The European Commission incentivises European collaboration against match-fixing.
Mandy Falzon - Head, EU Funding, MEUSAC
Speaking ahead of the first Convention on the 'Manipulation of Sports Competitions', former European Commissioner for Sport Androulla Vassillou remarked that, "Match-fixing is a cross-border problem and action at European level is essential if we are to combat this scourge. We need to ensure that everyone involved in the fight against the fraudsters works together as a team".
The new Commissioner for Education, Youth and Sport, Tibor Navracsics, is determined to follow in the footsteps of his predecessor. During the EU Sport Forum held in Milan last December, he reiterated the European Commission's mission to provide the necessary support to tackle any threats to sport, and to ensure that its integrity is protected.
The biggest threat faced by sport today revolves around sport betting, which though legal, often metamorphoses into other threats such as suspicious and illegal betting, and the unavoidable consequence that is match fixing.
Suspicious sport betting activity and its ramifications has intensified in recent years, particularly with the involvement of illegal betting syndicates generally operating from Asia. The result is that the perception of match fixing is tainting sport activity in general, particular big money sport such as professional football, where every unexpected result is deemed suspicious.
Malta is not extraneous to this, and with football being the most popular sport, it is inevitable that talk of suspicious betting activity and match fixing focuses on this discipline. Such talk is in no way superficial, and confirmation of €70 million in legal and monitored bets having been placed on Malta's top two leagues cannot but fuel more suspicions.
The Malta Football Association (MFA) is working hard to fight this malaise. In December it joined the World's leading supplier of sports related live-data 'Sportradar' and the Malta-based betting company 'Betaland', to launch the innovative educational programme 'Say No to Match-Fixing', a project aiming to educate players, referees and club officials about the issues surrounding modern day match-fixing.
On another level, Police Commissioner Michael Cassar has recently confirmed that he will look into a proposal by the MFA for the setting up of an 'Anti-Corruption and Transparency Task Force' which would include members of the Police Force, the MFA and the Malta Gaming Authority.
Initiatives such as those adopted by the MFA are also taken in other Member States. However, there is still no homogeneous and integrated European approach. Despite the fact that the problem affects sport in the whole continent, action is still fragmented and uncoordinated.
To address this problem, in 2014 the European Commission commissioned two studies focusing on the sharing of information and reporting of suspicious sports betting activity in all Member States, and on the risk assessment, management and prevention of conflicts of interest in the prevention and fight against betting-related match fixing. Both studies revealed that only 10 of the 28 Member States collect and process information on suspicious sports betting activity, and that there is a lack of effective cooperation amongst the stakeholders.
The European Commission believes that enhanced information sharing between private actors and law enforcement authorities, as well as between police forces from different Member States, could lead to better prevention and faster response to suspicious activities at both national and international level. In this regard, it has published a call for proposals aimed at funding projects that address the need of adopting integrated mechanisms that promote cooperation between public authorities, in particular law enforcement, online and offline betting operators, gambling organisations, gambling regulators and sports stakeholders.
Projects submitted under this call must address one of three piorities, namely the integrity of sport events in relation to sports betting, reducing corruption in relation to sports betting and preventing betting from being used for criminal purposes.
The main outcomes of the project should focus on the identification of criteria such as the type of game or competition and the timing of the season, all sport-related aspects that could be targeted by corrupt athletes, other sport stakeholders or criminals for match fixing purposes.
Action in this regard can include monitoring of the media, the internet and social networks, support to competent authorities in undertaking investigations, and the creation of working groups at national or international level to promote the exchange of views and best practices.
Proposals for funding must involve at least two entities established in two different countries (or in the same country if one is a public and one is a private entity). In both cases, at least one of the partner countries must be an EU Member State. The call will remain open till February 11. More information about this call and other funding opportunities may be obtained by contacting MEUSAC on 2200 3300 or [email protected]