Georgia’s Sport Ministry to tackle fixing matches with CoE’s support
Damian Voltz is a Senior Intelligence Analyst with Australia’s National Integrity of Sport Unit. Photo: 1tv.ge
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The Council of Europe (CoE) is conducting a pilot study to assess the risks of fixing sports competitions in Georgia.
The organization selected four countries for the study. Georgia is in the list along with Norway, Belgium and Portugal.
As a part of the project, Australian expert Damian Voltz is visiting Georgia hosted by Shalva Gogoladze, Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport.
Damian Voltz is a Senior Intelligence Analyst with Australia’s National Integrity of Sport Unit.
It’s about government and sports federations, all working together to protect the integrity of Georgian sport. This is a very serious issue and only by working together with other member states of the CoE, we will be able to defeat fixing matches and manipulation of sport competition”, said Damian Voltz.
Nowadays, the main challenge of sport is fixing matches and manipulation of sports competition. To tackle this problem and to provide consultations with the Council of Europe, Australian expert Damian Voltz will provide consultation on how to combat these problems”, said Shalva Gogoladze.
The Australian side will carry out a pilot study initiated by the CoE together with the Georgian Ministry of Sports and National Georgian Sports Federations. Damian Voltz will meet representatives of federations to learn about the problems they face and share Australian experience.
Over the past five years Damian Voltz has been involved in the ongoing monitoring, analysis and assessment of a range of issues relating to organized crime and the integrity of professional sport in Australia.
Four have been sent to pretrial detention and seven have been released on bail for fixing matches in the both minor and major leagues of Georgia, receiving 93,500 GEL ($34,061/€30,513) in profits.
The Anti-Corruption Agency of the State Security Service of Georgia has arrested eight current and three former footballers of three football teams for bribery and fixing matches in both minor and major leagues of Georgia.
The Georgian Football Federation (GFF) aims to confront match-fixing in the national championship by introducing a special office for "sport fairness”, revealed GFF president Levan Kobiashvili.
The eight football referees detained for match-fixing in Georgia yesterday have been permanently censured for their actions.
The Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Georgia has announced the country will be one of six participants benefiting from a project run under the European Union's Erasmus+ Sport programme for combatting match fixing.