Ukraine’s Football Federation teams up with law enforcement to red-card corruption

While most other countries in Europe are making attempts to stamp out corruption in sports, Ukraine has yet to call foul on practices like match-fixing.

But lawmakers Andriy Kozhemiakin and Andriy Pavelko, the latter of whom also heads Ukraine’s football governing body, hope to change that soon. They registered a bill in parliament on July 2 that would criminalize corruption and encourage principles of fair play in sports.

As the president of Ukraine’s Football Federation and a pro-presidential lawmaker, Pavelko says the position of the governing body is clear – it wants to eradicate match-fixing practices altogether, no matter how much money or who is involved.

If adopted, the law will prohibit players, sports officials and staff from betting on sports they are engaged in. In addition, they will be obliged to report any attempts to influence the outcome of matches.

Football players in Ukraine are introduced to corrupt practices in the lower leagues, from where the practices spread, Belgium-based anti-match-fixing organization Federbetsaid in its report for 2015.

“The case of Ukraine demonstrates how the manipulation culture starts in the Under-19 and Under-21 leagues, and after time … affects the higher leagues, where more money is needed for the fix,” the report reads.

“Match-fixingis a virus that spreads with enormous speed… and is inherent for the least corrupt and the most corrupt countries,” said Francesco Barranca, Federbet’s secretary general, at a hearing on the bill at the Football Federation’s headquarters on July 29.

“With the transfer of players from one football club to another, they learn … how to organize fixed matches,” said Barranca.

Federbet’s report said there has been a threefold increase over a year in falsified matches in all the leagues in Ukraine, from matches involving young players to those in the first division.

Ukrainian football team Olimpik Donetsk leads the table in Ukraine in match-fixing investigations, with 12 matches being probed, according to Ihor Kochetov, chairman of the ethics and fair play committee of Ukraine’s Football Federation.

Pavelko said that the federation’s own disciplinary and investigatory measures can’t cope with the scale of the sports corruption problem, so legislation is required.

“After I discussed the problem of fixed matches with my colleagues, we came to the conclusion that it couldn’t be solved without a law that makes (this practice) a crime,” Pavelko said.

He also said he expects that future cooperation with Interpol would put an end to match-fixers from abroad cultivating corruption in Ukrainian sports.

Markiyan Kliuchkovskyi, partner at Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners law firm, also believes that the problem is just too big to be tackled by the efforts of sports federations, associations, and clubs alone.

“Private entities simply don’t have the means and resources to be effective in that fight,” Kliuchkovskyi told the Kyiv Post on August 3. “They don’t have the right to conduct searches, or tap phones to listen in on (match-fixing) conversations. Neither they can trail suspects, or get access to banking information, or subpoena any other evidence that is not volunteered.”

That’s why sports associations need law enforcement to be given the authority to investigate and prosecute corruption in sports, the expert said. He said the proposed sports anti-corruption bill, while not perfect, at least represents progress.

“Ukraine is about to get its first legislation on the matter, and that alone is a huge step forward,” Kliuchkovskyi said.

However, the mechanism for cooperation between law enforcement and sports bodies could be better addressed in the bill, he said. “It would be good to see more specifics about the kinds of cooperation allowed, such as evidence sharing, joint taskforces, and international cooperation.”

It may seem counter-intuitive, but legalizing gambling (which was outlawed in Ukraine in 2009) might be another way to help sports bodies and the law crack down oncorruption, even though the gambling business is the main driver formatch-fixing.

“There hasn’t been a single match in history in which match-fixing did not result in a noticeable jump in betting,” Federbet’s Barranca said. “That is why the legalization of gambling would not just be beneficial for the state’s budget, but would also bring more transparency into football.”

Federbet’s report pointed to massive differences between the bets placed on non-fixed matches (typically €15 bets), and fixed ones, which involve bets totaling over €200,000. The total bets on some Ukrainian Under-19 league matches are even worth up to half a million euros.

For instance, a May 17 match between Olimpik Donetsk and Metalist Kharkiv leaves little room for doubt that match-fixing was at play. After 90 minutes, Olimpik was leading by a score of 2-0, with over $150,000 having been betted that the match would see more than two goals. With seconds remaining on the clock, Olimpik conceded a highly dubious penalty, resulting ina 2-1 final score, according to football website tribuna.com.

While legalizing gambling in Ukraine might actually help law enforcement and the sports authorities spot foul play, after six years of prohibition in Ukraine it won’t be easy to revive the business, CEO of the All-Ukrainian Union on Bookmaking Development Irina Sergiyenko said.

“We’re ready to cooperate, but the bookmaking business has been prohibited for years,” said Sergiyenko. “Many companies stopped operating in Ukraine, while others moved their businesses abroad. Bookmakers from all over the world are interested in high-quality sports events, as their business and reputations depend on it.”

But Ukraine’s Football Association says it is ready to take the risk of reintroducing gambling, and will fight for the adoption of the bill.

“In Asia alone the weekly turnover on totalizers constitutes €80 billion,” said Pavelko. “We realize how dangerous it is to address this issue. But it won’t stop us.”

Kyiv Post’s legal affairs reporter Mariana Antonovychcan be reached at [email protected].