Police on the series start: "Will be a significantly higher risk"

After the corona crisis has paralyzed all elite football around the world, games on training matches and teams in lower divisions have increased avalanche.

Yesterday the Stockholm Football Association (StFF) decided yesterday to start the game in their regional series next week.
The series that is being launched include the women's division 3 and the men's division 4.

But the series could end up in great pressure for match fixing, police warn.

- There will be a significantly higher risk if it will continue to be so that only Sweden, Belarus and Nicaragua are playing. If the situation continues, that there are only three countries in the world that the gaming companies offer, then the risk of match fixing will continue as long as it is here, says police commissioner Fredrik Gårdare, who leads the action group against criminals in sports.

What could be the consequences?

- Partly that individual players, leaders and associations are affected. Then also that criminal organizations continue to make money from Swedish sports.

Are you worried about what's happening?

- We got full. We have a pressure that we have not seen before around this and it is clear that we are worried when criminals come in and pick out very big profits on this. They expose both sports in general and even individual athletes to hard pressure in putting up with this.

The police have since last year been given greater resources to work against match fixing and are trying to work preventively.

- We get a lot of information about planned match fixes and act on that information. Last week we stopped trials and preparations for extensive match fixing. We have prevented some, but we see that great interest remains, so we will have to work together with the National Sports Federation and the Swedish Football Association as well as all associations that have matches or enter into series games.

As part of the work against this, the Swedish Football Association announced yesterday that, together with its main sponsor Svenska Spel, 2,328 football clubs are training digitally (across the country) in games responsibility and match fixing.

Something that crime commissioner Fredrik Gårdare looks at positively and believes can have an effect.

- It's a piece of cake simply. They are good for those associations that have suddenly become the focus of betting and then also the focus of match fixing attempts. That these associations have a knowledge of what situation they are in.

What should these clubs think of in concrete terms?

- Firstly, they should think about having a plan when they receive a call, message or are contacted at the plan. That you are prepared to make the calls that must be made to the sport's own support functions that exist and the police to deal with these people who offer, threaten or exert pressure.