Federbet, an organisation of leading gaming operators that monitors suspicious gambling patterns, has reported that more alleged match-fixing took place in England than any other European country during the 2013-14 season.
In a report delivered at the European Parliament, Federbet alleged that 11 English games were targeted last season.
A total of 10 of the fixtures took place in the Conference North and South, the sixth-tier of English football, in which several players have already been accused of corruption.
A game between Notts County and Everton in the Women’s Super League was the 11th fixture named, the first time that women’s football has been publically implicated in match-fixing.
Two League of Wales games were also identified by Federbet.
Federbet criticised football authorities for not doing more to combat match-fixing, with the organisation having identified a total of 460 games in Europe that may have been fixed during the past year, up 20% on the previous season.
The list, which included several Uefa Champions League and Europa League European club football matches, identified 110 matches, with suspicions over an additional 350 games.
Champions League and Europa League games that were singled out all took place in the qualifying rounds, with the most high profile being the all-Italian clash between Catania and Atalanta.
In addition to other matches in Italy, games in France, Portugal, Greece and Ukraine were also cited by Federbet.
Francesco Baranca, general secretary of Federbet, said: “Every day, all around the world, there is an attempt at match-fixing. And this virus is getting bigger and bigger.”
Baranca also warned of the possibility of match-fixing at this summer’s Fifa World Cup national team football tournament, which is due to begin in Brazil next week.
“It is not so impossible that when they have learned to fix the match during the domestic competition they are also going to fix the match in the international competition,” Baranca said. “
“We can solve this problem in quite an easy way but nobody wants to solve it. Federations are not listening to us. [European football’s governing body] Uefa is not listening to us.”
source : www.igamingbusiness.com
