Irish FA investigates match-fixing in two league matches
Games involving Limerick FC subject to police investigation following suspicious betting patterns
The Irish Football Association (FAI) has launched an investigation into suspicious betting related to two matches involving Irish first division side Limerick FC.
Allegations of suspicious betting are being investigated in respect of the match between Shelbourne VS Limerick FC which took place on 19 April and a recent FAI cup game between Sligo Rovers and Limerick FC which took place on 24 August. Limerick lost both games, 2-0 to Shelbourne and 6-2 to Sligo Rovers.
Members from the GNECB at the conclusion of a search operation that was carried out today, Tuesday 3rd September, 2019 at a sports ground in Limerick in relation to an investigation into Match Fixing. Local Garda members also assisted in the search. pic.twitter.com/FwrXN0MXPH
— Garda Info (@gardainfo) September 3, 2019
The investigations were launched by the FAI following receipt of a report from football governing body UEFA concerning the presence of unusual betting patterns in both matches.
In a statement, the FAI confirmed its investigations into the two matches were ongoing.
“We are committed to a zero-tolerance policy on match fixing in conjunction with UEFA. The FAI, as stated earlier, is also aware of a Garda investigation into match fixing,” the FAI added.
UEFA currently has an information sharing agreement with the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) first signed in March 2018.
Under the terms of the agreement, the IBIA’s 50+ member firms supply information on betting patterns to the IBIA’s monitoring platform. This information is then communicated to UEFA via a report and then passed to individual football associations via its own reporting system.
The IBIA said it would not comment on individual cases as it would run the risk of impeding the investigation.
However, it said it was keen to be involved in the development of “an effective regulatory gambling regime in Ireland that includes specific practical and proportionate sports betting integrity measures as other countries such as the UK have introduced,”.
The news comes less than a week after the passage of the ‘Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions’ also known as the Macolin Convention, into law.
The Macolin convention is an international treaty which targets match-fixing and corruption in sport through increased cooperation and coordination between member countries.
A total of 32 countries have signed the treaty, including the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain and Portugal. However only Italy, Norway, Portugal, Moldova, Switzerland and Ukraine have fully ratified the Macolin Convention within their own individual legal systems.
The Republic of Ireland is one of the few European nations not to sign up to the treaty.