Spain’s football fixing scandal

A TOTAL of 23 members of an alleged betting syndicate have been arrested on suspicion of fixing football games in the Royal Spanish Football Federation, the Gibraltar National League and the Andorra League. Among those arrested are several footballers who are suspected of having used their position to steer the outcome of games in which they participated in.

It is unknown exactly how much the group lost, but they are reportedly now able to denounce the drivers who stopped to grab their cash.

These arrests took place in November 2022 in several Spanish provincesBadajoz, Cadiz, Ciudad Real, Cordoba, Tenerife and in the Autonomous City of Ceuta - and follow the arrest of 21 other members of the same criminal organisation in 2021.

Known as Operation Conifera, this investigation into match-fixing was carried out by the Spanish National Police in a joint operation with Europol and Interpol.

A total of 30 football matches are currently being investigated in this case. The profits generated are estimated at over half a million euros.

Europol’s support was central in the development of the Spanish inves- tigation. Europol’s European Financial and Economic Crime Centre has been providing continuous intelligence development and analysis to map out the different targets and their criminal activity.