The employers inform the players in mandatory workshops of the legal consequences and fines of up to 100,000 euros
MADRID, 24 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
LaLiga, through its Integrity department, has already been implementing a special program for 6 years to protect and keep footballers away from the crime of sports corruption, rigging and illegal betting, focusing on prevention and awareness that they deal with in certified workshops. and mandatory for athletes during the season.
It is estimated that more than 1.6 billion euros are invested in illegal sports betting each year, according to the report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) published in 2021. A fraudulent market, sometimes with criminal groups involved, which endangers the integrity and cleanliness of the competitions.
Thus, for six years, LaLiga has been developing a program to tackle any indication that a professional footballer does not comply with the regulations regarding sports betting. And the Gambling Law 13/2011 contemplates in its article 6 the subjective prohibition, by which athletes, as well as managers and coaches, cannot bet on the competition in which they participate, even if they are eliminated from one of them.
LaLiga informs them that if they do not violate these regulations they may face fines ranging from 1,200 to 100,000 euros, as an administrative sanction, in addition to a sporting sanction established by the regulations of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF).
Furthermore, if the intention is to act to influence a result, the footballer, who has privileged information – injuries, transfers, tactics – could be committing a “dangerous” and transnational” crime of sports corruption, of mere action, because it does not require Just proposing a fix, even if it is not finally carried out, would be committing a crime – punishable by up to 4 years in prison, which can be more if there are criminal groups involved.
For this reason, the LaLiga Integrity department, aware of the position of a professional footballer, offers the LaLiga clubs EA Sports, LaLiga Hypermotion, the affiliates and the youth teams of the Division of Honor “one or two” certified and mandatory workshops every season in all these locker rooms, reported the deputy director of the employers’ department, Iñaki Arbea.
FROM PREVENTION TO COMPLAINT
The program promoted by LaLiga consists of four phases: prevention and message; monitoring and alert; investigation and complaint; and international and national activity. The first corresponds to those talks with the footballers, who also receive a guide to good practices.
In the second, the integrity officers come into the ‘game’, present on the field and analyzing the behavior of the footballers in the sports venue before, during and after the event, in a constant surveillance activity.
In addition, they rely on the TYCHE software, which observes the movements in the betting houses and generates live alarms, pending matches from the First Division to the youth teams. If they see something strange, they work hand in hand with the officers to report it to the National Police, with whom they have been cooperating since 2017 through the National Police Center for Integrity in Sports and Betting (CENPIDA).
Finally, LaLiga works with a collaborative model together with other major competitions, as well as UEFA, FIFA and international gaming associations, which can also raise alarm about some movement that does not fall within the normality of betting houses.