It’s time that national and international sports bodies, governments, police forces and bookmakers came together for the sake of sport to create a global fix for a global problem.
Match fixing is the single most destructive disease that threatens the integrity of sport. That is not condoning the taking of performance-enhancing drugs – far from it – but sport is based on having competitors aiming to win, and the joy is experiencing the theatre that the conflict creates.
When the will to win is gone, so is the sport.
Nearly all match fixing cases that have been in the spotlight in recent years have shown that the criminals behind the fix do not fear national borders. If anything, they use them as a smokescreen to hide what they are doing.
At the moment, it looks as if the Southern Stars match fixing scam has involved an Australian club, English players and a Malaysian contact.
Earlier this year, Europol announced they were investigating 380 football matches across Europe which they believe to have been fixed by a Singaporean company.
In 2011, Finnish authorities charged seven players from Zambia in regard to taking bribes from a Singaporean to rig games in the Scandinavian nation’s top football league.
At first glance, it would be easy to point the finger at Southeast Asia, yet it is believed that these fixing syndicates use criminal networks right across the globe.
Syndicates also target poorer participants, whether it be lower division players barely making a living, or – in the case of the Zambians or Pakistani cricketers – elite sportspeople who are from very poor backgrounds or underpaid.
The Southern Stars were busted by a Swiss-based company called Sportradar, who monitor betting patterns around the world and report irregularities to organisations who have signed up.
They are for profit first and foremost, however, and only investigate for a fee.
There needs to be a WADA style solution. An international organisation that can monitor these patterns, follow what’s happening, work with authorities, and come up with cross border solutions.
No country will never be able to control the betting and criminal elements in another country, and nor should they be expected to. Still, there needs to be a meeting point for greater levels of cooperation.
My grandfather is a sheep farmer. He has used to have a pretty big problem with weeds.
It wasn’t because he didn’t spray, or look after his land. It was because his neighbour had a weed problem and they would blow over the fence and spread.
So Pop decided to help his neighbour (an older farmer) by spraying his paddocks as well. By doing that, the weeds were a greatly reduced problem for both farmers!
Sure, they still pop up, but they are a lot easier to handle.
Now I’m not suggesting we spray match fixers with herbicide, but there needs to be more international cooperation between stakeholders to rid us of this problem.
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