To hold a transparent tournament, free from the threat of match-fixing, UEFA has developed a tailored action plan for Euro 2024.
The entity combined education and prevention sessions with monitoring and intelligence. This successful initiative was based on lessons learned from previous tournaments and comprehensive cooperation with other organizations.
Euro 2024 without integrity problems
To support the detection and handling of match-fixing concerns and to help collect and analyze information, UEFA has reconvened the Sports Integrity Assessment Group. This group was initially established for Euro 2020, taking advantage of experience from across Europe.
Therefore, the group met regularly before and during the tournament to discuss key issues relating to past and future matches.
The action plan was based on:
- Participant information
- Betting Reports
- Match information
- Information received through reporting mechanisms
- Local observations and media screening.
According to the European entity, no suspicious betting activity was found, nor were any other concerns about match-fixing related to Euro 2024 matches raised.
Euro 2024 promotes educational sessions
Education and awareness among participating teams is a crucial step in preventing match-fixing in sporting competitions and has been fundamental to efforts to preserve the integrity of Euro 2024.
Then, thanks to UEFA’s close work with the national associations’ integrity officers, all 24 teams took part in personalized match-fixing awareness sessions ahead of the tournament.
Therefore, adapting this content to each audience is essential to maximize its impact. Therefore, UEFA’s anti-match-fixing unit has developed a specific presentation for elite players. In this way, integrity officers translated and adapted the presentation to each team’s national context.
But tournament referees also participated in a personalized integrity briefing during the referees’ preparatory workshop in Frankfurt in May. The focus was on the risks related to match-fixing approaches through social media.
Combating manipulation through cooperation and collaboration
UEFA‘s working group to combat match-fixing in European football also held its annual meeting in Hamburg on 5 July.
Therefore, the group brought together the experience of several organizations, with the main representatives (UEFA, Council of Europe, Copenhagen Group, Europol and Interpol).
Other representatives involved were from CONMEBOL, the International Olympic Committee, Sportradar, ULIS, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and representatives from the German National Platform.
Integrity experts discussed:
- The milestones and challenges of the last 12 months
- Recent trends
- How to jointly move toward possible resolutions
In other words, special focus was placed on the results of UEFA’s three-year action plan against match-fixing. Thus, this plan was completed at the end of the 2023/24 season.
