A Champions League tie played in
England is one of 380 matches across Europe investigators say was fixed.
However, European police did not reveal the identity of the match they
believe was corrupt in England, The Guardian reports.
Speaking in The Hague, Europol said that they had
uncovered an organised crime syndicate based in Asia that was
co-ordinating the operation, with around 425 match officials, club
officials, players and criminals under suspicion.
Europol, which has been investigating for 18 months,
said suspected matches included World Cup and European Championship
qualifiers, two Champions League ties and "several top football matches
in European leagues".
They said that criminals put €16m on rigged matches
and made €8m in profits. Payments of €2m are thought to have been paid
to those involved, while investigators said that the biggest payment to
an individual was €140,000.
Europol believes a crime syndicate based in Asia was
liaising with criminal networks throughout Europe. It believes
match-fixing has taken place in 15 countries and 50 people have so far
been arrested. Officials said they feared this was the "tip of the
iceberg".
Hungarian ref investigated for match fixing during U21 game between Argentina and Bolivia. Argentina received a penalty to win the match, though there really was no penalty...
"This is the work of a suspected organised crime
syndicate based in Asia and operated with criminal networks around
Europe," Rob Wainwright, the director of Europol, said.
"It is clear to us this is the biggest-ever
investigation into suspected match-fixing in Europe. It has yielded
major results which we think have uncovered a big problem for the
integrity of football in Europe. We have uncovered an extensive criminal
network."
Wainwright would not reveal the identity of the
Champions League match staged in the UK under suspicion due to "ongoing
judicial proceedings" but he did confirm it had taken place in the last
three to four years and admitted it was not a country under particular
scrutiny.
He added: "The focus has been on other countries, not
the United Kingdom. However we were surprised by the scale generally of
the criminal enterprise and just how widespread it was.
"It would be naive and complacent of those in the UK
to think such a criminal conspiracy does not involve the English game
and all the football in Europe."
A Uefa spokesman said: "We will be liaising with Europol in relation to any reports of match fixing in European competition."