The latest global sanctions were announced two days after FIFA extended bans to 58 people found guilty of match-fixing offenses in China. -Photo by AP

ZURICH: FIFA banned 74 more officials and players from world football on Wednesday for helping fix matches, this time in Italy and South Korea.  

Sanctions were extended globally on 70 people, including 11 life bans, after a series of cases prosecuted by Italian football authorities.

FIFA said the charges involved “match-fixing (direct involvement or omission to report match-fixing), illegal betting or corrupt organization (association to commit illicit acts).”

Prosecutors in Cremona, Bari and Napoli have pieced together a conspiracy they believe was organized from Singapore to bet on rigged Italian football matches.

Last week, Italian authorities detained suspect Admir Suljic, a Slovenian national, when he landed in Milan on a flight from Singapore. Suljic, allegedly an associate of Singaporean businessman Tan Seet Eng, faces charges of criminal association and sports fraud.

Tan, also known as Dan Tan, is accused of heading a crime syndicate that has made millions of dollars gambling on fixed matches around the world.

Singapore police said last week that Tan was assisting its investigation into alleged match-fixing.

FIFA said the four new South Korean cases follow worldwide sanctions imposed on 10 people last year and a further 41 last month.

The latest global sanctions were announced two days after FIFA extended bans to 58 people found guilty of match-fixing offenses in China. Of those, FIFA expelled 33 from football for life, including 2002 World Cup referee Lu Jun.

FIFA can apply worldwide sanctions after national football associations complete their own investigations and impose bans.

A picture taken on September 26, 2012 shows a referee holding a red card during a German first division Bundesliga football match in Moenchengladbach. Police have smashed a criminal network suspected of fixing 380 football matches, including in the Champions League and World Cup qualifiers, Europol announced. -Photo by AFP

THE HAGUE: Hundreds of football matches have been fixed in a global betting scam run from Singapore, police said on Monday, in a blow to the image of the world’s most popular sport and a multi-billion dollar industry.

About 680 suspicious matches including qualifying games for the World Cup and European Championships, and the Champions League for top European club sides, have been identified in an inquiry by European police forces, the European anti-crime agency Europol, and national prosecutors.

“This is a sad day for European football,” said Rob Wainwright, director of Europol. “This is now an integrity issue for football. Those responsible for running the games should hear the warnings.”

The world’s most popular sport, football is played on every continent. The World Cup and Europe’s Champions League are beamed worldwide and generate billions of dollars for national associations, clubs and broadcasters.

The matches in question were played between 2008 and 2011, the investigators said. About 380 of the suspicious matches were played in Europe, and a further 300 were identified in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Corruption linked to Asian betting syndicates and organized crime has long been seen as a threat to the game, but Monday’s announcement underlines the scale of the problem.

Ralf Mutschke, Director of Security for world football’s governing body FIFA, said sports bodies and prosecutors needed to work more closely together.

“The support of law enforcement bodies, legal investigations, and ultimately tougher sanctions are required, as currently there is low risk and high gain potential for the fixers,” said Mutschke, a German former police officer.

Last year the head of an anti-corruption watchdog estimated that $1 trillion was gambled on sport each year – or $3 billion a day – with most coming from Asia and wagered on football matches.

SINGAPORE CONNECTION

A German investigator described a network involving couriers ferrying bribes around the world, paying off players and referees in the fixing which involved about 425 corrupt officials, players and serious criminals in 15 countries.

“We have evidence for 150 of these cases, and the operations were run out of Singapore with bribes of up to 100,000 euros paid per match,” said Friedhelm Althans, chief investigator for police in the German city of Bochum.

Singapore police said last month that they were helping Italian authorities to investigate alleged football match fixing involving a Singaporean, but said he had not been arrested or charged with any offence there.

German investigators said international matches were implicated as were games in Turkey, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Croatia, Austria, Hungary, Bosnia, Slovenia and Canada. Suspicious games had also been identified in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Fourteen people have already been convicted in Germany in connection with the investigation.

Austrian prosecutors are investigating 20 people, including players, on suspicion of fraud and money laundering linked to fixing and betting on football matches, a spokesman for prosecutors in the city of Graz said.

Investigators said no names of players or clubs would be released while the investigation proceeded. However, the fixing also included top flight national league matches in several European countries, as well as two Champions League matches, including one played in Britain.

UEFA, European football’s governing body, said it expected to receive further information from Europol in the coming days.

“As part of the fight against the manipulation of matches, UEFA is already cooperating with the authorities on these serious matters as part of its zero tolerance policy towards match-fixing in our sport,” it added.

England’s Football Association said it was not aware of any “credible reports into suspicious Champions League fixtures in England.”

Football has been affected by bribery scandals in the past, with the English game suffering in the 1960s and Italian football hit by a series of fixing cases in recent years.

The growth of televised sport and technology that allows gamblers to bet during a match have created fresh opportunities for fraudsters with links to organized crime.

Corruption goes beyond football. Three Pakistani international cricketers were jailed in Britain in 2011 for their part in a scam where players agree to rig a specific part of a game, so-called “spot fixing”.

TIP OF THE ICEBERG

Althans said that while German police had concrete proof of 8 million euros ($11 million) in gambling profits from the match fixing, this was probably the tip of the iceberg.

Investigators described how gang members immediately subordinate to the Singapore-based leader of a worldwide network were each tasked with maintaining contacts with corrupt players and officials in their parts of the world.

Laszlo Angeli, a Hungarian prosecutor, gave an example of how the scam worked.

“The Hungarian member, who was immediately below the Singapore head, was in touch with Hungarian referees who could then attempt to swing matches at which they officiated around the world,” he said.

Accomplices would then place bets on the internet or by phone with bookmakers in Asia, where bets that would be illegal in Europe were accepted. “One fixed match might involve up to 50 suspects in 10 countries on separate continents,” said Althans.

“Even two World Cup qualification matches in Africa, and one in Central America, are under suspicion,” Althans added.

Lazio’s Stefano Mauri eyes the ball during a Serie A match between Lazio and Siena in Rome. Mauri was among more than 12 arrested as part of a wide-ranging investigatio into max-fixing in football. – File photo by AP

ROME: Domenico Criscito was on Monday dropped from Italy’s Euro 2012 squad after his room at the side’s training camp was searched by police as part of a match-fixing probe that also saw Lazio captain Stefano Mauri arrested.

Italian football federation vice-president Demetrio Albertini said the decision was taken jointly by the association and national team coach Cesare Prandelli, despite prosecutors insisting that Criscito was not charged and was free to play.

“He (Criscito) is disappointed about the repercussions on the national team and the dressing room,” said Albertini. “He explained certain things to me and I believe his version and in his innocence.”

The search of Criscito’s room came as police swooped in a series of dawn raids up and down the country, targeting a number of top players as part of an investigation into alleged match-fixing.

The investigation – the latest to hit Italian football – comes on the day Prandelli was due to announce his final squad for the showpiece tournament in Poland and Ukraine in just over two weeks’ time.

The public prosecutor in Cremona, Stefano Di Martino, said three Serie A matches – Bari-Sampdoria, Lecce-Lazio and Lazio-Genoa – were being investigated as well as seven or eight matches involving Siena last season when they were in Serie B.

Two million euros ($2.5 million) was won on the Lecce-Lazio match and 600,000 euros was used to bribe players, he added.

Lazio skipper Mauri was one of 19 people implicated in the investigation, which is believed to be centred on the payment of players by betting syndicates masterminded in Singapore.

Criscito’s agent, Andrea D’Amico, added that Criscito, who did not train with his team-mates on Monday morning, was calm and claims to have simply met with his ex-club’s fans following a derby defeat to Sampdoria.

In May last year, Criscito, who now plays for Zenit St Petersburg in Russia, is alleged to have met with then-Genoa team-mate Giuseppe Sculli, two heads of the club’s “ultra” fans and a Bosnian with a criminal record in a restaurant in the city.

Cremona prosecutors asked for an arrest warrant for Sculli, 31, but that was rejected by the preliminary investigation judge.

Conte, who guided Juve to their first Serie A title since 2003, is being investigated over his time as coach of Siena in Serie B last season.

“Conte has reacted as someone completely removed and strongly determined to show he has nothing to do with these accusations,” said Conte’s agent, Antonio De Rencis.

Of the 19 people targeted by the raids, 14 were arrested, three placed under house arrest and two ordered to present themselves to a police station.

Eleven are either current or former players, mostly from Italy’s top four divisions.

As well as 32-year-old Mauri, former Genoa and Fiorentina midfielder Omar Milanetto, 36 who is now with Padova in Serie B, was arrested. Chievo captain Sergio Pellissier also had his home searched.

Five Hungarians, two who were arrested and three more already behind bars, are believed to have had contacts with a group of “Zingari” – Gypsies in Italian – and the chiefs in Singapore to manipulate Italian matches.

The fall-out to the so-called “Calcioscommesse” – football betting – investigation has been felt since last year with several high-profile names implicated.

Previous corruption scandals in the Italian game have done little to hinder the national side.

The 1980 “Totonero” scandal saw AC Milan and Lazio relegated to Serie B while star striker Paolo Rossi was banned for two years. He came back just in time to be Italy’s hero in their 1982 World Cup victory.

In 2006, Juve were relegated and stripped of their 2005 and 2006 titles for interfering with the referees’ commission. Just over a month later, Italy won their fourth World Cup.

A woman wears a mask of Aziz Yildirim, the chairman of Fenerbahce football club. The match-fixing probe, under which managers from major clubs will be in the dock, has rocked Turkish football to the core. – File photo by AP

ANKARA: Top sides Galatasaray, Fenerbahce, Trabzonspor and Besiktas are among several teams set to appear before the country’s Professional Football Disciplinary Board (PFDK) over alleged match-fixing which has rocked Turkish football.

Turkish football federation (TFF) chief Yildirim Demiroren told a televised press conference on Monday that the PFDK would deliver its verdict within 48 hours after hearing all the defence statements.

“Football must be kept distant from any kind of speculation,” said Demiroren.

The TFF have also amended several articles of the football disciplinary law, to correct “disproportionate” penalties, Demiroren said.

One of those amended is Article 58, which had ruled that even attempts at match-fixing could result in a team being dropped from the league. The new version replaces that punishment with a 12-point deduction.

Demiroren downplayed the scandal which focuses on some 22 matches implying that results were not affected by the alleged fixing.

The PFDK’s internal process however is independent from an ongoing trial process involving nearly 100 Turkish club managers and players, including first division Fenerbahce boss Aziz Yildirim.

The investigation, which was launched in early 2011, led to a wave of arrests last summer after police became convinced that at least 19 first and second division matches were fixed during the 2010-1011 season.

Fenerbahce, the giant Istanbul club which won the 2011 Turkish League championship, has seen no fewer than 13 of its members charged, from its 59-year-old boss Yildirim to Brazilian-born player Gogcek Vederson, along with trainers, therapists and even the team’s Turkish-Portuguese interpreter.

Prosecutors are demanding jail terms of 147 years for Yildirim on corruption charges.

The unprecedented court case in Turkish football began in February, and another hearing of the trial continued on Monday at an Istanbul court as Yildirim stormed out of the courtroom in protest.

“The game is not yet over,” Yildirim said in a statement posted on the website of Fenerbahce club, ahead of the hearing.

The probe, under which managers from other clubs will also be in the dock including those from Besiktas and Trabzonspor, has rocked Turkish football to the core.

The TFF has banned Fernerbahce from the 2011-2012 Champions League, and Besiktas was forced to return the Turkish Cup it won last year.

But the president of the federation, Mehmet Ali Aydinlar, and his two deputies resigned in January after the federation failed to agree on further sanctions for the clubs involved. Aydinlar was replaced by Demiroren.

In a recent development, Turkey’s Fenerbahce dropped a case it filed against UEFA and TFF over their dismissal from this season’s Champions League.

But the club did not explain why it withdrew the case filed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

On Monday, Demiroren said his federation had nothing to do with Fenerbahce’s decision which he said was made by its own will.