FIFA Security Chief Ralf Mutschke said that the biggest threat from match fixers at this year’s World Cup in Brazil "is likely to come during the final round of group games," according to Tariq Panja of BLOOMBERG. Those matches, which begin June 23, will involve some teams with no chance of advancing. Criminals "may find some players who are more susceptible to bribes." Mutschke said that FIFA "isn’t taking any chances with a tournament it relies on for more than 90 percent of its income." Mutschke: “I do believe the World Cup is safe, but I have to do a lot of preventative work to make sure the World Cup will be safe in the future as well.” FIFA’s measures to combat match-fixing "include accessing information from bookmakers, educating referees and getting them to sign integrity declarations." It also "has an anticorruption hotline and is a partner in a system that tries to detect unusual betting patterns." In Brazil, analysts "will monitor game data to look for suspicious changes in player behavior" (BLOOMBERG, 3/14).
