December 6 – With the roots of global football match-fixing embedded in parts of Asia, The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Kuala Lumpur.
The agreement will focus on supporting training programmes as well as exchanging information and expertise between the two organisations to promote integrity and good governance in sport.
At the signing ceremony attended by Yuri Fedotov (pictured right), the UNODC Executive Director, Dato’ Windsor John (pictured left), the AFC General Secretary, said: “This MoU is another important piece in the continuing battle to preserve the good name and integrity of our sport.
“It will allow the AFC and UNODC to work together against the evil of match manipulation and to safeguard the game against any other form of corruption. We also develop a greater network of intelligence on those who look to corrupt the game.
“We will promote co-operation, co-ordination and information exchange to bring about investigations and hopefully prosecutions in cases of corruption. And AFC and UNODC will share expertise.”
“All these fall into the important area of good governance and integrity which is crucial in the future development of the sport in Asia. Already the AFC has taken huge strides in this area.
“Our President, Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, has stressed the importance of our work in this area and he was here in Kuala Lumpur himself almost exactly a year ago to launch our very successful Integrity App.
“This App allows anyone to report suspicious activity around matches, tournaments or individuals directly and anonymously to the AFC. It is just one of the many crucial tools we are employing to protect our sport as we enter the next exciting decade.”
From the UN side, Fedotov said: “I’m very pleased to be here in the AFC House and to sign this personally. This signing means we are going to spend a lot of time working together against corruption and any negative behaviours such as match fixing. In general context, what we are doing here prevents crimes and young people from getting involved. I would like to thank the AFC for their support and we look forward to working together.”
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