Europe’s UEFA boosts sports integrity

UEFA has launched a tender to identify potential match-fixing in Europe and boost sports integrity in the continent.

Switzerland.- Sports betting is an ever growing segment, but it comes with some dangers to be addressed. That’s why UEFA, football’s governing body in Europe, wants to boost sports integrity.

The body launched a tender to identify match-fixing. It will choose a partner to conduct a feasibility study to enhance investigation and prosecution procedures.

Proponents have until October 28 to file their plans and UEFA will announce the winners two days later. Then, they must submit their full projects before November 27.

“We must do more to fight match-fixing aggressively because collectively and individually, we haven’t done enough,” UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin said. “The most important thing is co-operation with governments because our problem always was and always is that, even if we know many things, each case has to be prosecuted.

“The main problem is that our jurisdiction ends at football. We cannot tap phones, we cannot put people in prison, and with many computer servers being 10,000km from Europe, it’s a problem we cannot solve on our own.

“This study will look at how to bring together the different actors on this stage, so we are all working in partnership, not isolation, to tackle one of the biggest threats to the integrity of sport.”