When the Malmö club Kvarnby, which in 2019 played in division 3, was hit by match-fixing, it struck like a bolt from the blue for most people around the association - something that is portrayed in SVT Sport's documentary series "Kvarnbyfallet" on SVT Play.

The image that many had was that match-fixing takes place at higher levels.

But that is not the case, the club experienced.

And Kvarnby is not the only team that has been subjected to match-fixing a bit down in the league pyramid.

- We have argued for quite a few years that this, which we usually call the "small fix", which takes place at lower levels, it is very much more common than people understand and is much more difficult to detect in many cases, says Johan Claesson , who is an integrity officer at the Swedish Football Association, and thus is responsible for the preventive and investigative work against match-fixing.

U19 series exposed before

At the turn of the year, it was forbidden for gaming companies licensed in Sweden to offer games in junior series, training matches and senior series under division 2. And that seems to have had an effect.

In 2020, almost a third (7 of 22) of the matches that were investigated for suspected match-fixing were played at levels that are now prohibited from offering games.

This year it looks completely different.

- Of the 23 matches that we have flagged as suspects this year, no match has been played at a lower level than the second, and we have not had a match in the U19 series, which has been very exposed before, says Johan Claesson.

"Very happy"

Gambling companies that were against a ban on gambling in lower divisions argued that gambling companies without a Swedish license would still offer these matches, and that match-fixing would thus still continue.

But the current figures indicate that this has not been the case.

- The times we have received reports of things that have looked suspicious in lower series, we have investigated it, among other things with the help of companies that monitor the gaming market, but they have not found any place where the matches have been offered.

So it is very gratifying, and indicates that other series have disappeared as gaming objects even in the unregulated gaming market, says Johan Claesson.

Division 2 stands out

On the other hand, the same motto as before seems to apply in such a way that the higher up in the series pyramid you get, the more rare is match-fixing.

- It is in division 2 that it stands out, where we have had 12 of 23 suspicious matches.

In the two highest series, the Allsvenskan and the Superetta, we have had almost no suspicious matches at all.