Turkey's football federation chief vowed on Tuesday to work with FIFA after European police unearthed a global criminal network fixing hundreds of matches, including in the Champions League and World Cup qualifiers. "We are told of 79 fixed matches monitored in Turkey" by European authorities, Yildirim Demiroren was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency.
European police warned on Monday that the integrity of football was at stake, saying at least 425 referees, players and other officials were suspected of rigging hundreds of matches, including qualifying games for the World Cup and the European Championship.
Of this total, 151 are living in Germany, 66 in Turkey and 29 in Switzerland, but suspects fixing matches in other parts of Europe and around the world are also concerned, according to Europol. "FIFA will surely send us everything related to the bets. There is nothing delivered to us so far but they will do so for sure," said Demiroren.
"Whatever it is, we will work and solve it together with Interpol and FIFA," he added. "It is very true and normal that as economy grows, bettings increase and money laundering shifts there ... This is an incident that goes beyond the federation but in general something needs to be done." Demiroren was appointed as federation chief last year amid a domestic rigging crisis that led to the arrests of dozens of people allegedly involved in the fixing of at least 19 games in the 2010-2011 season. The court found more than 40 people guilty of match-fixing but the verdict is pending an appeal.
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