FIFPRO is on Wednesday hosting the ‘Preventing Match Fixing’ conference that will examine how to combat the illegal manipulation of football games with perspectives from players, government, police and betting companies.

Ninety delegates attended the ‘Preventing Match Fixing Conference’ in person and online at FIFPRO headquarters on Wednesday. Speakers included officials from the Belgian and Dutch governments as well as UEFA, FIFA and Interpol.

In our efforts to prevent match-fixing, FIFPRO launched the Don’t Fix It project in 2012 in cooperation with Birkbeck University, the European Union and UEFA.

How can you recognise a match-fixing approach and how should you react?

FIFPRO is trying to prevent professional footballers from getting involved with match-fixing. In this article, we highlight the ten things you should know about match-fixing.

FIFPRO and FIFA have signed a collaboration agreement endorsing a smartphone app that allows professional footballers to anonymously report match-fixing approaches.

Iain Gaynair and fellow Belize national team player Woodrow West, were approached by a match-fixer and asked to help manipulate a match at the Gold Cup tournament.

FIFPRO welcomes a change in regulations which allows players in Russia to prematurely terminate their employment contract when their club is relegated due to a disciplinary sanction imposed by the Football Union of Russia (FUR) for match-fixing.

FIFPRO is part of a project to help raise awareness about match-fixing in professional football in six European countries.

Seek legal advice from your player association if you are approached.

During the FIFPRO general assembly on 21-24 November in South Africa, FIFPRO will present the 2023 Union Impact Award to the member union that has launched the best initiative to improve the wellbeing of professional footballers in their country. Six unions were shortlisted and recently a special committee selected three finalists. During the general assembly, FIFPRO members will vote on which of the three finalists will win the award. One of the six shortlisted unions is the Kenya Footballers Welfare Association (KEFWA), who have been recognised for their anti-match-fixing endeavours.

FIFPRO is aware that a number of Ukrainian players have received life bans from professional football by the Disciplinary and Ethics Committee (‘DEC’) of the Football Federation of Armenia. We are concerned that players are being sanctioned on the basis of reports of so called sports data providers, without any substantial evidence.