Top European football matches 'fixed', Europol finds

The European Union police agency has found evidence of match-fixing of some top international football games.

Europol head Rob Wainwright said it had carried out the biggest-ever investigation into match-fixing in Europe and described the findings as a "big problem for the integrity of European football".

Attempts to fix around 380 professional matches were identified, involving up to 425 match and club officials, players and criminals from more than 15 countries.

These included qualification matches for the World Cup and the European championships, plus two Uefa Champions League matches, one played in England.

Europol said the match-fixing generated £6.9m of betting profits in Germany alone - and there were corrupt payments of at least £1.73m to those involved.