Can Uefa and Fifa face up to the truth?

Uefa has been accused of sweeping the issue of match-fixing under the carpet for the best part of a decade after one of Britain’s foremost professional gamblers revealed he contacted European football’s governing body as long ago as 2005 to warn of the problem.

There was widespread shock in football earlier this week when Europol, the EU’s law enforcement agency, announced that following an 18-month investigation it had uncovered evidence of match-fixing in more than 380 games, including World Cup qualifiers and Champions League fixtures with a further 300 under suspicion.

Those games included Liverpool’s 1-0 home win over Debrecen in the Champions League group stage in 2009. The Hungarian club last night confirmed the match was under investigation, along with their game against Fiorentina, over the performance of their then goalkeeper, Vukasin Poleksic. “The two matches were the away game against Liverpool and the home encounter with Fiorentina,” a club statement said. “Neither DVSC nor the player wish to react further, all the more so as all the information has been released about this affair during summer 2010.”