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Europol investigation uncovers 380 fixed football matches, crime syndicate links

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F

Funky Papa

FUNK-Y-PPA-4
Oh boy


A Champions League tie played in England is one of 380 matches across Europe investigators say was fixed. However, European police did not reveal the identity of the match they believe was corrupt in England.

Speaking in The Hague, Europol said that they had uncovered an organised crime syndicate based in Asia that was co-ordinating the operation, with around425 match officials, club officials, players and criminals under suspicion.

Europol, which has been investigating for 18 months, said suspected matches included World Cup and European Championship qualifiers, two Champions League ties and "several top football matches in European leagues".

They said that criminals put €16m on rigged matches and made €8m in profits. Payments of €2m are thought to have been paid to those involved, while investigators said that the biggest payment to an individual was €140,000.

Europol believes a crime syndicate based in Asia was liaising with criminal networks throughout Europe. It believes match-fixing has taken place in 15 countries and 50 people have so far been arrested. Officials said they feared this was the "tip of the iceberg".
...

Wainwright would not reveal the identity of the Champions League match staged in the UK under suspicion due to "ongoing judicial proceedings" but he did confirm it had taken place in the last three to four years and admitted it was not a country under particular scrutiny.

He added: "The focus has been on other countries, not the United Kingdom. However we were surprised by the scale generally of the criminal enterprise and just how widespread it was.
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Edit: The Beeb has more details.

At a news conference in The Hague, Netherlands, Europol claimed:

  • The fixed Champions League tie in England took place in the "last three or four years";
  • The identity of that match cannot be revealed due to "ongoing judicial proceedings";
  • Other "corrupt" matches included World Cup and European Championship qualifiers and "several top football matches in European leagues";
  • In Germany-based matches alone, criminals wagered £13.8m (16m euros) on rigged matches and made £6.9m in profits
  • In total 380 suspicious matches were in Europe and a further 300 in Africa, Asia and south and central America.
  • Officials fear this is as the "tip of the iceberg".

Rob Wainwright, director of Europol - the European Union's law enforcement agency, said:"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.

"We have uncovered an extensive criminal network."

...

Many of the allegations involved matches in lower divisions around Europe.

German police described a global network involving couriers ferrying bribes of up to £86,000 per match around the world, paying off players and referees.

Most cases have been discovered in Germany where 14 people have been jailed for a total of 39 years.

Criminal convictions have also been secured in Finland, Hungary, Slovenia and Austria.

Asked specifically about the allegations surrounding the Champions League tie held in England, Wainwright declined to identify the match because of "ongoing judicial proceedings".
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pants

pants

Member
Sir_Crocodile said:
There was a "bung" option in Ultimate Soccer Manager '98

It came with a random chance of being found out & fired
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I think I'll try this
\
\
gTXdcgK.jpg


*phew* Got away with it
\
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H17eaWP.jpg


Well it worked last time
\
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oWcJE2Z.jpg


Fuck, they let Kanu score, no one will believe this is legit. FUUUU
Aww shiiii
\
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QKZ9BGP.jpg
 
B

Blablurn

Member
ElTopo said:
Dude, you don't shit on one of our players. Not like that. Not even on Robben.

Regarding the Germany-based matches, supposedly this refers to 4th league matches. Why anyone would be stupid enough to take bets on 4th league matches is beyond me.
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because they think no one would care or investigate
 
W

Walshicus

Member
Cumpkin Hubris said:
"Europol"?? First time I've heard of them
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It's a coordinating service for EU police forces. From the wiki:

Europol's aim is to improve the effectiveness and co-operation between the competent authorities of the member states primarily by sharing and pooling intelligence to prevent and combat serious international organized crime. Its mission is to make a significant contribution to the European Union's law enforcement efforts targeting organized crime.
Europol has no executive powers. It is a support service for the law enforcement agencies of the EU member states. This means that Europol officials are not entitled to conduct investigations in the member states or to arrest suspects. In providing support, Europol with its tools – information exchange, intelligence analysis, expertise and training – can contribute to the executive measures carried out by the relevant national authorities.
Europol is a multi-disciplinary agency, comprising not only regular police officers but staff members from the member states' various law enforcement agencies: customs, immigration services, border and financial police, etc. Secondly, Europol helps to overcome the language barriers in international police co-operation. Any law enforcement officer from a member state can address a request to their Europol National Unit (ENU) in her/his mother tongue and receive the answer back in this language.
Three different levels of co-operation are possible: The first one is technical co-operation or to provide training. The next step is strategic co-operation aimed at exchanging general trends in organised crime and how to fight it and the exchange of threat assessments. The top level of co-operation includes the exchange of personal data and requires the fulfilment of Europol's standards in the field of data protection and data security.
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Run by a Welshman.
 
W

Wilbur

Banned
Could be something as insignificant as more than 10 throw ins, so hopefully it's that kind of betting as opposed to actual scores and whatnot
 
S

systemfehler

Member
Highest sum to fix a game has been paid in Austria. I really wonder which team or player got money in our "Sissy Liga". At last we are the best when it comes to something football related.

What I don't get is that ~426 people have been paid ~8 million Euro - that is about 20.000€ for each person. That seems a rather low sum for anything above the 2nd leagues in each country.
 
K

Keio

For a Finer World
gaming_noob said:
Barcelona's last 2 games resulted in ties (Real Madrid and Valencia). I knew they were rigged.
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Did you watch the games?

You couldn't script that stuff.

I think match fixing on a team level is practically impossible. It's individual players or refs that have been bought, if I've read correctly.

For example in the Secret Footballer (great book) he tells about a player who always booted the ball out to gather money he put on the first throw-in conceded. Just wow.

Re: "the game" in England & Chelsea-BCN, I'm quite skeptical. Ovrebo(?) had a nightmare, but he did red card a Barca player first. Or was that the smoke screen? Inception!
 
gaming_noob

gaming_noob

Member
Keio said:
Did you watch the games?

You couldn't script that stuff.

I think match fixing on a team level is practically impossible. It's individual players or refs that have been bought, if I've read correctly.

For example in the Secret Footballer (great book) he tells about a player who always booted the ball out to gather money he put on the first throw-in conceded. Just wow.

Re: "the game" in England & Chelsea-BCN, I'm quite skeptical. Ovrebo(?) had a nightmare, but he did red card a Barca player first. Or was that the smoke screen? Inception!
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I did not watch the game...I only followed online... and yes I had money on the Over :(
 
C

CyclopsRock

Member
I don't understand why top players would ever accept a bribe. The referees and officials I can understand, but the players? when you're earning several million a year, how much must they be offering for players to actually go along with it?
 
W

Wilbur

Banned
CyclopsRock said:
I don't understand why top players would ever accept a bribe. The referees and officials I can understand, but the players? when you're earning several million a year, how much must they be offering for players to actually go along with it?
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They won't be. Highest fee involved for one individual was 140k. Top players earn that in a week or two. Even middle tier players can earn that in a fortnight now.
 
K

Keio

For a Finer World
Wilbury said:
They won't be. Highest fee involved for one individual was 140k. Top players earn that in a week or two. Even middle tier players can earn that in a fortnight now.
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To be sure, after reading the Secret Footballer I'm also not sure about how well the personal finances of many top players are sorted.

People might be inclined to try and offset their gambling/car/whatever debts by a quick match fix, I guess.

I'm really bummed out by the scale that this has been happening. Really puts a stain on the beautiful game.
 
B

bwtw

Neo Member
Wilbury said:
Could be something as insignificant as more than 10 throw ins, so hopefully it's that kind of betting as opposed to actual scores and whatnot
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Almost certainly not the case given the figures involved. A syndicate wouldn't be making huge bribes (not to mention the risk of being caught) to bet on throw ins simply because they will never be able to get a significant amount on before either the bookmaker cuts limits or red flags get raised. The Asian bookies afaik do not offer throw in markets and those books are generally where the highest limits are. They offer corner markets but the limits there are lots lower than their headline markets (Asian Handicaps/Totals).

In all likelihood they're betting on Asian Handicaps since they quote a figure of 14m staked for 7m in profits (implies short odds) and it would be trivially easy to get significant money down. For example you can get £150k on a Premiership match no problem across the big 3 Asian bookmakers just by having accounts there (as anyone can do) and then bet more when the price moves. If you've got agents working with you (which an operation like this would have) it would be possible to get many multitudes more.
 
B

bwtw

Neo Member
No, this includes other games in Europe + across the world.

People exaggerate the controversy in that game
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Not to mention that it would be near impossible resources wise to fix a game of that magnitude!
 
Z

Zeppu

Member
To put this into perspective, how many games on average would have been played in these leagues over the last four years. Cause 380 on it's own doesn't really mean anything.
 
D

Dusky

Member
Sephiroth503 said:
Could the game in England be Chelsea Vs Barcelona a few years back?
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One of the more obvious ones in the past three-four years for sure.



Edit: it's also worth mentioning how fixing a game isn't necessarily about winning it. A lot of games involve betting on how many corners or throw-ins there are in a game. This type of match-fixing tend be much more difficult to detect.
 
L

luso

Member
Sephiroth503 said:
Could the game in England be Chelsea Vs Barcelona a few years back?
Click to expand...

bwtw said:
No, this includes other games in Europe + across the world.



Not to mention that it would be near impossible resources wise to fix a game of that magnitude!
Click to expand...

Dusky said:
One of the more obvious ones in the past three-four years for sure.
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Is very likely, wasn't the refereeing very controversial? As for "resources" is only 1 to 3 men after all.
 
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