Arrests made in Italy in match-fixing case

Task force set up in Germany

FRANKFURT: German football authorities have set up a task force to deal with the findings of the match-fixing investigation. German football federation (DFB) president Theo Zwanziger,speaking at a news conference Monday in Frankfurt,said football had to work closely with state prosecutors because they were dealing with organised crime. “On our own,we would be helpless,” Zwanziger said.

The task force includes officials from DFB and DFL,the German football league that runs the country’s top two divisions of 18 clubs each. Its job would be a “transparent handling off all suspicions,” Zwanziger said.

Bochum prosecutors leading the investigation into the match-fixing scandal have targeted about 200 people suspected of manipulating games. Zwanziger did not release names and said he regretted that names of some players and clubs from the minor leagues have been circulating in the German media.

On Monday,Bochum prosecutors again declined to divulge any names.

Among those arrested was Ante Sapina,who was convicted for organising the match-fixing in Germany at the heart of a scandal in 2005 involving referee Robert Hoyzer. After that scandal,the DFB put into place its own early-warning system to report suspicious betting patterns.

Meanwhile,FIFA has called an emergency meeting of its executive committee ahead of the World Cup draw in South Africa to deal with incidents in the playoffs and match-fixing allegations in Europe. The meeting would take place on December 2.