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.”

But while football slowly comes to terms with the depth of the problem it is also becoming clear just how desperate the sport has been in the past to totally ignore the issue.

Matthew Benham, who owns Brentford and whose company Smartodds analyses football matches and statistics for professional gamblers, has been on a long-term crusade to raise awareness of match-fixing.

“What people need to know is this is nothing new and Uefa has ignored the problem for far too long,” he said.

“As long ago as 2005 I approached Uefa and warned them there was evidence that several hundred matches were being fixed. But they did nothing about it. I also contacted the FA in 2004 to warn they should beware.

“Now people can see the size of the problem — and it can no longer be left to national associations to deal with. This is now a matter for government and for the police. National associations have buried their heads in the sand over these allegations. It isn’t in their interest to investigate. They don’t want the image of football to be affected and they don’t want to look incompetent.

“Even now Uefa may be willing to admit there are problems in lower leagues or in Eastern Europe but they’ll insist the group stages of the Champions League are unaffected. But we can’t be complacent. It would be completely wrong to think this problem cannot affect big European leagues or can’t arrive in England.”

Liverpool insisted yesterday nobody had been in touch from Europol over their tie against Debrecen and there is no suggestion whatsoever the Anfield side were involved in any fixing.

But Benham isn’t the only one warning against complacency. PFA chairman Gordon Taylor has already warned players to be wary of any approach from fixers.

“At the beginning of the season we had a team going out to all the clubs telling the players there should be no betting on any competition they have any association with, and that any approaches should be reported to the authorities,” he said.

“We have had some problems with one or two games in the recent past where players at Accrington Stanley and Bury were charged and sanctioned, so although it is not commonplace in our country we are not complacent or naive. We need to be vigilant at all levels of the game.”

The way in which games are corrupted is complicated; involving a worldwide ring of fixers scouring the globe for players and officials who may be open to an approach and estimates suggest up to 425 people have succumbed so far. Big-money bets (€16m were wagered on German games alone bringing profits of almost €8m) are then placed in the Far East where markets are subject to far less scrutiny than England or Ireland.

“That’s where it starts,” said Benham. “The so-called ‘early warning’ system football has put in place over here is a total sham, a waste of time. It isn’t highly-regulated big-name companies are the problem. The issue comes from the Far East.”

William Hill spokesman Joe Crilly agreed: “If truth be told, it is highly unlikely that anything untoward will come to any of the licensed bookmakers, it is more likely to disappear into places where there is normally a prohibition on betting.”

The scandal is only likely to grow over the coming months. Europol has already analysed 13,000 emails and made 50 arrests; now the can is open the worms are certain to appear.

Wales manager Chris Coleman summed up the reaction of many when he said he was embarrassed by the scale of the problem.

“I am gutted if I am honest with you, I am disappointed at the level of it. It is staggering, sad.

“I have been in football a long, long time and never doubted any referee, opposition players, and certainly not my own. I’ve seen a ref have a bad game, but never thought it was because of corruption. But when you look at the extent of the allegations it is sad. It is not good.”