The scourge of football betting breaks even in continental football, give notice to the German weekly Der Spiegel.
The magazine reports that UEFA has turned to Europol to investigate some suspicious meetings.
According to reports 26 games would be under investigation divided as follows: 12 qualifications for the UEFA Cup, Intertoto – 8 matches, 3 of preliminary matches for Champions League, 2 UEFA Cup and then a qualifier for the next Europeans. Most of these meetings have been played this year, others between 2005 and 2006.
The teams involved would do all of eastern and south – eastern Europe, while the leaders of the organization are based in Asia.
To encourage misconduct is especially the little regulation when it comes to sports betting in that part of the world. Indeed there are no limits to the bets and the majority of the played may be carried out in a totally anonymous.
In Europe, from this point of view, the controls are much more severe it is also much more difficult to pass unnoticed suspicious movements of money.
Always Der Spiegel reports that some officials in November, UEFA would have gone to Holland to deliver into the hands of Europol a dossier that contained precisely the documentation on the alleged offenses which related games played in Bulgaria, Georgia, Serbia, Croatia and other countries of ‘ east.
The round of money connected to this investigation is huge, there is talk of betting millionaire. The organization in charge of the scam would use this medium to launder money derived from illegal activities such as prostitution, trafficking in arms and drugs.