Uefa teams up with Europol to tackle match-fixing in football

Organised criminals are preying upon football clubs, players and officials left vulnerable to corruption by the financial impact of Covid-19, Europe's crime agency has said.

Europol has held its first international conference on match-fixing with Uefa, the sport's administrative body in Europe.

It comes as concerns have been raised that the hardships caused by the pandemic could lead to an increased risk of fraudulent activity.

More than 100 professionals from 49 countries attended Tuesday's event to discuss the threats posed to the game.

Experts analysed ways to protect the integrity of football and fight organised crime groups.

Topics discussed included the importance of collaboration between law enforcement and football integrity officers to help detect suspicious betting patterns early.

Burkhard Muehl, head of Europol’s European Financial and Economic Crime Centre, said the force had witnessed an increase in suspicious activity.

“Organised crime groups quickly understood that a lot of football clubs were suffering financially as a consequence of Covid-19 and where there is less money, players, coaches, officials and even club executives are increasingly vulnerable to being corrupted by fixers," he said.

“With the huge profits associated with 'making the unpredictable predictable', we are seeing more and more cases of match-fixing and suspicious results.

“Co-operation between law enforcement and sports organisations is vital to not only detect and investigate suspected corruption in football, but also to stop such fraudulent activities before they can even begin.”

The Europol-Uefa conference was held at Europol’s headquarters in The Hague.

Uefa’s managing director of Integrity and Regulatory, Angelo Rigopoulos, said