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Scotland Warned Of Fixing Threat To Nigeria Friendly
Ike Uche of Nigeria (L) is challenged by Benin's Abdul Adenon during their African Nations Cup Group B soccer match in Sekondi January 29, 2008. PHOTO BY REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko
28/05/2014
(Reuters) - Britain's National Crime Agency has contacted the Scottish FA (SFA) about a possible plot to fix Wednesday's international friendly between Scotland and Nigeria in London, an SFA spokesman said in statement.
"We are liaising with the relevant authorities and preparing for the match as normal," the spokesman added on Tuesday, confirming that officers had been in touch with the SFA regarding a match-fixing threat.
The SFA added that there was no specific intelligence, however, and the National Crime Agency, which specialises in investigating organised crime, had no comment.
The match at Fulham's Craven Cottage ground is a World Cup warm-up for Nigeria before they head off to the finals in Brazil which kick off on June 12.
Leading bookmakers are routinely on alert for unusual betting patterns but were not aware of any specific threat.
The alert came on the day Europe's anti-crime agency Europol signed an agreement with governing body UEFA to deal with match-fixing in European soccer.
However, the organisation's director Rob Wainwright said the issue was not a major problem in Europe.
FIFA vice-president Jim Boyce was quoted by Sky Sports as saying: "Match-fixing is a cancer within our game that has got to be driven out. If these accusations are true, the people involved should be banned for life and sent to prison."
FIFA's head of security Ralf Mutschke told The Daily Telegraph that soccer's world governing body had to presume the World Cup would be a target.
"We are trying to protect the World Cup from fixing and we have set up a pretty wide range of measures to do so," he said.
Nigeria, who also have warm-up matches scheduled against Greece and the United States next month, start their World Cup campaign against Iran in Curitiba on June 16.
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