Corruption ‘is inevitable’ says FIFA official

THE date is July 9, 2006, the venue Berlin’s luminous Olympiastadion, full to the rafters. Brazil and Ireland are locked at 2-2 in the World Cup final with extra time looming.

Then, in the last gasps of stoppage time, the referee awards Brazil an outrageous penalty which they convert to retain their world crown despite furious protests from the Irish.

That evening the referee’s bank balance swells with thousands of dollars, his reward for fixing the biggest soccer match in the world for a criminal betting syndicate.

Of course, match-fixing does not happen quite as overtly as that, which is precisely why it is such a menace to those whose duty is to preserve the integrity of ‘the beautiful game’.

Eight months before the start of the World Cup in Germany, FIFA is acutely aware of the growing problem it faces.

Speaking in Peru at the weekend, FIFA general secretary Urs Linsi admitted: “There are matches every day, 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. Corruption is therefore inevitable.

“We don’t live in a perfect world, but we’re here to try and address the problem. The philosophy of FIFA is to protect the ‘Beautiful Game’.”

This year alone, Germany and world champions Brazil, the two teams who contested the 2002 World Cup final in Japan, have been enveloped in serious match-fixing cases.

The context of Linsi’s comments was the unfolding scandal in Brazil. On Sunday, referee Edilson Pereira de Carvalho admitted in a television interview he had accepted money to fix results, allegedly from an illegal gambling ring.

As a consequence the Brazilian championship has been thrown into chaos.

The results of 11 matches were annulled on Sunday and Brazil’s refereeing chief Armando Marques has resigned. Carvalho, an international referee, has been suspended by FIFA.

Another Brazilian referee, Paulo Jose Danelon, has admitted fixing matches too and he, like Carvalho, seems certain to face a life ban from officiating.

The scandal has erupted two weeks before German former referee Robert Hoyzer stands trial charged with offences related to his admission of fixing the results of German league and cup games in 2004.

Hoyzer has already been banned for life from officiating after admitting he accepted €67,000 and a flat screen television from a betting gang to rig matches.

Another referee, a regional league player and three Croats accused of running a betting syndicate are also being investigated by German prosecutors.

The timing of the case, Germany’s worst soccer bribery scandal in more than 30 years, is a serious embarrassment to the World Cup hosts and his trial will sully further soccer’s reputation.

Back in March FIFA president Sepp Blatter described the Hoyzer affair as a “one-off case” in an interview with German sports weekly Kicker but subsequent events have proved him wrong.

Turkey, Italy, the Czech Republic, Finland, Austria and Greece have all either suffered soccer match-fixing scandals or come under suspicion this year.

This upsurge appears in part to be the result of the spread of betting over the internet and the difficulty of regulating it.

In August the chief executive of European soccer’s ruling body UEFA, Lars Christer Olsson, spoke of the fear that criminal gangs were trying to use soccer as a “gigantic money-laundering machine” by betting illicitly earned cash on matches.

FIFA’s response was to create a Task Force last month to consider setting up early warning systems with bookmakers to track unusual betting patterns.

“You can’t ban betting,” Blatter has acknowledged. “Betting is a huge part of our culture.”

He believes introducing professional referees is the solution.

“Professional refereeing would be a career, and once you have a career and you see it as going to work, then you’re not going to cheat,” he said.

“The ethical and moral dimension is very different when you are a professional rather than an amateur.”

Once again, however, Blatter may be proved overly optimistic.

Humans were greedy long before the first inflated bladder was kicked in anger and as Carvalho admitted:

“I was corrupted, I allowed myself to get taken by this easy money. I did it because I wanted to.”