FIFA Body to Monitor Gambling

Betting experts from the game's world governing body FIFA said that illegal gambling and match-fixing are a bigger threat to soccer than doping.

Detlev Zenglein, an analyst for the Early Warning System set up by FIFA to monitor suspicious betting patterns, made the statement Monday at a conference in Zurich entitled "Sports betting – mutual dependence and dangers".

"It is a big threat... in the special case of football even bigger than doping because of the perception it leaves in the minds of the public," he said.

Every time there are rumors it sticks on people's heads and lessens their enthusiasm for sport because they think they might have been cheated.

EWS officials say illegal betting could account for around one-third of an estimated $350 billion revenue generated by global soccer gambling. They say the illegal Asian betting markets pose the biggest problem, but other conference speakers said the problem exists in Europe too.

"We have had more than 25 UEFA-organized matches in the last two seasons that were very likely manipulated but the investigations are still ongoing," said Carsten Koerl, chief executive of bet monitoring firm Sportradar.

Keeping proportions
FIFA president Sepp Blatter warned against exaggerating the problem, however, saying that allegations were made of match-fixing at the 2006 World Cup in Germany without any evidence.

"In FIFA we are prepared to fight for clean, proper and fair sport but we cannot stand people abusing football or using it as a platform to spread new scandals when finally there are none," he said.

Early Warning System in place
FIFA's Early Warning System was originally launched as a successful pilot project at the 2006 World Cup, and since July 2007 EWS has been monitoring all the qualifying matches of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa, and will continue to do so right through to the final phase of the tournament itself.