‘Champions League game in England was rigged’

Almost 700 clashes worldwide are under suspicion in match-fixing probe, including tie played here
Tom Collomosse5 February 2013

A Champions League game played in England within the last four years is one of 680 matches across the world that investigators believe was fixed.

Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency that handles criminal intelligence, said its 18‑month investigation had uncovered an organised crime syndicate, based in Singapore, which was running the scam.

Europol said World Cup and European Championship qualifiers, two Champions League ties and “several top matches in European leagues” were under suspicion with 380 games in this continent feared to be fixed along with a further 300 across the rest of the world.

The agency did not reveal the identity of the match in England that it believes was rigged. Since the start of the 2008-09 season, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham have participated in Europe’s main club competition with 94 ties being played in England.

In total, 425 match officials, club officials, players and criminals are suspected of being involved but Europol’s director, Rob Wainwright, feared this was only the “tip of the iceberg”.

Wainwright said: “We have uncovered an extensive criminal network. This is the work of a suspected organised crime syndicate based in Asia and operated with criminal networks around Europe. It is clear to us this is the biggest-ever investigation into suspected match-fixing in Europe. It has yielded major results which we think have uncovered a big problem for the integrity of football in Europe.”

Asked about the allegations surrounding the match in England, Wainwright declined to identify the game because of “ongoing judicial proceedings”.

He did say, however, it had happened in the last three to four years, adding: “It would be naive and complacent of those in the UK to think such a criminal conspiracy does not involve the English game and all the football in Europe.”

Arsenal and England forward Theo Walcott was stunned by the revelations, telling a press conference ahead of Wednesday’s friendly with Brazil: “I’m completely shocked. I don’t want to be related to anything like that and I’m sure none of you guys want to either. It’s something we need to get out of the game.”

A UEFA spokesman confirmed that they would co-operate with the Europol investigation.

The probe found that the rigged games generated at least £6.9million in profits for the crooks while at least £1.7m was paid in bribes to players and officials. Europol believes match-fixing has taken places in 15 countries, and 50 people have so far been arrested.

Shortly before Euro 2012, claims emerged of an illegal betting ring which had been exerting an influence over certain matches in Italian football, including Serie A fixtures. Before the start of this season, Siena were deducted six points for their involvement in the scandal, Atalanta were docked two and Sampdoria and Torino one each.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in