Police to preside over Russian match-fixing committee

Moscow, Jan 15 (IANS/RIA Novosti):

The Russian FA is importing techniques from England and Italy to combat match-fixing by including police on the investigation committee, the head of the country’s Audit Chamber said Tuesday.

It represents the latest salvo in new FA chief Nikolai Tolstykh’s campaign to clean up Russian football after he dissolved the old committee headed by Anzor Kavazashvili last month.

“Tolstykh is creating a special group in place of Kavazashvili’s committee that will include high-ranking officials and law-enforcement representatives, as is done in Italy, Turkey and England at the moment,” Stepashin said.

Match-fixing is still thought to go on in Russian football, but Kavazashvili’s committee had very little power and failed to identify any fixed results since it came into being in October 2011.