European Football Plagued by Match-Fixing - Europol

Europol has carried out the biggest-ever investigation into match-fixing in Europe, revealing some disturbing findings.

The European Union police agency has found evidence of match-fixing of some top international football games, international media said Monday.

Attempts to fix around 380 professional matches were identified, involving up to 425 match and club officials, players and criminals from more than 15 countries, according to the BBC.

These included World Cup and European Championship qualifiers, two Champions League ties and "several top football matches in European leagues", Europol said.

Criminals allegedly put EUR 16 M on rigged matches and made EUR 8 M in profits.

Europol believes a crime syndicate based in Asia was liaising with criminal networks throughout Europe.

"This is the work of a suspected organised crime syndicate based in Asia and operated with criminal networks around Europe," Europol director Rob Wainwright stated, as cited by The Guardian.