Operation VETO, the investigation by
Europol and the police into
match fixing
In organized sports, match fixing is the act of playing or officiating a match with the intention of achieving a pre-determined result, violating the rules of the game and often the law. There are many reasons why match fixing might take place, ...
in professional
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
, was announced on 4 February 2013.
The investigation was carried out by
Europol, the
European Union's law enforcement agency, and centred on the influence of
organised crime syndicates based in
Asia on the results of 380 football matches played in 15 countries around the world, with 425 match officials, club officials, players and criminals were under suspicion.
At the time of the announcement, 50 people had been arrested in connection to the scandal.
Details
Details of the investigation revealed that crime syndicates based in
Singapore paid almost
€2,000,000 in bribes—with the largest individual bribe being €140,000—to fix matches, with accomplices in Europe placing bets via the internet with bookmakers in Asia; these bets would be illegal in Europe, but unregulated in Asia. The scam reportedly produced profits of over €8,000,000.
The operation was active from July 2011 until January 2013.
Matches affected
The majority of matches affected by match-fixing were reportedly played as part of German, Swiss and Turkish football leagues.
Further matches in Asia, Africa and Latin and South America were also identified as having been affected. Two World Cup qualifying matches were also named as being under suspicion.
A
UEFA Champions League fixture staged in England "within the last three to four years" was cited as one of the matches affected by match-fixing, though Europol declined to give any further details of the match in question.
The Danish newspaper ''
Ekstra Bladet'' claimed that the match involved was
Liverpool’s 1–0 win over Hungarian side
Debrecen in the group stage of the
2009–10 UEFA Champions League
The 2009–10 UEFA Champions League was the 55th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 18th under the current UEFA Champions League format. The final was played on 22 May 2010, at the Santiago Bernabéu St ...
See also
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2011 Turkish football match-fixing scandal
The 2011 Turkish Sports corruption scandal was an investigation about match fixing, incentive premium, bribery, establishing a criminal organization, organized crime and intimidation in Turkey's top two association football divisions, the Süper ...
*
2011–12 Italian football match-fixing scandal
The 2011–12 Italian football match-fixing scandal emerged on 1 June 2011 after a number of football-related figures were arrested or placed under official scrutiny by Italian police for alleged match-fixing. The list included well-known figures ...
*
2013 Lebanese football match-fixing scandal
The 2013 Lebanese football match-fixing scandal was part of a worldwide FIFA investigation with the intent of cracking down on match fixing. Many players were found guilty of being bribed by betting companies to purposefully lose games, with mat ...
References
External links
{{Match fixing in association football
2011–12 in European football
2012–13 in European football
2013–14 in European football
Organized crime activity
Europol investigation, 2013
Europol