEFA, Ms De Bolle also joined the meetings of the UEFA Governance and Compliance Committee and the UEFA Stadium and Security Committee which were taking place on the same morning. She exchanged views with the members of the committees dealing with many of the topics covered in the new Memorandum of Understanding.

European football's governing body has a zero-tolerance policy towards match-fixing and other forms of serious and organised crime that affect football. In 2021, UEFA reinforced its strong stance against match-fixing when it adopted a comprehensive action plan and increased the resources it invests into the fight against match-fixing and to further develop its internal unit of experts and investigators in the field.

UEFA takes online piracy extremely seriously and strongly supports EU and national policy measures to combat it and ensure the continued flow of revenues into the game at all levels, particularly football development and grassroots investment throughout Europe.

UEFA is also supporting the implementation of new EU anti-money laundering regulations in football.

Europol, which is based in The Hague, Netherlands, works together with EU Member States and other partner countries in the fight against serious international crime, undertaking intelligence and investigatory work and collecting and disseminating information to national law enforcement agencies.