Police have launched an investigation
into attempts to fix a World Cup friendly between Scotland and Nigeria
that is due to be played in London on Wednesday, the Telegraph reports.
Officers from the National Crime Agency,
Britain’s equivalent of the FBI which investigates serious and
organised crime, are understood to have asked FIFA to issue an....
alert
over potential attempts to rig the game.
The football match is one of a sequence
of friendlies that serve as a warm up for the World Cup in Brazil next
month and is due to be played at Craven Cottage, the home of Fulham
Football Club.
It is understood that the Scottish
Football Association have been liaising with the NCA over the weekend
after the game was “red flagged.”
Premiership footballers are expected to
play at tomorrow’s game, including Chelsea’s Mikel Obi, Liverpool’s
Victor Moses and Manchester United’s Darren Fletcher. There is no
suggestion that any of the players are involved.
There are growing fears that World Cup
warm-up matches will be targeted by match fixers acting on behalf of
illegal betting syndicates in the Far East. In recent months, there have
been a series of arrests following suspected attempts to fix matches in
the lower English football leagues. There have also been allegations of
illicit activity in cricket.
The National Crime Agency did not respond to comments.
The English newspapers reports that FIFA
has detailed plans to give footballers special briefings on what to do
if they are targeted by match-fixers during the World Cup.
For the first time players from all 32
competing nations will be given “integrity sessions” by FIFA officials,
when they will be told to report anything suspicious via a special
anti-corruption hotline available only to players and referees.
The threat posed to the World Cup by
organised crime networks all over the world is being taken so seriously
by FIFA that it has put a raft of unprecedented measures in place.
Speaking to the Telegraph, Ralf
Mutschke, FIFA’s head of security, also issued a stark warning to
English football over match-fixing, saying a series of arrests by the
National Crime Agency last year should act as a “wake-up call” about the
seriousness of the problem.
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