”I should have thrown away my football boots and done somthing else,” says Mario Cizmek, when he reflects on the time when he tried to solve his money problems by taking bribes.

The former Croatia Sesvete player couldn’t quite describe the feeling he had when he played the first fixed game.

As a sportsman, he always played a game to win. Until the day when they lost 2-1

”The journalists could have beaten us”

Eight of the players on his team were a part of the scam that handed the victory to the opponents.

Mario Cizmek explains that the players simply gave 70 percent instead of the 100 that everyone expects a professional footballer to do.

”Even the journalists could have beaten us,” Mario says when he thinks of the first of the six fixed matches he was involved in

Three teams involved

The match-fixing scandal involved 24 players from eight different teams. He says that everyone knew who was a part of the deal.

The games had no significance for his team because they had already been before the started to lose on purpose.

That made the team an easy target for the match fixers because there was nothing suspicious about a bottom table team losing matches.

”Don’t feel sorry for me”

Mario Cizmek did not come to speak at Play the Game in Aarhus because he wants people to feel sorry for him.

”I know, what I have done. I just want to warn young footballers not to do what I did”.

He already spent 47 days in jail after his arrest, and now he is facing up to 10 months behind bars.

Play the Game is now officially opened.

A variety of people took the stage during the opening session, and many highlighted the need for an open and honest debate about the conditions of sport worldwide.

“If we want to protect the values and the potential of sport, sport needs to be subject of a critical debate on and off the field,” PtG-chairman Johs. Poulsen stated.

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Can hold position for life

Another speaker was Play the Games international director Jens Sejer Andersen. He as well addressed the need for more transparency in sport.

“There is a worldwide demand for better governance in sport,” Sejer Andersen said and then referred to the fact that many leaders of international sports organisation hold their position for years.

“Once you are elected president of an international organisation you are given access to tools that makes you able to hold the position for life. That is not right.”

Need for governance

Other speakers at the opening session was Danish MEP Morten Løkkegaard, alderman Marc Perera Christensen and Belgian PhD Student Arnout Geeraert.

Løkkegaard has called for a European center for the fight against match fixing, which was turned down in Bruxelles.

On the same note, field work from Arnout Geeraert showed that there is a huge need for better governance in world sport. For instance, in only three of 18 organisations the movement of funds was transparent.

Once number five in the world, snooker champion Stephen Lee now faces 12 years of suspension for match-fixing. And his case is not the first of its kind.

Match-fixing does not only occur in dominant sports like football and volleyball.

Once considered a gentleman’s sport, snooker now faces big problems with match-fixing, and former champion Stephen Lee’s conviction is just the latest case to surface.

The problems are escalatingStephen Lee was once the fifth best snooker player in the world, and now he faces a 12 year ban from the sport, as well as a fine of 40,000 Pounds.

When then world number one John Higgins in 2010 was convicted of ‘giving the impression he would breach betting rules, and of failing to report the approach’, he was only sentenced to a six month ban.

He returned to be one of the players Stephen Lee was convicted of fixing a match against. Stephen Lee won’t be able to return to the sport before 2024, when he will be 50 years of age.

The first known case of a player being investigated for matchfixing occurred in 1995, and another case did not surface until 2005. Between 2005 and 2013, 14 different players were investigated for matchfixing on 23 different counts.

Changing the rules

The rules were changed in 2012 in order to accommodate the changing climate of the sport, but since all of Stephen Lee’s offences happened before 2012, he was sentenced in accordance with the old rules.

Had he been sentenced by the new rules, he would most likely have faced a lifetime ban from the sport.

Swedish football has been hit with a string of match-fixing allegations. In late October the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet wrote an article with anonymous sources claiming that games in the Swedish fourth division had been fixed.

And now new suspicious activity has raised fear of fixed matches as high as in the Swedish first division.

The Swedish betting company Svenska Spel has suspended all betting on games involving Landskrona BoIS from the first division, also know as Superettan, for the remainder of the season.

Landskrona alerted the authorities

Landskrona club director Mats Aronsson was made aware that suspicious bets were being placed during matches against Orebro and Falkenberg. He contacted the Swedish football federation who then alerted Svenska Spel.

“We have no evidence or suspicion but we took action in order to be on the safe side. We presume that none of our players are involved, as we keep a close eye on the developments,” read a statement on the Landskrona website.

All betting on another Superettan team IFK Värnamo has also been suspended after police confirmed that players had been offered money to fix the game. All matters are currently being investigated by Swedish police.