Tuesday 22 March 2016, 10:17

Confederation members discuss united approach against match fixing at match integrity round-table meeting

A round-table meeting on Match Integrity took place on 14 and 15 March 2016 at the Home of FIFA and saw participants from the six confederations, (AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, UEFA and the OFC); FIFA Subsidiary Early Warning System (EWS) and FIFA Security discuss collaborative initiatives and strategies against match manipulation.

Participants reached a common understanding that match manipulation is one of the biggest threats facing football today and, in order to successfully combat it, a united approach between member associations, confederations and FIFA must be taken.

The meeting provided representatives present with a platform to express their determination in forging stronger relationships, to facilitate better information-sharing and identify obstacles, which act as barriers to effective integrity strategies.

The participants at the round-table meeting keenly discussed the potential roll-out of shared activities and the possible development and promotion of a global network for integrity issues via the nomination of Integrity Officers. Delegates present clearly articulated a shared view that prevention, education and training are key elements in reducing match manipulation in football.

The necessity to integrate and implement a global culture of reporting, when approaches are made by match fixers, received strong support from all present.

Speaking after the meeting, FIFA’s Director of Security Ralf Mutschke stated: "The enthusiasm among the round-table participants to develop a unified global approach to safeguard the integrity of the match is encouraging. FIFA, with the assistance of the confederations, will continue to build capacity at member association level to integrate a culture of reporting, monitoring, detection and investigation across the confederations to tackle the global problem of match manipulation."