Declan Hill: "The scandal of match fixing is not so complicated to solve" .

Le journaliste canadien Declan Hill, en 2008.

Author of the book "How to rig a football game? " (2008, Ed Florent Massot), the Canadian investigative journalist Declan Hill believes that the fight against match-fixing can lead without international cooperation of authorities, including some Asian countries.  

The survey provides Europol Does new items?

 

For years I've been working on this subject and I myself was surprised by the extent of the phenomenon. Many journalists attending the press conference Europol have only focused on the games believed to have been rigged in their own country. But according to Europol, nearly 680 international matches are concerned ... This is an extremely high percentage of the hundreds of matches between national teams each year. Today, we know who are the people involved, but they are still not behind bars.

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Europol has once again mentioned the involvement of a mafia network in Asia. Do we know the suspects?

I was invited to Rome by the end of January to Europol conference match-fixing. Subsequently, I had to again take the floor in February in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. After my speech at Rome, Europol me cordially invited me not to go to Kuala Lumpur, because in my speech, I said that the problem of match-fixing was not complicated to solve, or a long struggle to conduct , contrary to what people may think . There is a man who is at the center of everything. His name is Dan Tan. We know that it is because a warrant international has been issued for him by Interpol. That's why I did not think my remarks were controversial in Rome, but apparently they are.

When the warrant was issued against him, the Singapore government has refused the extradition , arguing that no extradition treaty was signed between the European Union and Singapore. This left all the time Dan Tan to erase all traces of his activity. It is certain that he supports very high places. If one reads between the lines of the last press conference, everything converges towards this man. So in stopping that we can limit the number of match-fixing in the world.

 

This man that you put in the center of the network it is helped by other criminal organizations in Europe ?

Course. Many have been arrested or targeted by police in Europe. But these organizations can not work alone. The globalization of criminality is a relatively new phenomenon. And to fight , we need to try new methods. Asian governments must take their responsibilities and fight the mafia in their country. Ultimately, it is their citizens who come to our country rig matches. What was said at the press conference summarizes only two years of investigation, from 2009 to 2011, and found 380 matches rigged. This is a long problem that only FIFA and Interpol can adjust if they give themselves the means.

 

You think FIFA did real desire to solve this problem?

 

I do not think so. For me, this is the biggest scandal in the history of sports .