Football and gambling: suspicious bets

UEFA alerted as gamblers net 4.5 million pounds

More than 4.5 million pounds was won in bets on just three of the 15 matches included in UEFA's 96- page dossier on possible match fixing handed to investigators from Europol last week


By DAVID BOND
Story from www.telegraph.co.uk


Although none of the games now being investigated feature Europe's glamour clubs or qualifiers for next summer's Euro 2008 finals, the vast sums of money being placed with Asian betting syndicates was enough to alert UEFA officials to the possibility of corruption. Two days after UEFA announced they had brought in pan-European police force Europol to help probe possible match fixing involving Champions League, UEFA Cup and InterToto Cup games, German magazine Der Spiegel published its full investigation yesterday detailing three of the fixtures highlighted in Uefa's report.

Der Spiegel claimed the report showed that 3.4 million euros (2.4 million pounds) was won on the outcome of the InterToto Cup game between Estonia's 2005 Premier League winners, FC TVMK Tallinn and Finnish club FC Honka Espoo.Despite Tallinn's status as favourites they lost. A further 1.5 million euros (1.06 million pounds) was won by punters gambling with Asian bookmakers on the first leg of the UEFA Cup qualifier in July between another Estonian side, FC Narva Trans, and the well-known Swedish club Helsingborgs, six-time Swedish title winners. UEFA became suspicious after punters continued to pile huge amounts of money on a Helsingborgs win by a margin of more than three goals even when the game was still 0-0 after 25 minutes. The Swedish side won 6-0.

Another UEFA Cup qualifier between Serbian side FK Bezanija, based in Novi Beograd, and KSB Besa Kavaje, of Albania, was so suspicious that it caused the Asian betting market to collapse, Der Spiegel claims. Even though the Serbs were clear favourites, 25 minutes before the game kicked off large bets were being placed on a win for Kavaje, a draw or a narrow win for Bezanija. Kavaze scored an equaliser to level the game at 2-2 with just minutes to go, winning 1.5 million euros for gamblers, again wagering money with Asian betting syndicates.

UEFA said on Sunday that they were tipped off about suspicious betting patterns by companies who have signed a memorandum of understanding with Europe's governing body in an effort to tackle corruption in the game. But even UEFA admit they do not know the full extent of the threat they face from criminals who want to fix the outcome of matches. The fact that 4.52 million pounds was riding on the outcome of just three relatively small European club matches indicates the gravity of the situation Uefa president Michel Platini faces.

UEFA have already opened an investigation into one InterToto Cup match, between Bulgarians Cherno More and Makedonija Skopje on July 7, which Cherno More won 4-0. The Bulgarian club reportedly deny any wrongdoing. UEFA's disciplinary committee are now working with Europol to see if they can open cases involving the 14 other matches in the report. Platini summed up his concerns last weekend when he said that in Asia it was possible for a single bet of $10 million to be placed on one match. ''We knew about these cases because we do have an early-warning system in place," he said. ''We do know that some teams were approached by people. We have known that for a long time and it could become very bad for football."


(Published: 09.12.2007.)

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