Soccer: Fifa bid to curb problems

MARRAKESH - The establishment of a taskforce giving world body Fifa greater power to deal with issues blighting the sport will be presented at the 55th Fifa congress today.

A proposal from Fifa president Sepp Blatter to set up the taskforce was agreed at an executive committee meeting on Sunday and Blatter will give details of its remit to Fifa's 207 members at the congress.

Fifa is becoming increasingly concerned about issues such as multi-club ownership, corruption, betting and bribery in the world game as well as the continued interference by some Governments into the running of football in their countries.

Blatter told the opening, ceremonial session of the congress yesterday: "There will be an extensive exchange of ideas on a diverse range of questions which affect football directly. Football is the world's most popular sport and sometimes it is a victim of its own popularity and we shall talk about this tomorrow."

One of the strategies to be used by the new body will be to set up an early warning system to detect irregular betting patterns on matches. The taskforce will work with enforcement agencies to detect and prosecute those involved in trying to fix matches.

Uefa, European soccer's governing body, has been working closely with Fifa on ways to solve the problem which has grown since the advent of online, internet betting.

Fifa and Uefa are also becoming increasingly concerned about rich individuals owning more than one club and their possible involvement in irregular transfer deals.

Last month, Uefa president Lennart Johansson expressed his concerns that football was being used to launder "black money" through transfer deals and gambling and the taskforce will also monitor this.

Fifa's membership will rise from 205 to 207 member associations with the congress expected to ratify the admission of East Timor into the Asian Football Confederation and the Comoros Islands into its African counterpart.

- REUTERS