UEFA boss: Europe must criminalize match-fixing

Published Sep. 28, 2011 7:20 a.m. ET

foxsports

UEFA's president says soccer authorities can't stop the spread of match-fixing on their own and called on all European countries to make sports fraud a criminal offense.

Michael Platini told the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France, on Wednesday that the sports movement itself is overwhelmed when faced with criminals fixing matches for millions in profit.

He called the spread of match-fixing ''alarming'' because it has proved impossible so far to contain it with sporting sanctions alone. Platini said that ''these initiatives do not suffice'' when faced with criminal organizations and wants a global crime-busting approach to counter it.