The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) entered into a new agreement with sports data Company, Sportradar on Monday, 8th January 2018 in terms of which Sportradar’s Intelligence and Investigation Services will engage with the AFC throughout the 2018 and 2019 football seasons.
The AFC and Sportradar’s historic partnership will focus on investigating those behind fraud on the pitch in Asia, with all matches in the top two leagues and cups in the AFC Member Associations, as well as in AFC competitions to be being monitored for betting patterns. This forms part of an existing agreement between the AFC, Sportradar and FIFA.
Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, the President of AFC, commented on the agreement by saying that in the AFC Vision and Mission, the fight against match-fixing is imperative and remains ongoing. He went on to say that they, at the AFC, take this threat extremely seriously and their actions during recent years demonstrate their zero-tolerance stance, but they also appreciate that times are changing and technology is needed to combat this every-growing threat.
Benoit Pasquier, AFC General Counsel & Director of Legal Affairs, added that Sportradar’s Intelligence & Investigation Services have played an important role in previous AFC cases and they provided firm support to the AFC Judicial Bodies.