UEFA have given police a list of 15 matches they suspect may
have been fixed, a senior UEFA source said.
News of the match-fixing investigation came as UEFA officials and
coaches gathered in Lucerne ahead of Sunday's draw for Euro 2008,
to be played in Switzerland and Austria.
According the source, who spoke to Reuters on condition of
anonymity, "15 matches are under investigation and being dealt with
by UEFA's disciplinary committee."
The matches under suspicion were played in a variety of UEFA
competitions including a Euro 2008 qualifier, Champions League
qualifiers, UEFA Cup qualifiers and UEFA Cup and Intertoto Cup
ties.
UEFA would not confirm when the matches took place although a
96-page dossier handed to Interpol last month goes back to July
2005.
Irregular betting patterns on the matches alerted UEFA to the
possibility that some may have been fixed.
Graham Bean, an ex-police officer and former head of the English
FA's Compliance Unit, said the affair could become the biggest of
its kind to hit the international game.
Bean told the BBC World Service on Saturday: "These are clearly
exceptionally serious allegations, but having said that they will
be extremely difficult to investigate.
"Clearly for UEFA to pass this report across (to the police) they
must have evidence of some kind, perhaps as a result of betting
patterns, or individuals telling them what they know.
"If they can prove it then any punishments involved should be
excessive. For something of this magnitude involving these type of
games like Euro 2008 qualifiers and Champions League matches, then
this is potentially one of the most serious things that has ever
happened in world football."
Earlier this week, UEFA opened an investigation into the Intertoto
Cup match between Bulgarians Cherno More and Macedonia's Makedonija
on July 7, which Cherno More won 4-0.
The Bulgarian club have strongly denied any wrongdoing.
"It's an extremely unpleasant case but we think that the charges
are unwarranted," Cherno More's lawyer Mihail Statev said at a news
conference.