Probe links football match-fixing scams 'A sophisticated organised crime operation' is suspected to have attempted to fix more than 680 matches worldwide A football match-fixing investigation by police in 13 European countries has concluded that the attempted or successful manipulation of more than 380 professional matches over the past five years was orchestrated by a Singapore-based network. The largest investigation into football match-fixing, codenamed Operation Veto and run under the auspices of Europol between July 2011 and January 2013, established that cases that have resulted in arrests or convictions in Germany, Hungary, Finland and Slovenia were all related. The bribing of officials and players "formed part of a sophisticated organised crime operation, which generated over €8m in betting profits and involved over €2m in corrupt payments to those involved in the matches," said Rob Wainwright, director of Europol, at a press conference. Criminals in Europe bribed officials or players, organised betting and sent the resulting funds through fiscal intermediaries to the network's centre, with the winnings paid out via the reverse channel. Investigators said 425 players, officials and known criminals are suspected of involvement. The matches known or believed to have been fixed include "World Cup and European Championship qualification matches, two Uefa Champions League matches and several top-flight matches in European national leagues," Mr Wainwright said. In total 380 suspicious matches were identified in Europe and a further 300 in Africa, Asia and south and central America. One of them was allegedly a Champions League tie played in England. The joint investigation embraced individual cases including those in Bochum, Germany, beginning in 2009, in which 14 people have been sentenced to a total of 39 years in prison. They also included that of a Hungarian referee, arrested last June, who is on trial for fixing a friendly between the Bolivian and Argentine junior teams by awarding a questionable red card in the 20th minute of injury time that led to a 1-0 victory for Argentina from the resulting penalty. Friedhelm Althans, chief investigator of the Bochum police, said "a leading cartel based in Singapore" had been identified as the ultimate source of the conspiracy. While investigators said they could not name any of the individuals still under investigation, Interpol has issued a warrant for the arrest of Dan Tan Seet Eng, a Singaporean financier widely accused of heading the cartel. Singapore's failure to extradite Mr Dan was raised at a conference last month of Interpol's match-fixing investigations. Gianni Baldi, head of Interpol's drugs and organised crime unit, said at the Europol press conference that getting Singapore to arrest the head of the syndicate "is not a quick matter" but "we are working with the Singaporean authorities." The millions of euros in bribes and betting profits identified by the investigations appeared small in comparison with statements last month by Ronald Noble, Interpol's secretary-general, that international football match-fixing generated hundreds of billions of dollars per year in revenues. But the amounts probably involved in bets were just the tip of the iceberg, said Mitja Jager, a senior inspector in the Slovenian police. "We see the money flows to Asia, to the syndicates there and then we see the flow back, but we don't see the whole circle," Mr Jager said. It's almost impossible to prove exactly which money was for which specific bet on which specific match. Europol officials warned that if governments and football authorities did not root out the corruption, European and international football could suffer the same fate as that of many Asian football leagues, where fan enthusiasm has slumped due to expectations of fraud. Emine Bozkurt, the European Parliament organised crime committee's rapporteur on match fixing, said one major problem was differences between countries in how match-fixing is treated legally. Some countries, for example, consider match-fixing as a type of fraud while others regard it as a violation of sports laws. "In a lot of countries criminals know that running drugs will get you years in prison, but if you fix a football match you'll get off easy," Mrs Bozkurt said. But Maria Iglesias, co-author of a recent EU report on match-fixing legislation, said legal disparities were not really a significant obstacle to prosecution. "More than a legal problem, prosecutors are really facing operational problems," Ms Iglesias said, with the main problem getting investigators to co-operate across borders. It all depends on political will.