Report recommends European cooperation against match-fixing
In recent years, the fight against match-fixing has climbed up the political agenda supported by a growing number of cases and a fear among leading international sports organisations that the integrity of sport is threatened if match-fixing and similar on-pitch related forms of corruption are not addressed.
Now a new study had been launched by the European Commission, which maps how corruption in sport is covered in national legislation in the 27 member states.
The study conducted by KEA European Affairs, a Brussels based advisory and research organisation specialised in sport and creative industries, also comes up with 10 recommendations for a more efficient fight against match-fixing based on interviews with governments, sports organisations, experts and other stakeholders.
Different legal approaches
Although there are big differences in how the EU member states address the problem legally, the report concludes that match-fixing in its various forms can generally be prosecuted in all EU countries – either through the normal criminal law forbidding corruption and fraud or through specific criminal laws targeting sports related crimes.
But there are loopholes making it difficult to fight for example betting related match-fixing in amateur sports in some states. The report also concludes that the lack of a coherent legal basis between Member States can make cooperation in fighting crime more difficult, mentioning the exchange of information between law enforcement agencies as a particular challenge.
In the legal field, the report therefore recommends that the EU adopts a definition of the manipulation of sport results and ensures that Member States have an effective legal framework to cope with match-fixing. And the EU should be actively involved in the negotiation of a possible convention on match-fixing – a step the Council of Europe is looking at right now.
The report also calls for disciplinary rules against match-fixing in sports organisations as well as a closer collaboration of sport organisations with law enforcement agencies and betting operators.
Operational problems
But the major obstacles in prosecuting cases of match-fixing activities are operational rather than legal, as the report writes: “The vast majority of stakeholders agreed that the main difficulty resides in providing evidence to the prosecution.”
Spotting that a match may have been fixed is a challenge. It is even more difficult to prove that a certain player or referee deliberately underperformed or manipulated the result or had been in contact with the criminal underworld. According to the report, such difficulties lead to the abandonment of investigations or the dismissal of cases. The resource intensive prosecutions of the offences can also end up being disproportionate to the very modest sanctions given in some countries.
Other obstacles identified in the study are low levels of awareness of the problem and a lack of dialogue and coordination among the different stakeholders.
On the operational level, the report recommends a stronger international cooperation that includes agencies like Europol, sports organisations and betting companies. An increasing exchange of information and best practices between stakeholders and countries as well as a more general awareness of the problem among authorities and policy makers is also needed, the report claims.
Finally, there is a need for that more data on the causes, the scale of the problem and results of preventive measures and other initiatives to fight against match-fixing.
According to the European Commission, the report will be an input for future discussions on fighting match-fixing with governmental and non-governmental stakeholders.