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| Investigation Finds Suspected Fixing in 680 Soccer Matches | Investigation Finds Suspected Fixing in 680 Soccer Matches |
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| THE HAGUE — Criminal organizations have infiltrated the highest levels of European and international soccer, threatening the very integrity of the sport, global law enforcement officials said on Monday as they unveiled the results of a 19-month investigation that indicated that hundreds of people had been involved in match-fixing. | |
| At least 425 people from more than 15 countries — including club and match officials, and current and former players — are suspected of conspiring in 680 matches on behalf of Asian criminal syndicates that made millions of dollars in profits by betting on the results, they said. | |
| Those matches included qualifying games for both the World Cup and the European Cup, and two Champions League matches, including one in England. | Those matches included qualifying games for both the World Cup and the European Cup, and two Champions League matches, including one in England. |
| “This is a sad day for European football, and more evidence of the corrupting influence of organized crime,” said Rob Wainwright, the director of Europol, which helped coordinate the investigation among European Union member states, Interpol and non-European nations. | “This is a sad day for European football, and more evidence of the corrupting influence of organized crime,” said Rob Wainwright, the director of Europol, which helped coordinate the investigation among European Union member states, Interpol and non-European nations. |
| Citing the doping scandal that has undermined public trust and interest in cycling, Mr. Wainwright warned that the problem must be tackled quickly or soccer would lose the trust of the public. | Citing the doping scandal that has undermined public trust and interest in cycling, Mr. Wainwright warned that the problem must be tackled quickly or soccer would lose the trust of the public. |
| In all, 680 matches have been identified as suspect, officials said, including 300 outside Europe, primarily in Asia, Africa and Latin America. | In all, 680 matches have been identified as suspect, officials said, including 300 outside Europe, primarily in Asia, Africa and Latin America. |
| It was not immediately clear how many of the matches identified were already known to the public or were the result of new discoveries. | It was not immediately clear how many of the matches identified were already known to the public or were the result of new discoveries. |
| Officials declined to identify any of the teams or individuals involved in the investigations, citing the need to guard the confidentiality of police procedures. | Officials declined to identify any of the teams or individuals involved in the investigations, citing the need to guard the confidentiality of police procedures. |
| The officials, speaking to journalists at Europol headquarters, said that a joint team was created in July 2011 after investigators in several European countries came to realize that there was a major overlap between suspects in separate match-fixing inquiries. | The officials, speaking to journalists at Europol headquarters, said that a joint team was created in July 2011 after investigators in several European countries came to realize that there was a major overlap between suspects in separate match-fixing inquiries. |
| A single criminal group, based in Asia, is behind most of the matches identified in the investigations, Europol and Interpol officials said, and an international arrest warrant has been issued seeking the extradition of the ringleader to Europe to face fraud and bribery charges. | A single criminal group, based in Asia, is behind most of the matches identified in the investigations, Europol and Interpol officials said, and an international arrest warrant has been issued seeking the extradition of the ringleader to Europe to face fraud and bribery charges. |
| Europol did not publicly identify the ringleader of the gang, but several knowledgeable law enforcement officials later said on the condition of anonymity that it was a Singapore-based man, known as Dan Tan. Mr. Tan has been implicated in match-fixing cases dating back at least to 1999, the officials said. | Europol did not publicly identify the ringleader of the gang, but several knowledgeable law enforcement officials later said on the condition of anonymity that it was a Singapore-based man, known as Dan Tan. Mr. Tan has been implicated in match-fixing cases dating back at least to 1999, the officials said. |
| Asked about the level of international cooperation Europol was getting from other national authorities involved in enforcement of the warrant, Mr. Wainwright said, “I’m satisfied that Interpol is in active dialogue” with the other parties. “It’s important that all international arrest warrants are pursued.” | Asked about the level of international cooperation Europol was getting from other national authorities involved in enforcement of the warrant, Mr. Wainwright said, “I’m satisfied that Interpol is in active dialogue” with the other parties. “It’s important that all international arrest warrants are pursued.” |
| The officials repeatedly dodged questions from reporters seeking to learn just how many of the suspected match-fixing cases they announced on Monday were new. | |
| German prosecutors, for example, have themselves previously identified dozens of cases and it was not clear how many of those were included in the tally. The country with the most cases identified by Europol was Turkey, with 79. Germany was next with 70, followed by Switzerland, with 41. The agency also reported cases in Belgium, Croatia, Austria, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia and Canada. | |
| To rig the matches, officials said, the criminals operated a sophisticated organization, employing some people to deal with players and referees, others to handle money and place bets, others to carry out money laundering, on up to a strategic command at the top. | |
| Any one match-rigging operation might have involved as many as 50 people in 10 countries, they said. | |
| The actual business of rigging a match typically involves bribing players or a referee, or possibly both, in an effort to deliver a predetermined result. The Asian crime syndicates typically want to achieve a particular margin of victory, rather a precise outcome, officials said. | |
| In a dramatic illustration, Bajan Nemeth, a Hungarian prosecutor, showed a clip from a 2010 Argentine-Bolivia under-20 match in which, he said, the Hungarian referee could be shown throwing the match by awarding a penalty kick as time was expiring, despite no foul having occurred. | |
| The fraudulent call allowed Argentina to win, 1-0, the margin of victory sought by the criminal syndicate, Nemeth said. | |
| In addition to the public, which is deprived of true sports competition when match-fixing occurs, the officials noted that the criminals had defrauded betting companies. The investigation involved analysis of more than 13,000 e-mail messages and phone calls. | |
| Officials said 14 people had been sentenced to prison for a total of 39 years, though they noted that the difficulty of evidence for proving fraud and bribery, as well as differing treatment for such crimes across Europe, complicate prosecution. | |
| Friedhelm Althans, the chief organized crime investigator for the city of Bochum, Germany, said his own involvement with the case began in 2008, when he was carrying out an inquiry into “real gangsters, including guns and shooting,” and a link was found to a football club in Namur, Belgium. Althans said that when a soccer betting scandal emerged in Cremona, Italy, he saw that the cast of characters greatly overlapped with the names he was seeing elsewhere. | |
| Officials were able to identify certain people from Asia, he said, by tracking their immigration records, and made the connection to more countries. | |
| “I knew that the persons involved in Italy were involved in the other European countries, as well as the boss in Singapore,” Althans said. | |
| Despite the scale of the problem, which is magnified by the media scrutiny of professional-level soccer, Wainwright noted that the profits identified by officials Monday — about 8 million euros — were “tiny in the grand scheme of organized crime.” | |
| “I still think it’s important, though,” he said, “because it’s had an impact on very many matches, many officials, it goes to the heart of the integrity of the game. This is not a threat to be measured in dollar signs or euro signs.” |