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Safe from betting, at this stage

Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Several Swiss football clubs Monday 23 November announced internal investigations into match-fixing involving their players following revelations in Germany 19 November that 32 games with suspicious outcomes were being investigated there. Seventeen people reportedly were arrested in Germany and, according to German media Bild, over €1 million seized in cash and property.

Swiss team FC Thun suspended its Senegalese star striker, Omar Fayé, after it was announced that the police had spoken to him “as a witness.” FC Gossau announced Tuesday 24 November it had suspended a player, as well. Two people were taken into custody last week in connection with the scandal.

Twenty-two Swiss Challenge League games and six Test matches involving Swiss teams, including FC Thun, Gossau, Yverdon and Sion, are under investigation. As an example, both Bern’s Young Boys and Aarau played Bulgaria’s first division team Lokomotiv Mezdra which lost 0:5 in both cases, 13 and 17 November, reports Swiss-German paper Tagesanzeiger 24 November.

Some clubs from the Bundesliga In Germany may be involved, according to reports in the German media, and representatives of both major football associations have welcomed judicial intervention, reports the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Berlin is reportedly the centre of operations of the illegal betting ring that has involved several countries.

The match-fixing appears to be the result of illegal betting on mostly second and third-division games, which are often not televised and whose players and referees are more easily influenced by money or threats. In Switzerland, the government-authorized betting agencies – Sport-Toto-Gesellschaft, Lotterie Romande and Swisslos – have a monopoly on betting, but the Internet makes it relatively easy to circumvent the rules,and opens up betting opportunities that the official betting agencies do not allow, such as intra-game bets, reports NZZ.

The world football governing body, Fifa in Zurich, announced an extraordinary meeting set for 2 December to discuss the growing scandal. Uefa, based in Nyon, canton Vaud, said 20 November it is cooperating with German authorities.

Background: Uefa probes match fixing, Fifa ignores cheating, GenevaLunch, 20 November 2009

Links to other sites: 20Minutes, AFP, Goal, Le Temps (Fre), New York Times, NZZ (Ger)