Michael Owen claims match-fixing in football is not a huge issue Michael Owen has insisted that the match-fixing scourge that is threatening to undermine football is not a huge problem. Owen, the former England international striker, is convinced that the issue remains on a small scale despite the recent series of allegations that have ensured the biggest such scandal in this country for decades. Two non-League footballers were charged this month after an investigation by The Telegraph while six people, including Blackburn Rovers forward DJ Campbell, were arrested for alleged spot-fixing last week. The threat was deemed serious enough for Maria Miller, the culture secretary, to ask senior figures from five leading British sports to Whitehall for a summit meeting, at which all parties agreed that more could be done to tackle the scourge. But Owen, speaking in Afghanistan at the launch of a tie-up between the Afghan and English football associations, played down the storm and believes that the controversy has been blown out of proportion. He said: "It's strong words, match-fixing. When someone says match-fixing to me I automatically think of 22 players fixing the result of a match, when as far as I know there's been a couple of people that have tried to get booked or sent off or something. I don't think that really constitutes a huge rigging of the game, even though it's wrong, the headlines have probably inflamed what was something that was wrong but is not necessarily people colluding at the highest levels to rig games. The headlines have been pretty damaging for what is not something of huge significance. We are talking about leagues which are far flung from the top level and we're not talking about people saying we are going to fix the game 2-1. That would constitute match-fixing. I was quite surprised - it's a huge story for something that's not as great as they were making it out to be.