Uefa unit to crack down on football betting

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By Roger Blitz in London

Published: September 27 2008 04:42 | Last updated: September 27 2008 04:42

Uefa is to set up a gambling monitoring unit after it discovered irregular betting patterns in 25 Uefa Cup matches. European football’s governing body has called for support from governments and police to tackle the problem.

Uefa said 10 matches from this season’s Uefa Cup and 15 matches from last season’s tournaments both involving the preliminary rounds were under review.

Uefa is following in the wake of other sporting bodies – the Association of Tennis Professionals, the International Cricket Council and the British Horseracing Authority – all of which have set up internal integrity units. They are aimed mainly at deterring sports individuals and teams from “throwing” matches as part of lucrative betting scams.

Gianni Infantino, Uefa’s legal affairs director, told Reuters the unit would be fully operational from next season and will bring in experts to review matches in all European competitions, including the Champions League. It will set up a six-man unit and has handed a report to Interpol detailing matches that have caused concern. “We will start recruiting immediately,” Mr Infantino said. “We need additional expertise. We have to set up the necessary tools to fight against this.”

He added that there was a limit to how far sports governing bodies could look into these issues. They needed “full support from authorities who have access to information they don’t have.”

The decision to set up the unit was made at an executive committee meeting in Bordeaux at which Uefa gave its blessing to Poland and Ukraine to stage the European Championships in 2012 but rebuked the host countries for their slow progress.

Michel Platini, Uefa’s president, said that “any slackening could put in doubt the organisation of this tournament in these countries”, adding that Uefa reserved the right to reduce the number of venues and matches in either country.

David Taylor, Uefa’s general secretary, said it was essential that capital cities Warsaw and Kiev were among the venues. “If they are not, I’m afraid that would be the end for the country concerned,” he said.

Uefa also revamped the Uefa Cup, the club tournament that has become a poor relation to the prestigious Champions League, renaming it the Uefa Europa Cup and reorganising it around a 48-team group format.