Football Scandals Around The World
Corruption in football is getting worse and FIFA must insist on the full democratisation and transparency of all its members, according to the head of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
Over the past weeks, Vietnamese football has slowly been sinking under the weight of far-reaching match-fixing and corruption allegations and, sadly for Asia, it is not a new phenomenon.
The issue has been part of the game for years, with high-profile cases previously reported in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and more recently China.
But the scourge is not specific to the region. Its tentacles spread far and wide with Europe, South America and Africa all caught in the net last year.
"It is worsening. Especially when we hear about incidents in other confederations and national associations such as Germany and Brazil," AFC president Mohammed Bin Hammam told AFP.
"I expect that what we don't know is much more than we know.
"As far as the AFC competitions are concerned, we have never suspected any incidents. However, corruption in other organisations does exist on a large scale.
"I am aware of the intensive illegal betting which takes place in some Asian countries, targeting primarily the foreign football leagues. How much this is specifically affecting local football is not yet known."
English Premier League manager Harry Redknapp famously put the cat among the pigeons in 2003 when he said that every manager had been offered a bung at one time or another.
While that was never proven there is plenty of evidence that betting syndicates remain strong and money changes hands to fix matches around the world.
In a major scandal last year, Brazilian referee Edilson Pereira de Carvalho was banned for life after admitting match fixing. It culminated in the results of 11 league matches he had refereed being cancelled.
Also last year Genoa were demoted from the Serie A to the third division (C1) for match-fixing, while Belgium, Portugal, the Czech Republic and Germany were all rocked by corruption or match-fixing probes.
In the highest profile case, Berlin referee Robert Hoyzer admitted to manipulating four games in Germany for cash from a Croatian betting syndicate.
While countries like Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia have cleaned up their acts since scandals in the 1980s and 1990s, Vietnam and China still have a long way to go.
In its maiden season in 2004, China's Super League was left reeling from loud accusations over gambling as well as crooked referees, players and officials on almost a weekly basis.
It got so bad that China's cabinet stepped in and ordered a crackdown on match-fixing and hooliganism.
In Vietnam, football has been under intense scrutiny for months, with police investigating fraud allegations implicating some 90 players, referees and coaches in the V-League.
The saga took on greater dimensions after several members of the national under-23 squad were suspected of having fixed games at the request of betting syndicates during last month's Southeast Asian Games.
Bin Hammam said the solution lay with everyone involved -- FIFA, confederations and national associations.
"But I believe we also need to be sure that none of these organisations are implicated," he said.
"In my frank opinion, I do not suspect that the governing bodies are implicated, but this is of course from a distant perspective.
"I do think that FIFA should insist on the democratisation and transparency of all of its members. It is tough and hard work, but I believe this must happen or we will lose our beloved game."
FIFA has said it was actively working to address the problems and had set up a task force, "For the Good of the Game", in November.
Concrete proposals on how to deal with corruption, illegal betting and a range of other issues are expected to be tabled at its next meeting in Zurich in February.