RFEF presents its best practices in match-fixing prevention at the CONFAD plenary session

The Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) was represented this Wednesday, 6 March, at the plenary meeting of CONFAD, the National Commission to combat the manipulation of sporting competitions and betting fraud. The RFEF's Integrity Director, Felipe Sánchez-Pedreño, a member of the Commission, also explained, at the request of the CONFAD Standing Committee, the good practices that the federation uses in terms of match-fixing prevention.

Specifically, Sánchez-Pedreño highlighted six main lines in this work: detection, training in integrity, a national protection network, prevention at an early age, work in relation to behavioural addictions and the existence of a channel for information and guidance in possible cases.

The six pillars

Felipe Sánchez-Pedreño began by underlining the importance of detection work, which the RFEF carries out, fundamentally, through the monitoring of matches; but he also wanted to insist on the activities carried out in terms of prevention, which are as important, or even more important, than detecting possible cases.

In this preventive sense, Sánchez-Pedreño explained the Global Integrity Training Programme, which focuses on raising awareness and analysing possible undesired situations. "Informing, clarifying and explaining all the concepts, reaching different profiles on the football pitch, spreading the message of respect for fair play and thus preventing possible fraudulent or criminal behaviour," he explained. This work is extended with specific training sessions aimed at raising awareness from an early age.

Sánchez-Pedreño also explained how the joint work with the Territorial Federations, through their integrity action plan, allows for the deployment of a whole protection network, led by the RFEF, which covers the whole of the national territory. In addition to the territorial points, the RFEF itself has an information, guidance and communication channels which are completely confidential and accessible to anyone who wishes to make an inquiry on this issue.

The RFEF Integrity Director also wanted to emphasise that the RFEF is a pioneer in working on behavioural addictions in football, "very closely related to illegal betting, and from an alarmingly early age". Sánchez-Pedreño explained that the RFEF has a specific format for an informative session on these addictions, aimed at technical and management profiles that can detect these abusive behaviours.

About CONFAD

CONFAD is a commission under the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumption and Agenda 2030, through the Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling, which brings together different institutions and agents involved in the fight against the manipulation of sports competitions, usually related to the betting market.

For this reason, at its plenary session this week, it addressed, among other issues, the state of accessions to the Global Investigation Service for the Betting Market (SIGMA), which the RFEF joined a few months ago at an official event. This service makes use of the IT tool SIGMA_SHARE, of which a demo was presented during Wednesday's plenary session, which facilitates the transmission of alerts when spotting suspicious cases.

CONFAD also presented its website to the members of the Plenary, which will soon be accessible to the public and which will allow the social dissemination of the work carried out by this Commission, with whose objectives and challenges the RFEF is fully aligned.