Match-fixing alive and well - survey

– More than a third of athletes across 13 different sports believe match-fixing has taken place and some said they had been approached by fixers in the past year, a European report said this week.

The research by “FIX the FIXING”, a project co-funded by the European Union’s Erasmus+ project at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece, surveyed more than 600 athletes about whether they had experienced manipulation of results in their sports.

The results revealed that about 35% of those questioned believed games had been fixed, while 20% were aware of manipulation within the last 12 months. Footballers and rugby union players were among those questioned, along with competitors in basketball, handball, volleyball, water polo, martial arts, badminton, tennis, athletics, swimming, gymnastics and weightlifting.

Fifteen percent said they had been approached in the past year to fix matches. –