Europol: 380 European football games suspected of match fixing

European police did not reveal the identity of the match they believe was corrupt in England.

But Europol did say that they had uncovered an organised crime syndicate based in Asia that was co-ordinating the operation.

Some 425 match officials, club officials, players and criminals are suspected of being involved.

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".

Criminals wagered 16m euros on rigged matches and made eight million Euros in profits, Europol say.

Payments of two million Euros are thought to have been paid to those involved. The biggest payment to an individual was 140,000 Euros, according to investigators.

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".

Rob Wainwright, director of Europol, said: " This is the work of a suspected organised crime syndicate based in Asia and operated with criminal networks around Europe.
"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."

Europol gave the details on Monday at a news conference in The Hague, Netherlands.