SINGAPORE — The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has set up a task force to help combat match-fixing in the continent, the sport's regional governing body said Friday. The announcement came a day after an INTERPOL-led conference into result rigging closed in Kuala Lumpur. The task force would collaborate with all stakeholders and educate member associations on ways to combat the practice and introduce mechanisms to fight it, AFC General Secretary Alex Soosay said in a statement. "By setting up this task force, we would like to coordinate the education, training and implementation of measures through one platform," he said. Earlier this month, European anti-crime agency Europol said hundreds of soccer matches were fixed in a global betting scam run from Singapore. It also identified about 680 suspicious matches, including qualifying games for the World Cup and European Championships, and for Europe's Champions League. Tan Seet Eng, a Singaporean also known as Dan Tan, has been accused of heading an organization to fix soccer matches worldwide and Italian police have issued an arrest warrant for him. Italian police arrested a fugitive associate of the alleged match-fixing kingpin Thursday after the 31-year-old Slovenian, a former player, flew in from Singapore to hand himself over to authorities. Singapore said Tan is not a wanted man in the city-state but it is working with European authorities looking into the syndicate. Singapore police said Thursday a team of four officers would be sent to INTERPOL within the next two weeks to assist in the investigations. Asia has long struggled with match-fixing with high-profile cases in South Korea, China and Malaysia in recent years. FIFA slapped worldwide lifetime bans on 41 South Korean players last month following a match-fixing scandal in the country's K-League. Games fixed in Spain Vice president of the Spanish Professional League Javier Tebas has claimed games in Spain have been fixed. Tebas' claims come just weeks after an Europol investigation cited 680 fixed matches across the world, none of which took place in Spain. However, Tebas said Thursday he believes the problems in Spain are more closely linked to ensuring results towards the end of the season than with the gambling syndicates highlighted by the Europol investigation. "Yes, there have been games fixed in Spain and you know it too," he told the Cadena Cope radio station. "We cannot deny the fact it is very serious. It is a minority, but very serious. "In Spain the fix is not linked to betting, but to the standings at the end of the season. It could have been just two or three games, but they are important." Tebas even went as far to say he had spoken to a player who had been approached about fixing games. "Players or directors will tell you, but they don't want to go to court. A player in the First Division has told me and we don't have to deny that it exists. "An important informant told me that a teammate of his had told him there had been fixed matches. "Whoever we catch fixing games will go to jail." Tebas also addressed the perilous financial position of a number of Spanish clubs and believes Deportivo la Coruna could go out of business if they get relegated this season. The Galicians are currently bottom of the table, eight points from safety, and entered administration in January. "In a few months or a year a club could disappear. I see two clubs in a very difficult situation. Deportivo could be a candidate in two or three years if they don't fix their debt. A debt in the First Division you can maintain but if you go down it is more difficult." — Agencies
