The Swedish Football Association ( SvFF ) has requested gambling regulator Spelinspektionen to ban betting on all matches in Division 2 Södra Svealand.

The reason for the request is based on the fact that SvFF received reports during the spring season that no less than 13 different matches in the serial group may have been subject to betting-related manipulation.

“The situation that has arisen is so serious that we are unfortunately forced to take this action for the betting markets to safeguard the integrity of the series and prevent manipulation in it during the rest of the season,” says SvFF’s Secretary General Håkan Sjöstrand.

Most of the reports come from various monitoring companies, which monitor odds movements, etc. globally, thereby detecting suspiciously manipulated matches. In many cases, the reports are also supported by information from other sources and in the majority of the 13 matches, the suspicions are so concrete that they end up on the upper part of the scale used by SvFF to assess the probability of a match being manipulated.

All associations in division 2 southern Svealand have not been involved in matches where there is suspicion of manipulation but the number of suspected matches is at the level that SvFF currently cannot guarantee that the matches in the series are determined on the basis of sporting justice.

It is not football itself that fights matchfixing without playing football, which is the main cause of the problem. By limiting the betting opportunities on the serial group, the incentives are reduced for the manipulation to match strongly, concludes Håkan Sjöstrand.

Pending the Game Inspectorate’s decision on the issue, SvFF has also attributed the licensed gaming companies in the country with a wish that these will voluntarily suspend all bets on matches in division 2 Southern Svealand.