While the European investigation agency Europol is busy in finding more and more fixed matches in the recent times. FIFA president has come forward in support of the game’s pride; he believes soccer has always been a gentlemen’s sport, and deposit European investigators’ allegations that more than 600 matches from last eighteen months were fixed; there are more than a million other matches which were played in a clean environment; hence there is no way match fixing can damage the esteem of the game. FIFA president Sepp Blatter played down the exaggerated revelation made by Europol and said, “Football is so big, we will overcome. It is a small percentage. Football will not die.” Notably, he is on his four nation’s tour and right now he is in South Africa ahead of AFCON’s final to be played between Nigeria and first timer Burkina Faso on Sunday. His verbal comments about match fixing are not going to cool down angry fans world over who believe on the findings of Europol as there are … [Read more...]
European investigators find 680 fixed matches
In one of the shocking findings by the European Union’s joint police body, there are more than 680 matches that were fixed in one way of another. While more than half of them happened in European soil, rests are related to other parts of the world, including Africa, America, and Asia. Moreover, these fixed matches are not confined to few soccer events; perhaps they cover every popular soccer league and tournament, like World Cup, European Championship qualifiers and Champions League matches. This is perhaps the most alarming single to all the fans of soccer, and more importantly, investigators have also said that there would be more findings once they carry on their investigations. Rob Wainwright, the head of Europol who is doing the investigations, said, “This is a sad day for European football, and more evidence of the corrupting influence of organized crime.” He also added that criminals were gaining money from soccer fixing on a large scale. Accordingly, there are players, … [Read more...]