Senators to investigate football manipulation in Brazil

For Senator Carlos Portinho (PL-RJ), the installation of a CPI "is essential". According to him, the advent of online betting based on sporting events - known as bets - could be behind some of the cases of manipulation. 

“We have collected signatures and we will have the CPI on manipulation in football or in Brazilian sport. It's essential, it's important. It shows that the Senate is not going to fall asleep on this issue. Supervision is absolutely necessary, and that's our role. Every case of suspicion that could contaminate sport has to be investigated”, he said.

Suspicions
 

The debate was attended by representatives of the French-based sports event monitoring company Good Games! Pierre Sallet and Thierry Hassanaly said they had alerted Brazilian authorities to cases of manipulation.

“We contacted the CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation) and the Judiciary last year to address the manipulation indicated by our system. We sent this information by email, but we haven't had a response”, said Good Games! CEO Thierry Hassanaly.

When questioned by parliamentarians, Good Games! representatives refused to specify in which games or championships the alleged irregularities took place.

“We don't have a monitoring contract in Brazil, but we have implemented some alerts about certain games. Based on these alerts, we have analysed certain matches. We have some that were concretely manipulated between 2022 and 2023”, said Pierre Sallet, the company's founder.

Ban
 

The public hearing was suggested by Senators Carlos Portinho and Eduardo Girão, who chaired Wednesday's meeting. For the Ceará congressman, companies that promote online betting based on football matches need to be investigated

“There is no way of supervising the software, which is based outside the country and is artificially programmed to generate profit almost exclusively for the bookmakers. The risks of match-fixing are enormous and are increasingly taking the shine off the sport. Brazil was the country with the most matches suspected of match-fixing in the world in 2022, with 152 sporting events. Of these, 139 are football matches”, said Girão.

According to the senator, 11 Brazilian professional athletes have been punished by the CBF and the International Football Federation (Fifa) for match-fixing. The penalties range from suspension to permanent banishment from football.

Senator Jorge Kajuru (PSB-GO) announced that he will present a bill to ban people involved in match-fixing schemes from the sport.

"If we come up with full and irrefutable proof that a player, referee or assistant has sold out a game, committed a penalty or taken a red card on purpose, the best sentence would be a ban from football," said Kajuru.