‘R128m bribe’ rocks World Cup opener — Here’s what Fifa is reportedly doing to fight match-fixing

18 November 2022 - 09:00
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As fans wait with baited breath for the 2022 Fifa World Cup to kick off in Qatar this weekend, claims of bribery and match-fixing have rocked the global football showpiece.

Author, strategic political affairs expert and regional head of the British Centre for Middle East Studies and Research Amjad Taha alleged the host nation had “bribed eight Ecuadorian players with $7.4m (about R128m) to lose the opener”.

According to Taha, the game would be won in the second half, with the match ending in a 1-0 win for the visitors.

“Five Qatari and Ecuador insiders confirmed this. We hope it is false. We hope sharing this will affect the outcome. The world should oppose Fifa corruption,” he said. 

While his claims have not been independently verified, they have sparked concerns about widespread corruption at the tournament.

Taha’s allegations follow a Netflix documentary about alleged corruption and vote selling at Fifa which included allegations surrounding South Africa’s hosting of the 2010 World Cup.

According to ESPN, Fifa has taken measures to prevent match-fixing at the tournament.

It claimed prominent bet-monitoring company Sportradar identified about 600 potentially manipulated football matches in the first nine months of 2022.

It will be part of an integrity task force together with Interpol, the International Betting Integrity Association) and the FBI  to monitor betting markets and in-game wagering on every World Cup match.

The company reportedly uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to monitor 30-billion data sets from more than 600 bookmakers globally, and has 35 intelligence officers with expertise in counter terrorism, financial fraud, military defence and law enforcement

Some of its data and technology is provided to more than 1,700 sports federations, media outlets, betting operators and consumer platforms across 120 countries.


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