EU to target growing problem of sports corruption

BRUSSELS, May 31 (Reuters) - Match-fixing and other forms of corruption in sport are increasingly visible problems that may require stricter national laws, the European Commission said in a report to be released on Wednesday.

The Commission, the European Union’s executive, plans to launch a study into how national legislation deals with corruption in sport and could propose new pan-EU rules as a result, according to the report, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.

“This may offer grounds for further policy actions in this area, such as possibly establishing minimum rules concerning the definition of criminal offences in this field,” the report said.

Match-fixing of soccer matches has been uncovered in a range of European countries from Belgium to Bulgaria, with the most high-profile case in Italy, where Juventus were stripped of their 2005 and 2006 league titles and demoted for procuring compliant referees. The world governing soccer body FIFA said this month that illegal betting involved an estimated $90 billion per year globally, a figure equivalent to legal betting. [ID:nLDE74H1CX] FIFA, itself, is currently suffering its worst corruption scandal after two of its most senior officials were suspended over cash-for-vote allegations linked to the awarding of the right to host the World Cup. [ID:nL3E7GV0LN]