Europe reels from massive soccer scandal

Kuala Lumpur News.Net
Friday 20th November, 2009

A massive match-fixing scandal has gripped European football.

Two hundred games, all played in 2009, are being investigated by German prosecutors who say a 200-strong gang has infiltrated first and second division soccer competitions bribing referees, coaches and players to manipulate results.

A high ranking official, UEFA Europa League spokesman Peter Limacher on Friday described the scandal as the biggest to hit European football.

Seventeen people were arrested Thursday in a series of 50 police raids in nine countries, including Switzerland, Germany, Britain, and Austria.

"Clearly this is the worst ever match-fixing scandal in European football. We at UEFA are stunned by the magnitude of this," Limacher told a packed press conference Friday.

"We feel a certain satisfaction (the matter is being brought to a head), but on the other side we are deeply affected by the scope of game manipulations by international gangs," he said.

UEFA says it has been actively involved in the investigation and has given assistance through its Betting Fraud Detection System. This system monitors all UEFA competitions and European national league first and second-division matches for suspicious betting patterns. The information on a number of matches was passed to the German authorities upon their request.

"UEFA will be demanding the harshest of sanctions before the competent courts for any individuals, clubs or officials who are implicated in this malpractice, be it under state or sports jurisdiction," UEFA's general secretary, Gianni Infantino, said in a statement issued Friday.

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