Football match-fixing: Government and FA critisised for a lack of commitment in fight against betting corruption
Former Fifa head of security Chris Eaton insists "it was only a matter of time" before a match-fixing investigation uncovered corruption in English football
"Endemic": Chris Eaton believes it was inevitable that match-fixing would reach the English game Photo: THE TELEGRAPH
By Ben Rumsby
11:22AM GMT 28 Nov 2013
The Government and Football Association have come under fire over their commitment to tackling the threat of match-fixing after members of an alleged betting syndicate were arrested on suspicion of rigging games in the UK.
Ministers and FA officials were both accused of failing to do enough to combat one of sport’s biggest scourges in the wake of an investigation by The Telegraph that found fixers from Asia had targeted games across Britain.
A leading authority on the subject claimed those in power had been “complacent” about the prospect of fraudsters infiltrating the English game.
And the Government was also urged to use public money to fund the fight against match-fixing in the same way as it does the battle against drugs in sport, as well as regulating the gambling industry more tightly.
Those calls were led both by former Premier League and Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry – who chaired the Sports Betting Integrity Panel in 2010 which made similar recommendations – and representatives of the country’s biggest sporting governing bodies.
The Sports Betting Group includes figures from the FA, Premier League, Rugby Football Union, England and Wales Cricket Board and British Horseracing Authority.
It emerged on Friday that its chairman, Sport and Recreation Alliance chief executive Tim Lamb, had repeatedly lobbied Government for both funding and legislation to no avail.
With a new Gambling Bill currently going through parliament which should net additional £300m in tax revenue from bookmakers, Lamb believes ministers will soon have no excuse for dragging their heels.
“Sport is vulnerable and will continue to be vulnerable to match-fixing unless further action is taken by Government – both in changing the law and in providing greater funding and support,” he said.
“It confirms what we have been campaigning about for some time – that there is an urgent need for an appropriate, clear and comprehensive legal and regulatory framework to tackle the match-fixing problem.
“We raised this issue with the sports minister two weeks ago and whilst a bill is currently going through Parliament that will bring about some improvements, there is still much more to do.
“We have long held serious doubts about whether the police and Crown Prosecution Service have the appropriate legal and financial resources to deal with the match-fixing effectively. Confusion and inconsistencies in the legal and regulatory environment are hampering efforts to tackle this blight on sport.
“The positive thing is that there is still time to make changes and improvements to this law – but the government needs to act now.
“Resources and funding are also an issue. The fight against anti-doping currently receives around £6 million in public funding. The fight against match fixing gets nothing.”
Parry's efforts on this front three years ago witnessed the formation of the Gambling Commission's Sports Betting Intelligence Unit but it was given no public funding.
He said: “There is a great opportunity for government with the new bill that’s going through.
“If they allocated even one per cent of the likely tax revenues as a result of the new Gambling Bill, that could generate in the order of £3 million, which would go a huge way towards funding an absolutely state-of-the-art integrity unit to help the fight.
“If such a betting integrity unit was set up, it would help combat the kind of alleged fix uncovered by the Telegraph.
“Football in England is my no means immune, so it’s a salutary lesson and a wake-up call.”
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Maria Miller said: “Match-fixing undermines the integrity of sport across the world and we will do all we can to help stamp it out.
“In Britain, we have one of the leading systems internationally to tackle this blight but we are not complacent.
“We will continue to work hard alongside the police, sports governing bodies, betting operators, the Gambling Commission and the Financial Conduct Authority.”
Parry also questioned how seriously the FA had taken previous allegations of match-fixing, particularly their response to suspicious betting patterns in non-league games earlier this year.
He said: “They should be addressing two questions: did they have the intelligence on irregular betting patterns on Conference South games? And, also, what did they do?
“Writing to the clubs, reminding them of their responsibilities is a 1920s FA response, isn’t it?
“If someone’s betting large amounts on a Hornchurch game, that’s a pretty clear suggestion something may be badly wrong.”
Former Fifa head of security Chris Eaton, now director of sport integrity at the International Centre for Sport Security, declared on Friday “it was only a matter of time before the English game was caught up in this global wave of match-fixing in football”.
This week’s arrests signal the first time in decades police have amassed sufficient evidence to hold those suspected of trying to fix a match in the UK, following a succession of similar scandals abroad.
Those included a recent case in Australia involving four British players, some of whom also played non-league football in England for clubs investigated by the FA over suspicious betting patterns in some of their matches.
Eaton said: “The arrests in Australia of English journeyman footballers several months ago was a recent wake-up call.
“But this new disclosure must be put in global context. Governments and football administrations must not react emotionally, but coolly and rationally.
“Everyone really knew that match fixing is endemic in football. And, in this case, there is nothing new in terms of the corrupting method, its internationality or in the core betting-fraud purpose.
“What is new is that it shocks a complacent England, the home of the game. That shock should be used to galvanise international efforts to regulate and supervise sport betting globally, which is the real motivation for modern match-fixing.”
Eaton has repeatedly called for a more global approach to match-fixing in sport, particularly regarding legislation to tackle unregulated and illegal betting markets.
“Strategically, governments must tackle the right enemy, betting fraud,” he added.
“Clearly, international sport, especially football, is in serious trouble with corruption of its competitions.”
Officers from Britain’s new National Crime Agency held six men in the past two days, including at least three footballers and Delroy Facey, a player-turned-agent who has played in the Premier League.
The former Bolton Wanderers striker told the Sun: “I went in for questioning. I was arrested.”
The matches targeted are understood to have been games in the Football Conference involving at least three clubs.
All of English football’s stakeholders are thought to have been informed of the arrests but Football Conference general manager Dennis Strudwick told The Telegraph on Friday morning: “I’ve not seen any clubs named, so I really do have nothing to say.”
It emerged on Friday that its chairman, Sport and Recreation Alliance chief executive Tim Lamb, had repeatedly lobbied Government for both funding and legislation to no avail.
With a new Gambling Bill currently going through parliament which should net additional £300m in tax revenue from bookmakers, Lamb believes ministers will soon have no excuse for dragging their heels.
“Sport is vulnerable and will continue to be vulnerable to match-fixing unless further action is taken by Government – both in changing the law and in providing greater funding and support,” he said.
“It confirms what we have been campaigning about for some time – that there is an urgent need for an appropriate, clear and comprehensive legal and regulatory framework to tackle the match-fixing problem.
“We raised this issue with the sports minister two weeks ago and whilst a bill is currently going through Parliament that will bring about some improvements, there is still much more to do.
“We have long held serious doubts about whether the police and Crown Prosecution Service have the appropriate legal and financial resources to deal with the match-fixing effectively. Confusion and inconsistencies in the legal and regulatory environment are hampering efforts to tackle this blight on sport.
“The positive thing is that there is still time to make changes and improvements to this law – but the government needs to act now.
“Resources and funding are also an issue. The fight against anti-doping currently receives around £6 million in public funding. The fight against match fixing gets nothing.”
Parry's efforts on this front three years ago witnessed the formation of the Gambling Commission's Sports Betting Intelligence Unit but it was given no public funding.
He said: “There is a great opportunity for government with the new bill that’s going through.
“If they allocated even one per cent of the likely tax revenues as a result of the new Gambling Bill, that could generate in the order of £3 million, which would go a huge way towards funding an absolutely state-of-the-art integrity unit to help the fight.
“If such a betting integrity unit was set up, it would help combat the kind of alleged fix uncovered by the Telegraph.
“Football in England is my no means immune, so it’s a salutary lesson and a wake-up call.”
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Maria Miller said: “Match-fixing undermines the integrity of sport across the world and we will do all we can to help stamp it out.
“In Britain, we have one of the leading systems internationally to tackle this blight but we are not complacent.
“We will continue to work hard alongside the police, sports governing bodies, betting operators, the Gambling Commission and the Financial Conduct Authority.”
Parry also questioned how seriously the FA had taken previous allegations of match-fixing, particularly their response to suspicious betting patterns in non-league games earlier this year.
He said: “They should be addressing two questions: did they have the intelligence on irregular betting patterns on Conference South games? And, also, what did they do?
“Writing to the clubs, reminding them of their responsibilities is a 1920s FA response, isn’t it?
“If someone’s betting large amounts on a Hornchurch game, that’s a pretty clear suggestion something may be badly wrong.”
Former Fifa head of security Chris Eaton, now director of sport integrity at the International Centre for Sport Security, declared on Friday “it was only a matter of time before the English game was caught up in this global wave of match-fixing in football”.
This week’s arrests signal the first time in decades police have amassed sufficient evidence to hold those suspected of trying to fix a match in the UK, following a succession of similar scandals abroad.
Those included a recent case in Australia involving four British players, some of whom also played non-league football in England for clubs investigated by the FA over suspicious betting patterns in some of their matches.
Eaton said: “The arrests in Australia of English journeyman footballers several months ago was a recent wake-up call.
“But this new disclosure must be put in global context. Governments and football administrations must not react emotionally, but coolly and rationally.
“Everyone really knew that match fixing is endemic in football. And, in this case, there is nothing new in terms of the corrupting method, its internationality or in the core betting-fraud purpose.
“What is new is that it shocks a complacent England, the home of the game. That shock should be used to galvanise international efforts to regulate and supervise sport betting globally, which is the real motivation for modern match-fixing.”
Eaton has repeatedly called for a more global approach to match-fixing in sport, particularly regarding legislation to tackle unregulated and illegal betting markets.
“Strategically, governments must tackle the right enemy, betting fraud,” he added.
“Clearly, international sport, especially football, is in serious trouble with corruption of its competitions.”
Officers from Britain’s new National Crime Agency held six men in the past two days, including at least three footballers and Delroy Facey, a player-turned-agent who has played in the Premier League.
The former Bolton Wanderers striker told the Sun: “I went in for questioning. I was arrested.”
The matches targeted are understood to have been games in the Football Conference involving at least three clubs.
All of English football’s stakeholders are thought to have been informed of the arrests but Football Conference general manager Dennis Strudwick told The Telegraph on Friday morning: “I’ve not seen any clubs named, so I really do have nothing to say.”
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