Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1286060
8 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 9 SEPTEMBER 2020 NEWS KURT SANSONE MATCH-FIXING in sports is increasingly being used by or- ganised crime groups to laun- der large sums of dirty money, according to a recent Europol report. The situation report released last month by the EU law en- forcement agency warns that sports corruption is often ad- dressed only from the perspec- tive of sports integrity because practitioners lack awareness on the involvement of organised crime. Europol's analysis identified links between the individuals involved in the manipulation of sports competitions at a lower level for merely financial gain, and other more sophisticated criminal networks behind the scenes. "These criminal networks are often the 'engine' behind sports corruption, and often use this criminal activity to launder their illicitly obtained assets," Europol said. Football is the most target- ed and manipulated sport by international organised crime groups because if its worldwide popularity, financial dimension and large turn-over betting market attached to it. The size of the global betting market is estimated at €1.7 tril- lion, with football on its own ac- counting for €895 million. Europol warned that South- East Asian, and particularly Chinese, networks were trying to acquire smaller football clubs in financial difficulty for the purpose of sport manipulation. "Individuals and companies are involved in taking control, or attempting to do so, of EU football clubs for the purpose of betting-related match-fix- ing. Details of the concrete in- volvement of Chinese organised crime groups operating in or having an impact on the EU in sports corruption remain a ma- jor intelligence gap," Europol said. Buying or sponsoring clubs Europol said the more 'pro- fessional' method used by cer- tain crime groups was to buy a club, or sponsor it to an extent of gaining effective control over the team. The targeted club is bought for the sole purpose of fixing matches and to launder money. "High illegal gains are secured through the execution of an ex- tended series of manipulated matches for betting purposes," Europol said. This is an increasing trend es- pecially in football, where clubs of lower divisions, sometimes beset by heavy financial prob- lems, are taken over by foreign individuals and companies. Europol said that it is com- monly observed that the new investors of a club will trans- fer specifically selected for- eign players in the targeted teams and use them to execute match-fixing schemes. Europol said the current in- telligence picture indicates the existence of indigenous crime groups that originate from, and operate in the EU, in ad- dition to other international organisations from Asia, Rus- sian-speaking countries and Armenia. Europol said these organisa- tions tend to use established legal businesses to move their money through the sports world. The legal structures are most often players' agent companies, organisers of sporting events, gambling-related companies, or even football clubs that are partially or fully owned by top individuals involved in sports corruption, Europol warned. The criminal structures are multi-layered with the financers sitting at the top of the pyramid that also includes intermediar- ies at national and local level. At the bottom of the structure are the players, referees and of- ficials, who are paid off to fix matches. • In sports corruption, the match-fixing is usually organised separately from the betting. • Fraudulent betting may be placed in the pre-match markets or in the live- betting markets with legitimate betting sites. • Criminals may fix the outcome of a match or single sub-sets, called spot- fixing, such as number of corners, half- time result, number of yellow cards. • The targets are normally lower-level competitions where players have lower wages, lower attendance rates are registered and there is little interest from the wider public. These competitions also attract limited media coverage, which often implies a lack of video footage. The players in these competitions are easier to approach and the bribing costs are lower, providing high levels of profit for the criminal groups. • In a more sophisticated manner, organised criminal groups may acquire clubs or sponsor them to the extent of influencing them, with the sole purpose of using them to fix matches or launder money. How does the criminal betting system work? Football is money laundering paradise for organised crime groups