Ghost Dog

Italian Police Arrest Suspect in International Soccer Fixing by GAIA PIANIGIANI & DAVID JOLLY (THE NEW YORK TIMES 21-02-2013) ROME – The Italian police said on Thursday that they had detained an important suspect in an investigation of soccer-match fixing with roots in a Singapore crime syndicate. Admir Suljic, 31, was apprehended at Milan’s Malpensa airport on arrival from Singapore, investigators said. He was taken to the northern city of Cremona, where he will be questioned by the prosecutors investigating more than 150 people in an international match-fixing case. The main charge against Mr. Suljic is criminal association targeted to international sports fraud, the officials said. Mr. Suljic is thought to be an associate of Tan Seet Eng, a Singaporean also known as Dan Tan, who has been implicated in suspected match-fixing cases dating back more than a decade. The Italian authorities believe that Mr. Suljic, a Slovenian, and one of his fellow countrymen, Dino Lalic, have served as the syndicate’s main operators in Italy since at least 2008. According to prosecutors, Mr. Suljic and Mr. Lalic dealt directly with soccer players to manipulate the matches and enable illicit gambling. Mr. Suljic and Mr. Lalic stayed at the same hotel as the alleged boss of the syndicate, Mr. Tan, on several occasions; they also traveled with him in a car from Slovenia to Italy in 2009, the authorities said. The announcement of Mr. Suljic’s arrest coincided with an Interpol conference on match-fixing Thursday in Kuala Lumpur. Ronald K. Noble, the American who leads Interpol, said in a statement that that law enforcement officials “must be given the legal framework to share information with a global impact in the midst of active investigations,” and that “the days of thinking only about the secrecy of the investigation within each individual jurisdiction are over.” Mr. Noble did not mention Mr. Tan by name, but European law enforcement officials said earlier this month at a conference in The Hague that Interpol had issued an international arrest warrant for him, but have been thus far frustrated by Singapore’s refusal to extradite him. Mr. Noble said at the conference that the arrest of Mr. Suljic was “important because the world believes that law enforcement can’t do anything to take down this criminal organization,” The Associated Press reported. But the Singapore police appeared Thursday to be signaling a willingness to act, saying in a statement they were sending four senior officers to the Interpol headquarters in Lyon, France. The officers will seek access to evidence, witnesses and suspects involved in match-fixing cases, and will explore “avenues to offer our assistance and share available information we have with these affected countries.” Officials from Europol and other European law enforcement bodies said on Feb. 4 that they had identified 680 matches worldwide that appeared to have been fixed in the last few years, including World Cup qualifiers and Champions League contests. A Sidekick Over the Ship by DECLAN HILL (Match fixing, soccer and organized crime 21-02-2013) A quick comment on the arrest of Admir Sulic arrest. This is called throwing the sidekick over the side of the ship. It is a tactic used to distract the media from the real person: Dan Tan. Again, Dan Tan is alleged to be at the centre of the match-fixing ring. If true, he knows the key establishment people who would be involved in helping their activities. A man like Admir Sulic does not know those people. There is an odd, ironic convergence of interests that is occurring. -Dan Tan does not want to be arrested. -The Singaporean government does not want the embarrassment of having a domestic scandal when it is revealed which prominent people in the Asian sporting and business world are involved in fixing. -Interpol does not want Europol stealing all the glory and getting the credit for fighting against fixing. The three sides, without speaking to each other, are putting on a show for the international media. Do not believe them. Keep asking for Dan Tan’s arrest. Remember his people came to your country and fixed your sports. They are now helping cover it up. We can stop this from happening. Just arrest Dan Tan. Assisting is Not Arresting by DECLAN HILL (Match fixing, soccer and organized crime 21-02-2013) So Dan Tan is now helping authorities with the investigation. A press release from the Singaporean Police announced a few hours ago, “Dan Tan Seet Eng, a Singaporean who has been named in reports so far, is currently assisting Singapore authorities in their investigations.” Fair play. This is a good start. Months late. But fair enough someone in Singapore, after immense international pressure, has stepped up to the mark and started a process that should have been done a long time ago. Here then are a few questions and background notes for Singaporean authorities: 1) Why have you not arrested him? [There is enough evidence from Italy, to arrest this suspect, rather than extradite him, particularly as many of his actions were alleged to have taken place in Singapore] 2) Have you searched his home? [This is where the physical evidence that may lead to other suspects is found]. 3) Have you taken away his computer, mobile phone? [see above]. 4) Why has it taken you so long to approach him? [see all of my previous blogs] 5) What concrete steps will Singaporean authorities do to demonstrate that they can be trusted? [Given your spotty record on arresting well-wanted match-fixing suspects, why would any credible policeman trust you with confidential information? Interpol now has four Singaporean police officers helping with their match-fixing unit. Few serious European police officers will trust them, how are they going to change that situation?]

The Red Flags of Malarkey by DECLAN HILL (Match fixing, soccer and organized crime 20-02-2013) In life, there are certain phrases that mean the exact opposite to their stated meaning. For example, the term “world-class” usually means that something is parochial, petty and provincial. You do not see signs in Paris or Rome advertising “world-class” projects, but you do in just about every small-town across the globe. “Centre of excellence” (mediocre and deeply unoriginal) is another term, but the best is when someone looks you in the eye and says, “I am going to be completely honest with you.” This usually means that the malarkey is just about to start, however, thanks to their sub-conscious, a large red-flag has been raised to warn you that they are now going to start talking nonsense. The AFC/Interpol Conference against Match-Fixing is about to start in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Given both of these organizations failure to act credibly against sports corruption it will be, unless there is a dramatic change in their operations, a sham, a farce and perilously close to a cover-up. There will, presumably, be lots of flags flying outside the conference centre, but as a public service, here is a list of some of the red-flags of malarkey that you may hear at the conference. These are the signals that will be hoisted just before someone starts to talk nonsense. 1) The Arrest Clock – First of all, as a public service here is a tool to give accountability to some of the malarkey statements. On Wednesday, November 28th, 2012, the Head of Interpol Ron Noble announced in Singapore that there would a series of imminent arrests of match-fixers in that jurisdiction. Now if you are like me, you might think imminent arrest means that the police cars are warming up their sirens, the officers are buckling on their swat jackets and the gang of fixers are frantically running through their apartments trying to destroy as much evidence as possible. However, in the Interpol–Singapore Gangnam Style of policing imminent arrests means that the prospective criminals get to flush any incriminating evidence down the toilet, destroy their hard-drives, throw away their mobile phones, vacuum their apartments, do the washing up, cook their wives dinner, pick the kids up from school, go to the casino, take a holiday, maybe fix a few more matches to keep their hands in. You know – imminent arrests. Therefore, I have instituted the “Very Official Interpol/Singapore ‘Arrest Clock’” to see how long it takes the Singaporeans to get out from behind their desks and actually arrest an internationally wanted match-fixer in an imminent manner. http://games.webgame...33333&nb=1&nd=0 To this date, it has been twelve-weeks since the fixers in Singapore received a loud, clear and unmistakable signal to destroy any proof of their activities, but possibly, they may need some more time. The VOISAC (police bureaucrats loves acronyms!) measures clearly the time it takes to imminently arrest them. For any journalists attending the conference, just refer to the clock when you hear any official statement, if they have not made the ‘imminent arrests’ what credibility do they have for any new measures? 2) Operation SOCA – it is a sign of the inexperience and naivety of many of the other journalists covering this story that they give Interpol any credibility for this police action. In fact, if you see a reporter citing Operation SOCA in their articles, you can immediately dismiss their work as a mixture of fantasy and raw credulity. If you see any Interpol or AFC official citing this operation in a presentation, you can do likewise. For the uninitiated, Operation SOCA is a joke. It is shadow puppet theatre. It is law enforcement by and for media relations. What happens every year is that Asian police forces go out and arrest a bunch of street gamblers. Often these operations are conducted with the help of the top-bookmakers. The officials then make a series of po-faced announcements where they say things like, “a serious blow against sports corruption” or “an unrelenting battle against the King-pins of Fixing”. At the Interpol conferences, Operation SOCA gets brought up repeatedly. It is a joke and should be treated as such. Don’t believe me? Take the word of Joe Pistone a.k.a. Donnie Brasco – one of the best undercover cops of the FBI. Here is his perspective, when I described police actions against gambling in Asia: “Right, and they make a bust. I mean, that happens here in the States too. They make a bust and they arrest some nobodies, so it looks like they’re doing something. I mean, that’s the old game, that’s not something new… “It keeps the newspapers happy, it keeps the people happy, you know, the citizens happy, that, you know, the police are doing something. Somebody gets arrested. You know, somebody of no consequence. And they make sure that there’s not that much money there at the time. I mean, that’s not a new game. That game’s been around forever.” To understand, say the following mantra – ‘Gambling is not fixing. Gambling is not fixing. Gambling is not fixing.’ What they are doing in Operation SOCA is arresting a lot of lowly bettors who have no more to do with fixing than the office pool on the Super Bowl or the World Cup does with organized crime. Police forces have to make these operations periodically against things like prostitution to keep up their media image. 3) Interpol’s Arrest Warrant for Dan Tan: To repeat, Dan Tan is an internationally-wanted alleged match-fixer living in Singapore. There is a mountain of legal evidence against him for his activities in numerous countries. There’s an Interpol international arrest warrant, but Interpol is – now – trying to spin that the arrest warrant they served as not really an ‘arrest warrant’ it was more like an international parking summons, well, actually more like an international parking ticket, that governments and suspects can ignore if they do not want to pay the fine. Please! This is spin. Poor old Interpol is in a crisis of credibility over their entire campaign against match-fixing. Bless them, but take their statements with the seriousness they deserve. There will be other red-flags of malarkey flying over the AFC-Interpol Conference (“match-fixing is a long, complicated war that will never be solved” etc) but these should help any sports official or journalist when the obvious nonsense is being spun.

Stavolta non c'è Conte in foto, almeno...

Contropotere di FABIO LICARI (EXTRATIME 12-02-2013) DA MOSCA A PARIGI, È ORA DI INTERVENIRE Le sponsorizzazioni «finte» terrorizzano l’Uefa: Nyon dovrà inventarsi qualcosa Gli agguati al fair play finanziario sono dietro l'angolo. L'ultimo, per fortuna subito smascherato dalla stampa francese, non poteva che riguardare il Psg: la Qatar Tourism Authority, pensa un po’, gli ha offerto generosamente un contratto di sponsorizzazione da 150 milioni di euro all'anno (che possono diventare 200 in caso di risultati positivi, fino al 2016). Per di più retroattivo dal 2011-12. Divertente, no? Peccato che dietro il Psg ci sia proprio il Qatar e che quindi sia fortissimo il sospetto di una sponsorizzazione «finta», di quelle per aggirare il fair play. Il problema è che il Psg non sa come fare per rientrare nei parametri, visto che spende compulsivamente: ma tra 15 mesi arriveranno, si spera, le prime sanzioni e non è chiaro come il club riuscirà a evitarle. All'Uefa non sono proprio degli sprovveduti. Non c'è club al mondo la cui sponsorizzazione valga tanto: a essere generosi, facendo una media tra i top d'Europa, si può arrivare a 50. Un esempio: il Barcellona ne riceverà 35 dalla Qatar Airways (sempre Qatar…). L’Uefa sta pensando di riconoscere al Psg soltanto la parte «logica» del contratto, una cinquantina di milioni appunto, rifiutando il resto nei conti del fair play. Se però non aggiungerà una bella sanzione, sarà come non essere intervenuti e tutti i furbi del mondo ci proveranno di nuovo. Perché il calcio — questo calcio business — è ormai un mondo di conflitti d'interessi. Esemplare è il caso Gazprom, proprietaria dello Zenit, sponsor di Champions e con rapporti in Schalke 04 e Chelsea. Il rischio di un conflitto d'interessi, non prendiamoci in giro, è fortissimo. Anni fa l’Uefa modificò il regolamento per combattere la partecipazioni incrociate in più club: una società quotata in borsa, l'Enic, era dentro Slavia Praga, Tottenham, Basilea, Aek Atene e Vicenza. Forse è arrivato il momento di un nuovo intervento ad hoc. A Nyon, per essere più precisi, ci stanno già pensando.