Putin introduces bill against match-fixing: report

MOSCOW (AFP) –

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin pictured during a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow on December 28, 2012. Putin has introduced a bill in parliament against match-fixing in sport, a report said on Wednesday, after suspicions about rigging of results in its domestic football leagues.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has introduced a bill in parliament against match-fixing in sport, a report said on Wednesday, after suspicions about rigging of results in its domestic football leagues.

News agency RIA Novosti said the proposal from the sports-mad head of state, submitted in the Duma, would amend existing laws to prevent the possibility of events being illegally influenced.

Match-fixing organisers would run the risk of a maximum seven-year jail term and/or a one million-rouble ($30,000-dollar, 25,000-euro) fine, while whistle-blowers would be given immunity from prosecution.

Russia’s sports minister Vitaly Mutko said approval of the bill would boost the ability of the police to tackle match-fixing.

“This legislative act gives us an opportunity to get the law enforcement forces involved into the fight with match-fixing in Russia,” he said.

In recent years, a number of football matches in Russia’s lower divisions and the top-flight Premier League raised suspicions, prompting European football’s governing body UEFA to write to the Russian football federation (RFU) to investigate.

But the RFU found no evidence, although it blamed an inability to get police and prosecutors to look at the claims.

The new law, if approved, will give the RFU commission the tools to investigate more thoroughly, the report said.