FBI to help FIFA keep World Cup clean

Match-fixing has been a serious problem, and sports bodies, integrity organizations, operators, and data companies have been painfully aware of the fact. The continued efforts of law enforcement and stakeholders to address the issue head-on has brought to light its true dimensions but it has notstayed the appetite of criminals to try and influence the outcome of sports events for their personal gain through sports betting websites.

In the age of the pandemic, you may have thought that the incidenceofmatch-fixing should have been declining but they are in fact not. Contrary to popular belief, criminals have been using isolation, diminished prospects in sports and the interconnectivity of the world wide web to reach out to vulnerable athletes.

The FIFA World Cup in Qatar will be a focal point of criminal minds’ efforts to influence the outcome of events for personal gains and the FBI is determined to help the hosts and the world’s football governing body to stem the tide of fraud. FIFA, the FBI, and Interpol have had a joint meeting in Zurich, Switzerland, to discuss how they can handle integrity matters in a timely manner.

But the FBI is looking towards the future more so than the upcoming Qatar event as the United States will be co-hosting the next event with Canada and Mexico in 2026. Meanwhile, FIFA said that its Integrity Task Force will be monitoring betting markets and in-game action in real-time and look for aberrations in performance or wagers. There will be a total of 64 games that the Integrity Task Force will have to focus on.

Details about the FBI’s actual participation in the present edition of the event and the one coming after are not exactly cut and dry, and the agency has kept some matters to itself. This is also the first time that FIFA will be monitoring both what happens in the games and the betting markets. While the chances of actual match-fixing in the World Cup are incredibly slim, the Group Stages could usually be susceptible to manipulation where worse-performing teams compete.

Some of the players in those stages of the competition could be tempted to accept payments in order to influence the game in a specific way, and help a fraudster score on a proposition bet, for example. This fresh collaboration between the FBI and FIFA, though, will make it harder for wrongdoers to hide their true intentions. It’s beyond any doubt that match-fixing has impacted sports integrity in the age of sports gambling.

Image credit: FIFA