FIFA’s former head of security pinpoints Southeast Asia as the source for hundreds of rigged professional football contests in Europe and around the world.
Chris Eaton, currently director of Qatar’s International Centre for Sport Security, says it’s gambling houses in Singapore that are providing the foundation for organized gangs to generate profits from match-fixing.
European authorities say they’ve identified a syndicate based in the city-state as responsible for fixing at least 380 matches, most of them in Europe, on which it made at least £7 million (€8.19 million/US$10.9 million). However, Mr Eaton says that to get an idea of the profits made in Asia, “You can probably multiply that by a hundred”.
He blames the lack of strict regulation in Asian betting markets for the ability of the gangs to flourish. “If you don’t focus on betting fraud, then you won’t be able to properly address sport corruption. Sport corruption is born of betting fraud, it’s a cycle.”
Instead, governments are targeting corruption in sports rather than targeting betting, he says. “There’s no will to regulate gambling houses in Southeast Asia. There’s a lack of commitment.”
Yet, that transparency is vital to cleaning up the sport, he says.
“Being able to see who did what, when and how” would “have a major effect on addressing the issues of sport corruption.”
