International collaboration can combat sports corruption, says ICSS

Chris Eaton, director of sport integrity at the ICSS, said that criminals are able to manipulate sports results because there is no global oversight of those involved in match-fixing.

On Monday EU law enforcement agency Europol announced that it had found evidence of "an extensive criminal network involved in widespread football match-fixing".

It said 425 individuals from more than 15 countries, including match officials and players, had been involved in trying to fix the result of more than 380 professional football matches, including World Cup qualifying matches and UEFA Champions League games, including one played in England. Europol said that an "organised criminal group" was behind the corruption, which primarily related to gambling activity recorded in Asian betting markets.

Eaton said that the cases identified by Europol were just "the latest example of how deeply international organised crime has taken a grip on international sport".

"Sport is now under unprecedented attack from criminals and opportunists who conspire to manipulate the results of competitions around the world to fraudulently win the tens and hundreds of millions that is gambled on sport around the world every day, with the vast majority of this money being invested into the black and grey betting markets of South East Asia," Eaton said in a statement. "In fact the entire international betting and gambling industry lies within a complex and convoluted global network, not unlike the interdependence and connectivity seen in international financial markets today."

"What is apparent is that there is a clear absence of effective and collective government control on international gambling that deters match-fixers and organised criminals.  It is this absence of governmental supervision at a global level where the real fight against match fixing and the manipulation of sport outcomes must now be fought," he added.

The ICSS is a not-for-profit organisation based in Qatar which provides training, research and consultancy services on sport security issues, including sport integrity. It operates a database where corruption in sport is logged.

In a previously published report seen by Out-Law.com, the ICSS said that specially formed "ad-hoc international task forces" could "target, disrupt and deter" criminals from corruptly manipulating sport.

"The creation of international protocols and standards, templates and tools, to facilitate the creation and management of ad-hoc, intelligence-led multi-agency, multi-national international task forces under the control of participating nations would be the most effective non-permanent police counter measures to organised crime manipulating sport internationally," the ICSS said in its report. "Such temporary task forces could be formed to target, disrupt and deter for instance, a specific criminal organisation identified as involved and internationally active in match fixing and corruption."

The ICSS said that a "donor managed" global fund would allow the "temporary" international task forces to operate, and that the money could also be used to provide "communications and database support", possibly with the help of international law enforcement body Interpol.

It said that there is little appetite for a "sport integrity" equivalent of international anti-doping agency WADA to be formed, but said that a new 'global intelligence body' could be formed instead.

"There is support for an intelligence collecting, analysing and information sharing multi-agency global body tasked to provide timely advice to governments, police and sport bodies, and to provide direct support to any ad-hoc international investigative task forces," the ICSS said in its report.

The ICSS said that the police and betting companies have their own responsibilities for cracking down on criminal betting activity. It said that governments across the world are also together responsible for "harmoniously" drafting laws, regulating and monitoring betting internationally in order to "inhibit corruption and manipulation in these markets".

The sports governing bodies that run football should also carry out "due diligence, know your customer and fit and proper persons tests", the ICSS said. It said that the application of those "basic business principles would have prevented many successful results manipulations in football over the recent past".