Cooperation at the heart of regional anti-match-fixing workshops
Friday, November 22, 2024
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Series of UEFA-led events equip all 55 European national football associations with best practice techniques for tackling the threat of match-fixing.
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UEFA joined forces with the Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA) this week to organise our sixth regional anti-match-fixing workshop.
The workshop, co-organised and hosted by the RBFA at their Tubize HQ, involved delegates from national football associations, law enforcement agencies, prosecution offices and national platforms from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands, Scotland, Serbia, Slovakia and Switzerland.
It means all 55 UEFA member associations have had the opportunity to attend such events over the past 18 months, with this being the sixth and final workshop in a series designed to further unite integrity efforts across the continent. The Belgium workshop followed similar workshops in Kosovo, Lithuania, Greece, Gibraltar and Portugal over the past 18 months.
"As a national association integrity officer, such a workshop at which other stakeholders, especially police and state authorities, are also present is extremely important to get best practices from other countries explained. This workshop covered a lot of elements that could be useful in the future should a match-fixing case arise."
The workshops have proved an overwhelming success, with association representatives enjoying the opportunity to learn from and exchange best practice initiatives with their peers, as well as forging closer links to national authorities. In total, the six events included 90 participants from law enforcement agencies, prosecution offices, national platforms and national Olympic committees, who joined more than 100 representatives from national associations.
"We are proud to conclude this first series of regional workshops, which proved to be a great learning experience for all the national associations and national authorities representatives in attendance, but also for UEFA. The workshops were crucial when it comes to gaining further insights into the current status of the fight against match-fixing at national and international level as well as to strengthening effective processes.”
With 97% of attendees having reported a considerable improvement in their relationship with their counterparts as a result, UEFA will now identify how we can enhance and continue the programme and further support our national associations and their authorities in the fight against match-fixing.
