Franz Tabone, tasked with weeding out corruption from the Maltese game, tells Ivan Martin how players themselves have to give bribery the red card if the sport is to survive.

Franz Tabone

Mr Tabone is not a police officer. He is an integrity officer, a sort of school hall supervisor trying to keep an eye out for possible wrong doing and relying on ‘good’ students to tell on the ‘bad’ ones.

He can only collect what is mostly circumstantial evidence from an international database and talk to players who might be willing to cooperate.

“We aren’t the FBI. We’re just a sporting body. I can’t wire tap players. But I can work to try to gather information from those who would give it to me,” Mr Tabone said, adding almost instantly that match fixing was a serious criminal racket in Maltese football just as much as it was in other leagues.

The problem with local match fixing was propelled into the national spotlight last January after the integrity officer claimed the game was “infested” with corruption, in his monthly newsletter to Maltese clubs. He had alleged some teams were relying on internet betting for their own financial survival. These, he claimed, were manipulating games involving their own players and reaping the benefits.

The newsletter irked club owners who called on the Malta Football Association to substantiate the claims, insisting they were false.

Two Gozitans were handed a suspended jail term for attempting to bribe local players just two weeks after his controversial statement.

Speaking to The Sunday Times of Malta, as news emerged that two Maltese officials are being implicated in a match-fixing ring in Italy, Mr Tabone said he believed the answer to tackling bribery lies in helping players come forward with information on the seedy world of match fixing.

“To fix a match you need the help of actors on the field. Without players and referees – and you need a few to secure the result you need – you can’t fix matches. It’s that simple,” he said, measuring every word, the strained look on his face suggesting he had more to reveal but chose not to.

A pause of silence for a sip of coffee was quickly followed by him acknowledging that the bribes dished out could be quite tempting to young players.

“If you are being paid around €1,000 a month as a footballer and someone comes and offers you five times that amount for a match, it’s not always that easy to say no,” he said.

Mr Tabone’s newsletter not only frustrated club managers but also prompted law makers to take notice. A national task force was set up aimed at writing new laws to empower the MFA.

“There seems to be consensus that this is much bigger than football and it needs to be treated as such,” he said. Among the laws being contemplated by the task force is a legislation banning those involved in a team from betting on their own club.

Players and managers are barred from betting on their own club by the MFA, but this body can do nothing other than take disciplinary steps in the world of the sport.

While welcoming the legal provisions being set up, Mr Tabone insists these will not stop those who wish to continue profiting from bribery.

He forms part of an international network of integrity officers, who all share information on gambling patterns, clubs and even individual players.

Local matches in the Premier League, First Division and the FA Cup are monitored by an EU-wide technology that scans bets placed all over the world.

Mr Tabone, however, said the information gathered was never concrete and this meant he could not approach the police with evidence.

“All we are told is that there are ‘indications’ or ‘a possibility’ that those placing bets ‘could’ have had information of the result prior to the final whistle. There are trends but I still can’t go to the police with this sort of thing,” he said.

Mr Tabone explained that players are monitored even when they change club, and patterns can be narrowed down to give a clearer indication of bribery as it follows certain players from club to club.

Ultimately, Mr Tabone insists the solution rests with players.

“It’s difficult and there are limitations. But let’s be honest, bribery has always existed and it is something that requires huge efforts to get rid of.

“We need players’ help if this is going to stop,” he said.