Russian President Putin Submits New Legislation Regarding Match-Fixing

Match-fixers in Russia "could face seven years in jail" under new legislation submitted to the state parliament by President Vladimir Putin, according to REUTERS. The new law bans officials and players from betting on sports events in which they are involved. Offenders also face fines of up to 1M roubles ($33,000). The global union for professional players, FIFPro, published a survey of nearly 3,400 players from Eastern Europe this year that revealed match-fixing in Russia was as high as 43.5%. Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said that he hoped the new law "would help police to bring the criminal element to justice." Mutko said, "It's a very serious document which gets the law-enforcement officials involved in solving this problem first-hand" (REUTERS, 1/9).