Football needs to protect its integrity

The spectacle of a police raid at the Italian national team's training camp days on the eve of the start of the European Football Championship today and the arrest of top players for alleged match-fixing was a sorry indictment of the state of football. If the stars of the game can't play by the rules what message does this send to the billions of fans and millions of players, coaches and referees worldwide?

Football needs to keep its integrity to preserve its popularity. The essence of competitive sport is that you don't know the result at the start. If you lose that, you lose everything that makes a fan's heart beat faster and a player fight hard. But you also lose an important opportunity to show the youth of the world that fair play and 100 per cent effort - plus luck sometimes - win the day. It is one of life's most important lessons.

There are two types of match fixing, one for sporting reasons and one for betting reasons. The first usually occurs at the end of a season when teams face relegation or have nothing to play for. This has, in some countries, become a tradition with people inside and outside football also seeing it as an opportunity to bet on the sport.

Match fixing for betting is usually the domain of organised crime, either on a small scale or transnationally. Online betting has changed the scope of this type of match-fixing. Today billions of dollars are in play every day on thousands of games across Europe, making gambling as well as fixing easier and more lucrative. Read more