Police probe games rigged aroundworld

Hundreds of football matches at club and national team level have been fixed in a global betting scam run from Singapore, police said today in a blow to the image of the world’s most popular sport and a multibillion dollar industry.

About 680 suspicious matches, including qualifying games for the World Cup and European championships, and the Champions League for top European club sides, have been identified in an inquiry by European police force Europol, the European anti-crime agency, and national prosecutors.

‘‘This is a sad day for European football,’’ said Rob Wainwright, director of Europol. ‘‘This is now an integrity issue for football. Those responsible for running the games should hear the warnings.’’

The matches in question, some of which have already been subject to successful criminal prosecutions, were played between 2008 and 2011, the investigators said.

About 380 of the suspicious matches were played in Europe, and a further 300 were identified in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Criminal gangs are believed to be involved in match-fixing networks, using them as a way to launder cash, officials said. Last year the head of an anti-corruption watchdog estimated that $1 trillion was gambled on sport each year – or $3 billion a day – with most coming from Asia and put on football matches.

A German investigator described a network involving couriers ferrying bribes around the world, paying off players and referees in the fixing, which involved about 425 corrupt officials, players and serious criminals in 15 countries.

‘‘We have evidence for 150 of these cases, and the operations were run out of Singapore with bribes of up to €100,000 (NZ$160,000) paid per match,’’ said Friedhelm Althans, chief investigator for police in the German city of Bochum.

German investigators said international matches were implicated, as were games in Turkey, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Croatia, Austria, Hungary, Bosnia, Slovenia and Canada. Suspicious games had also been identified in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Investigators said no names of players or clubs would be released while the investigation proceeded. However, the fixing also included top flight national league matches in several European countries, as well as two Champions League matches, including one played in Britain.

Uefa, European football’s governing body, said it expected to receive further information from Europol in the coming days.

‘‘As part of the fight against the manipulation of matches, Uefa is already co-operating with the authorities on these serious matters as part of its zero tolerance policy towards match-fixing in our sport,’’ it added.

Singapore police said last month that they were helping Italian authorities to investigate alleged football match fixing involving a Singaporean, but said he had not been arrested or charged with any offence there.

Althans said that, though German police had concrete proof of 8 million (NZ$12.8m) in gambling profits from the match fixing, this was probably the tip of the iceberg.

Investigators described how gang members immediately subordinate to the Singapore-based leader of a worldwide network were each tasked with maintaining contacts with corrupt players and officials in their parts of the world.

Theo van Seggelen, head of international players’ union FIFPro, said authorities were failing to tackle the problem properly.