The Senate Sports Commission (CEsp) held a public hearing to discuss the manipulation of results in football this Wednesday (20), when they heard from representatives of the sports monitoring company Good Games!, based in France.
At the Commission, Pierre Sallet and Thierry Hassanaly said they had alerted Brazilian authorities about cases of manipulation. “We contacted the CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation) and the Judiciary last year to address the manipulation indicated by our system. We sent this information via email, but we did not receive a response,” said CEO Hassanaly.
Questioned by parliamentarians, representatives of Good Games! They refused to specify in which games or championships the alleged irregularities occurred.
“We don’t have a monitoring contract in Brazil, but we have implemented some alerts about certain games. Based on these alerts, we have analyzed certain matches. We have some that were concretely manipulated between 2022 and 2023”, stated Pierre Sallet, founder of the company.
For senator Carlos Portinho, the installation of a CPI “is essential”. According to the parliamentarian, the advent of online betting based on sporting events — known as bets — may be behind some of the manipulation cases.
“We collected signatures and we will have the CPI on manipulation in football or Brazilian sport. It is essential, it is important. It shows that the Senate will not fall asleep on this issue. Inspection becomes absolutely necessary, and it is our role. Every suspected case that could contaminate the sport must be investigated,” he said.
The public hearing was suggested by him and senator Eduardo Girão, who chaired this Wednesday's meeting. For the Ceará parliamentarian, companies that promote online betting based on football matches need to be investigated.
“There is no way to monitor the software, which is based outside the country and is artificially programmed to generate profit almost exclusively for the betting bank. The risks of manipulating results are enormous and are increasingly taking away the shine of the sport. Brazil was the country with the most matches suspected of match-fixing in the world in 2022, with 152 sporting events. Of these, 139 are football matches”, said Girão.
Source: Agência Senado
