English football — called soccer in the United States — is “100 percent clean” of cheating, declared one of the sport’s highest ranking official after hundreds of complaints that games in Europe and around the world have been fixed.
“I don’t think at all [match-fixing] is a problem in the English game,” said arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, the Agence France-Presse reported. Complaints have cast doubt on 380 matches in Europe and another 300 in different venues around the globe.
“That’s why it’s maybe a shock for us because we are convinced we live in a world in England where it’s not a perfect world but I don’t think cheating or match-fixing is a problem,” he said, according to AFP. “I personally feel English football is clean of cheating 100 percent. I don’t think referees are corrupt.”
Europol, the police organization for the European Union, revealed recently that Asian gambling syndicates had been trying to fix matches around the world, AFP reported.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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