Stakeout: Say no to bets

FIFA has created a company called Early Warning System. It is intended to work in concert with the international gambling industry to spot attempts to manipulate the outcome of World Cup matches.

Few details of the system have been made public. But FIFA officials have said they were concerned about the proliferation of Internet gambling and the influence of Asian betting syndicates as well as recent scandals in Brazil, Italy and Germany. If any suspicious betting patterns were detected, officials have said they might take pre-emptive action, such as switching a referee before a match.

8220;A number of scandals have affected football, for instance, the problem with the referees,8221; Joseph S. Blatter, the president of FIFA, said this week at a news conference at Munich. 8220;When you see a circle drawn, the referee is at the heart of it,8221; he said.

At the 2006 World Cup, referee assignments for the opening matches were announced a week ahead of time. During the tournament, the 81 referees and assistant referees are being housed at the Kempinksi Gravenbruch Hotel outside Frankfurt.

The hotel, which is in a wooded area, has booked no other guests except airline flight crews and longtime visitors who are familiar to the hotel staff, FIFA officials said. Ten security guards have been stationed inside the hotel while four police officers patrol the hotel grounds, according to FIFA. Referees said they were not allowed to receive phone calls direct to their rooms from outside the hotel. The world governing body also said this week that it would establish an independent ethics committee in an attempt to curb corruption scandals that could threaten fair play.

World Cup referees are to be paid 40,000 apiece for the 2006 tournament, double their salary from 2002. While many would consider that handsome pay for a month8217;s work, each player on the German national team, by comparison, will receive a bonus of approximately 390,000 for winning the World Cup.

In domestic club leagues around the world, referees are considered particularly vulnerable to illicit enticements. They are not always professional, or well paid. And their decisions or nondecisions 8212; in declaring offsides, awarding free kicks and penalty kicks and issuing red-card ejections 8212; can have a profound influence in a sport where goals are preciously few.

8220;At the club level, maybe you could understand it,8221; said Bruce Arena, the manager of the United States team. 8220;But I would be shocked if it ever happened at the World Cup level.8221;

World Cup referee candidates were observed for a year in their club settings. The final candidates then were put through a five-day test that included the rules of the game, psychology and physical fitness. A referee committee will scrutinize the early rounds, advancing deserving referees to the later matches.

FIFA says it has complete trust in the World Cup referees. But last month, Italy withdrew the credential of Massimo De Santis, who had been scheduled to work the tournament. De Santis was withdrawn as part of a continuing investigation into a match-fixing scandal involving the Italian League champion, Juventus of Turin.

Marcello Lippi, the Italian World Cup coach, and Fabio Cannavaro, captain of the Italian team, have been questioned by authorities investigating the Juventus scandal. According to news accounts, both are considered witnesses, not suspects. Gianluigi Buffon, the top Italian goalkeeper, has been questioned by authorities investigating illegal betting. He has said he did nothing improper, and he has not been charged.

While the Italian scandal is the latest to hit international club soccer, it is only one of at least a dozen corruption scandals that have tarnished the sport from the Czech Republic to Vietnam.

JERE LONGMAN