Expand / Collapse search
Watch TV
Menu

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2024 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.

Sports

Sepp Blatter: Fixing affects few games, soccer 'will overcome'; racism is bigger problem

Associated Press
Published | Updated
  • 19428d69-Netherlands Match Fixing
    Image 1 of 2

    Britain's Rob Wainwright, director of the European police agency Europol, elaborates on findings of a probe into match fixing during a press conference in The Hague, Netherlands, Monday Feb. 4, 2013. The European police agency is unveiling results of a major investigation across the continent into match fixing in football, including what it is calling "top international games." The presentation will likely be one of the most comprehensive overviews yet of rigging games. Investigators from Germany, Finland, Hungary and Slovenia are presenting the results of probes into the murky world of fixing matches and the huge sums of money involved. Football already has been rocked by several match-fixing cases, most notably in Germany and Italy. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong) (The Associated Press)

  • b4061ffa-Netherlands Match Fixing
    Image 2 of 2

    Britain's Rob Wainwright, second from left, director of the European police agency Europol, takes his seat prior to elaborating on findings of a probe into soccer match fixing during a press conference in The Hague, Netherlands, Monday Feb. 4, 2013. The European police agency is unveiling results of a major investigation across the continent into match fixing in football, including what it is calling "top international games." From left to right are Friedhelm Althans, chief investigator Buchum police, Germany, Wainwright, Andreas Bachmann Bochum prosecution service, Germany, and Ari Karvonen, head of organized crime investigation, Finland. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong) (The Associated Press)

GABORONE, Botswana – FIFA President Sepp Blatter believes match-fixing affects only a small percentage of soccer games across the world and racism is a bigger problem for the sport.

"Football is so big, we will overcome," Blatter said Saturday. "It is a small percentage. Football will not die."

On Monday, the European Union police agency reported nearly 700 recent games have or may have been fixed in the last 18 months. Blatter, who is on a four-country tour of Africa ahead of Sunday's African Cup of Nations final, insisted more than a million matches a year were clean.

He said racism was a bigger problem for the sport than fixing and FIFA was examining ways of introducing more serious punishments for teams if their fans or players were guilty of racism.

"We can also explore deducting points," Blatter said. "If it is a knockout competition, it will mean that we must kick out the team."