Gold Cup games 'may have been manipulated'
Reuters - Thursday 08 December 2011, 22:20
FIFA's head of security believes games at
this year's U.S.-based CONCACAF Gold Cup tournament were
"manipulated" and that irregular betting patterns raised
suspicions at world football's governing body, a report said.
FIFA security chief Chris Eaton (pictured) told Sports Illustrated's
website SI.com on Thursday that they have worked together with
CONCACAF to investigate games at June's tournament.
"There has been information that some matches in the Gold
Cup were manipulated," Eaton was quoted as saying.
"We worked with CONCACAF at the time and CONCACAF have been
very interested in following up any information that can be
revealed in the future on that," he added.
Eaton said the investigation had not produced confirmation
of match-fixing but he cited irregular betting patterns during
the 12-team tournament.
The competition featured some high-scoring games involving
some of the weaker teams in the CONCACAF region which covers
North, Central America and the Caribbean.
CONCACAF was not immediately available for comment on the
report.
The first suggestions that there may have been something
amiss during the Gold Cup came before the final was played in
June.
Media reports in Germany said three games were under
suspicion following reports of unusual betting activity in Asia.
Speaking to reporters before the June 25 final, CONCACAF General Secretary Chuck Blazer said it had tracked the games
that had allegedly been at risk.
"Early on we were aware of comments made by a party in
Europe, who believed that certain games were potentially targets
in this competition.
"We tracked those [games], we found that there were no
significant anomalies and when we analysed the games overall,
found that they were pretty consistent with both history, as far
as the results, and we didn't find any unusual patterns.
"There was nothing that was out of sync with what reasonable
expectations would have been. We had no reason to find that
there was anything of greater concern," he said.
Blazer, a member of FIFA's Executive Committee, was not
immediately available to comment on the SI.com report.