Match-fixing is soccer's biggest problem, according to UEFA President Michel Platini.
Platini vowed Wednesday that UEFA would clamp down on any offenders, and general secretary David Taylor said the European body was monitoring about 27,000 games and soon would present a concrete case.
"There is a grave danger in the world of football and that is match-fixing," Platini said after the annual UEFA Congress. "The match-fixing is the greatest problem. If you know who is winning, there is no reason to play anymore. ... Buying players and referees is what worries me."
Taylor did not give any indication into which game was suspected of match-fixing.
"It is very difficult to find proof," Taylor said. "When we have sufficient evidence, we charge."
Platini also said the 2012 European Championship, to be jointly hosted by Poland and Ukraine, would likely generate lower revenues than last year's tournament.
The European soccer body awarded the two countries the right to stage the tournament in April 2007, despite concerns they would not be able to build the necessary roads, airports, stadiums and hotels.
The situation at the organizational level was "not easy" for either Poland, Ukraine or UEFA, Platini said as he opened the congress.
"These two countries, Poland and Ukraine, are working hard," Platini said. "UEFA too makes all necessary efforts to move forward. And we are moving.
"However, the benefits linked to the organization of Euro 2012 will probably not be the same as the exceptional (ones) of Euro 2008," Platini said.
The tournament hosted by Austria and Switzerland in 2008 earned UEFA 2 billion euros ($2.7 billion) in television and marketing money, and a total profit of 250 million euros.
After initial struggles, both 2012 co-hosts put their preparations back on track late last year, before Ukraine was hit hard by the world financial crisis which renewed concerns over the country's ability to make the massive infrastructure upgrades. Last week, the head of the Polish Football Federation said he had no doubt that Ukraine would be able to co-host the 2012 European Championship with Poland.
Platini, who is visiting the two Eastern European nations next month, said "Ukraine can lose it if they simply do not have a stadium in Kiev."
Besides Euro 2012, Platini said UEFA's main challenges in the coming months were financial fair play, transfers of underaged players and betting.
He vowed to reform the business side of soccer's elite clubs in its campaign for the so-called financial fair play.
On Tuesday, UEFA announced it had created a team of legal and financial experts to police the finances of top clubs.
It fears that clubs are running up excessive debts to chase success in the Champions League. The two English finalists in 2008 - Manchester United and Chelsea - carried more than a billion pounds in debt. United is owned by American businessman Malcolm Glazer, while Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich owns Chelsea.
"It is an ethical matter, a matter of credibility and even a matter of survival for our sport," Platini said.
UEFA also was working with FIFA to combat trafficking of underage players.
"When you pay a child or his parents to take him across an ocean, to uproot him culturally, to make him lose his emotional reference points, I call that child trafficking," Platini said.
The European body also has stepped up its fight against suspected betting fraud and match-fixing by agreeing to appoint two more inspectors to its investigation unit.
"Illegal betting can kill our sport," Platini said. "If the results are fixed in advance, football has no reason to exist."
(AP via China Daily March 27, 2009)
