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MILAN – Training, prevention, protection. These are the objectives of the “For the integrity of the game: training against sport fraud” project, launched by Lega Serie A in order to combat match-fixing.
The initiative was unveiled in Milan today in collaboration with Sportradar, the leading organisation in the fight against match-fixing. Sportradar use the most highly-sophisticated monitoring systems and meticulously analyse betting patterns in order to prevent fraud.
The project will focus on training and prevention and aims to raise awareness of the very real risks linked to match-fixing through directly engaging with first team and youth players, club management and staff members. It’s an essential but delicate part of the training of the stars of the future, and one that the FIGC has made compulsory across all of its leagues following a proposal by Lega Serie A.
Keeping clubs clean – from academy level right through to the first team – is not only desirable from an ethical standpoint, but it also constitutes a fundamental part of new UEFA directives which regulate clubs’ eligibility for participation in European competitions. Today’s workshops introduced the initiative using real-life examples of match-fixing around the world in order to illustrate the reality of the problem.
“This partnership with Sportradar allows Lega Serie A to achieve an important objective by taking active steps to defend the integrity of our sport,” stated president Maurizio Beretta. “Whilst always taking great care to ensure legality in the world of sport, our main role is to educate young players of Serie A clubs,” he concluded.
Juan Jesus, the Inter defender, was also in attendance at the presentation: “It’s vital that we have a project orientated towards the youngest players. Knowledge of the world of sports betting is limited for us, because we footballers are just focused on playing. Therefore, anything that protects our sport – which is a source of such joy and passion for so many – is more than welcome. Football itself will benefit if we keep it clean and show that there is no fraud in the game.”
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