UN strategy revealed
The United Nations has launched a new strategy attempting to protect against match-fixing ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Olympics.
instructions have been laid out for reviewing regulatory frameworks
Through the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and using the the G20’s High-Level Principles on tackling corruption in sport, instructions have been laid out for reviewing regulatory frameworks, co-operation between agencies, and local workshops.
Illegal betting is beginning to attract more and more attention from the UN, which estimates the size of the industry to rival that of other illegal activities such as drug and arms smuggling and human trafficking.
Co-operation called for
The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be held in the USA, Canada and Mexico, with the 2028 Olympics due to be held in Los Angeles. Accordingly, the UNODC has recommended that all law enforcement and sports bodies across the three countries review and update their regulatory frameworks, as well as hosting workshops.
Secondly, the UNODC recommends increasing co-operation between agencies in each country, as well as between sporting bodies and law enforcement authorities. Lastly, there were also calls for sports betting operators to better monitor activity to flag any suspicious patterns.
Explaining the new guidelines, a UNODC statement said: “A global trend is the development of mechanisms (such as task forces, platforms, specialized units and entities) to enhance collaboration and cooperation between criminal justice authorities and/or anti-corruption bodies and sports organisations to help tackle corruption and other forms of crime and related wrongdoing in sport.”
Soccer fixes
Match-fixing is known to take place in soccer, with the UNODC pointing to betting rings in Asia as often being behind the practice.
While the practice is extremely rare at the top level of the sport, there have been several high profile cases. Earlier this year, Lucas Paqueta, a player for English Premier League side West Ham United, was cleared of deliberately being booked, an accusation which could have seen him faced with a lifetime ban if found guilty.
The match report was printed in the crime section of the local newspaper
There have been few credible accusations of match-fixing with regards to betting in the World Cup, although one notable incident in the 1982 edition of the tournament saw West Germany and Austria play out a controversial 1-0 with the result securing qualification for both teams at the expense of Algeria. The match report was printed in the crime section of the local newspaper.
Since then, FIFA has directed that all of the last games for each group stage will take place at the same time.
