Brussels, 03/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - As the case opened in Brussels on Monday 3 February on fraud in Belgian football between 2004 and 2006, in the European Parliament Marc Tarabella (S&D, Belgium), denounced the increasing numbers of fraud and corruption cases in sport throughout the European Union. He said that several factors were behind this increase, particularly the massive rise in online betting. He also said that the lack of a deterrent was also creating a situation in which the activities of organised criminal groups were increasing. Between 2008 and 2011, Europol detected 680 cases of match fixing and, “over the first four months of the 2013-2014 season, more than 50 European matches were fixed and another 150 were strongly suspected of having been fixed as well. The trend is therefore clearly rising; match fixing is spreading like a plague throughout Europe”. National championships are affected, particularly the English league, followed by Lithuania, Latvia and many others. The Italian, Spanish and Dutch leagues are also affected, to a lesser extent. Preliminary round matches of the Europa League and the Champions League have also been targeted, and there has also been a huge increase in match fixing in the lower divisions, where corrupt practices can flourish more easily, as well as in the women's football league, said Tarabella. The MEP called for transnational criminal sanctions to ensure that these offences do not go unpunished, as well as an international system of mutual cooperation in criminal cases in an effort to stem the tide of match fixing. The MEP concluded that “we are calling on sporting and legal bodies to introduce tougher sentences and a more robust deterrent to tackle the fraudsters, whether they are players or managers and that the penalties, suspensions and bans are introduced on a cross-border basis”.
On 4 December 2013, the European Parliament organised a public hearing on match fixing at which the scale of the phenomenon was denounced and described as a real “pandemic”. The fight against corruption in football is currently failing, emphasised the MEPs who also criticised the inertia in the game's governing body in Europe, UEFA, which has not moved on from the stage of “statements of intent”. A few days later on 17 December 2013, the “Calcioscommesse” match fixing investigation in Italy moved forward with four new arrests and a number of raids, including at the home of former world cup winner, Gennaro Gattuso, an indication of the scale of fraud at the highest levels. Around 30 Italian first division matches have been implicated in this affair. (IL/transl.fl)