AFC steps up fight against match fixing

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) will co-host a two-day conference in association with FIFA and Interpol on match-fixing and corruption, here on Feb 20-21.

The conference comes hot on the heels of bombshell reports by Europol, citing widespread corruption in football involving matches in almost all the continents.

AFC General-Secretary Datuk Alex Soosay said he had noted that recently released reports from Europol on match-fixing in football had indicated the confederation's support into investigations.

"We will step up the fight against match-fixing and corruption and the confederation is proactively organising initiatives towards this end," he said in a statement today.

The two-day conference, themed 'Interpol International Conference – Match Fixing: The Ugly Side of the Beautiful Game’, will see representatives from AFC's Member Associations, government, betting industry and law enforcement attending.

The conference will focus on training, education and prevention initiatives on match-fixing and corruption.

According to Europol, match-fixing had taken place in 15 countries and to date, 50 people have been arrested while the matches purportedly fixed include World Cup and European Championship qualifiers.

In all, 380 matches across the continent are under investigation involving 425 match officials, club officials, players and criminals.

On the issue of match-fixing, Alex said: "Though no formal communication has been made to AFC so far from any organisation, we are fully prepared to support institutions in the fight against match-fixing and illegal betting in football.

"We are closely following the news reports which have suggested that Asia is one of the continents where the suspicious matches took place.

"AFC has a zero-tolerance policy towards unethical practices in football and we are determined to fight against any kind of irregularities that include and not limited to match-fixing, corruption and illegal betting in the game," he added.