Khoo Boon Hui, former president of Interpol, the International Criminal Police Organisation, has warned that global scrutiny of the 2014 Fifa World Cup will not deter individuals from attempting to fix matches during the upcoming national team football tournament in Brazil.
Khoo, who held the role of Interpol president between 2008 and 2012, now serves as senior deputy secretary of home affairs for Singapore and also sits on the advisory board for the International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS).
According to the Kyodo news agency, Khoo said that the huge interest in the tournament will not dissuade match-fixers from interfering with games.
“Every World Cup has to be looked at,” Khoo said. “Why should they be worried (about fixing World Cup matches)?
“Maybe the costs will be higher and higher because the players get paid more and more. So you have to risk bribe money being higher.”
Khoo’s comments come shortly after joint research from the ICSS and the University Paris 1 Pantheon found that football and cricket are the two sports most at risk of match-fixing.
The former ICSS chief said that although the focus has been on the criminals directly fixing matches and the players and officials accepting money to fix games, the people that make the most money are those who run the actual illegal betting operations.
“They (illegal betting operators) are the ones having all this money churned to them, they take a small percentage cut of it, you do it regularly because you’re not betting against anyone – you’re just the exchange. It is guaranteed money,” Khoo said.
“My own sense is that match-fixers are just gamblers who are trying to get better odds for themselves, of course what they have done is very reprehensible, but to them it’s just another way of making money.
“They are taking an enormous risk for these sorts of things, because you have to actually approach people. I think if you are a big kingpin you wouldn’t want to be involved in this sort of thing.”
source : www.igamingbusiness.com
