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Match fixing ‘isn’t a big issue’ in football, says FA general secretary
FA general secretary Alex Horne has insisted match-fixing is not widespread in the game but has warned against complacency.
Horne was among representatives from football, cricket, tennis, rugby and horse racing who attended a summit with ministers in Whitehall yesterday for talks on tackling fixing.
It followed the arrest of six people, including Blackburn striker DJ Campbell, after an investigation into spot-fixing in football by the National Crime Agency.
Horne, who was at the meeting with culture, media and sport secretary Maria Miller, said: “The general consensus around the room was this isn’t a big issue. The intelligence that we have says this isn’t a wide-scale issue at the moment, but we don’t want to be complacent.
“It is clear that, as Britain, we are very proud of our sporting product, of the sport that we play in this country and we want to do all we can to protect the integrity of that sport.
“We are never complacent on this issue and there’s a lot we can learn from other sports.
“Some of the education programmes that cricket has put in place and the integrity unit the British Horseracing Authority have are very far advanced, so there’s lots of things that are open to all sports. ”