Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/977918
maltatoday SUNDAY 6 MAY 2018 Interview 15 legal betting by manipulating a lo- cal match... the rewards are much higher. To tempt somebody on the pitch, on that green rectangle, with big money... it's very easy... Hasn't it changed the playing field in other ways, though. To give a hypothetical example: someone in Asia, who doesn't know anything about Maltese football, might be tempted to place a bet on a local match... and it doesn't have to be about winning or losing. It could be about how many goals are scored in the first half, etc. For all we know, thousands such bets might be placed every day... which also means that the amount of money riding on even a low-level local game might be astronomical... You're talking as though every football match is always fixed. That's not the case at all... Fair enough. But every match is fixable... Look: the biggest scourge, or dan- ger, we are facing on the betting scene are the unregulated markets. These add up to roughly 80%, if not more, of all bets being placed on sport. The regulated market is just 20%. So with 80%, you don't know where the money is coming from; you don't know where it's going... who is behind the betting 'company', supposedly, that is operating from China, but controlled from Europe... but that's a bigger story. The thing is this: people ask me, but why are there so many bets placed on Mal- tese football? The reality is that they are nothing abnormal. They are ex- actly the same as what happens in every league. If you go on the betting market lists, you will find matches across the world, at any level. It could be Honolulu, sixth division. So you place a bet there. I know what you're trying to say: ours is a smaller league, so if someone wants to manipulate a match, it's cheaper... Yes, quite frankly. Big money is a bigger temptation to small league players... Unfortunately, that is true... And perhaps not just the players... are there other ways to arrange the outcome of a game higher up the ladder? Let me make this clear: a suc- cessfully fixed match happens on the pitch. It doesn't happen on the streets; it doesn't happen in the bet- ting shops; it doesn't happen on the stadium terraces. The collaboration has to be on the pitch... between the players, or the officials. Those are the people who determine what happens during a match. You can have a top criminal in the stadium, watching... but he cannot control what happens there. He might, with his joystick, move things... but the response has to be on the pitch. That is the situ- ation. [...] This leaves us with the question of what can be done about it. Beyond prosecuting individual cases when information arises... is there any form of long-term strategy to address the culture of corruption in Maltese football? The strongest weapon I have is education. But education means you can talk, you can educate... it still depends on whether the recipient wants to listen. I have just gone around all the clubs in Malta – all 53 of them – in what I call the 'MFA Integrity Tour'. This was the second edition. I explained the law; the rules; the psychology of it all... how the fixers operate, the situa- tion players may find themselves in; I also explain the mentality of peo- ple running our football within the clubs. It was also thanks to us that the task-force was formed: in 2015, I issued a newsletter [...] that sparked everybody into action. It found its way to Parliament, and there was an uproar. Because I was very blunt in that newsletter. The result was a task-force comprising government, Opposition, gaming authorities, Sport Malta, and the police. That's where the new law, strengthening the 1976 legislation, came from. I say this because... I hurt when people say the MFA is not doing anything. The MFA is doing the most about match-fixing; but now, we have brought everybody on board... the next step is to have a national plat- form [...] where people can refer for assistance. Because as things stand today... there's just me. Recent match-fixing revelations have seemingly confirmed widespread perceptions of a 'culture of corruption' in local sport, especially football. FRANZ TABONE, the Malta Football Association's Integrity Officer, admits that the scale of the problem is large, and growing... but denies perceptions that nothing is being done about it A successfully fixed match happens on the pitch. It doesn't happen on the streets; it doesn't happen in the betting shops; it doesn't happen on the stadium terraces. The collaboration has to be on the pitch... between the players, or the officials MATCH-FIXING there is outright criminality PHOTO JAMES BIANCHI