Sportal – Forget the issues around Qatar, FIFA or Financial Fair Play – according to those in power at the top of world soccer, match fixing is the biggest threat to the sport today.
But it won’t be Sepp Blatter or Michel Platini who take the lead on match fixing. Instead Chris Eaton, a former policeman in Victoria is the man the criminals and the fixers have to fear.
Indeed, Eaton looks as if he has stepped straight off the set of LA Confidential, and his approach to crime-fighting is unapologetically old school.
“Criminality is pretty much amateurish in every sense,” bristles the 61-year-old.
“But we have to face up to the reality that the infiltration of criminality into football for the purpose of match fixing – primarily for the purpose of betting fraud – has reached endemic proportions.”
Eaton’s message is clear; match fixing is not something that will become a scourge on our game – it already is.
After more than 10 years at Interpol, which in turn followed 30 years experience of federal policing in Australia, Eaton became FIFA’s security advisor for the 2010 World Cup, working closely with South African police to monitor and eradicate criminal activity.
He then became full-time head of security with FIFA, helping to set up the federation’s anti-match fixing and criminal behaviour program.
