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| Jerome Valcke, FIFA General Secretary |
Football is dead,
if the outcome of the matches is prearranged. FIFA general secretary, Jerome Valcke
spoke vehemently against it after European Football Chief, Michel Platini branded
match fixing as the greatest threat to the future of football in an interview with
French radio.
"If you
know the end of the party (of the game), then definitely football is dead!"
Valcke said, "That's the beauty of the
game, the appeal of the sport lies in its unpredictability. You never know who will
be the winner."
"It can
be the team you think would win, but it can also be the other team. The opponent
who can make it because it's just played on one goal. So that's why we must protect
football as much as we can."
So if you love
this sport, you should join in the fight against match fixing, which has already
eaten deep into the fabric of the beautiful game. It's not just about Africa. It
is in Asia, it is in Europe, It is in North America, It is in Canada, It is in South
America. It's all around the world.
Valcke warned
that the fight could take up to 10 years, because match fixing is a highly lucrative
business, and urges anyone with knowledge of such activity to come forward.
"when I
was in Rome where we had this meeting with Interpol and 50 of the European Associations;
I heard that the business of match manipulations per year is around E100 billion
Euros. It's an amazing figure." Valcke said.
"I think
it'll be very very long fight and it'll be very difficult to win. and if we want
to win, we must be together. All the people who love football - media, fans, players,
managers... should be together against this great monster."
In May 2011,
FIFA donated US$ 25 million to Interpol over 10 years, the largest grant the world
police organization had ever received from a private body, with a view to tackling
corruption.
In January 2013,
FIFA handed lifetime ban to 41 South Korean players who had been involved in prearranging
matches.
It followed December
2012 suspension of the President of South Africa Football Association ahead of an
investigation into match fixing in the country prior to it hosting the 2010 World
cup.
So you see, FIFA
is already doing a lot to combat this disease, but you too must join in the fight.
Can you imagine
a world without football? Match fixing is threaten to kill the game and put it into
extinction in the near future. It's a serious matter.
Tags:
Impact
