FIFA Security Dir Ralf Mutschke said that the World Cup finals "are not exempt from attempts to rig games and FIFA is leaving nothing to chance," according to Brian Homewood of REUTERS. Mutschke said that FIFA "could even postpone a match if there were indications it had been targeted for manipulation by criminal gangs, although he stressed such a measure would be a last resort." He added that "there was a thin line between gambling-induced match-fixing and the scenario of teams playing to a cosy draw at the end of the group stage so that both qualified for the next round, something which he generally considered to be tactical and outside his main area of responsibility." Mutschke said that FIFA security officers would be at each of the 64 matches during the June 12-July 13 tournament in Brazil, "armed with a detailed dossier on which games carried the highest risk." Mutschke: "We have a coherent strategy to counter match manipulation starting with risk assessment and focusing on teams playing, whether in the past there have been allegations of fixing or not, also at which stage the game is being played, is it a group match, at the beginning or the end" (REUTERS, 1/22).
