Tebas: "It's impossible to end match fixing without the help of the police"

Javier Tebas hailed the signing of an agreement between the Spanish Football League (LFP) and Spain's National Police Force as vital in "the fight against corruption in football and match fixing".

"Without the Police and their mechanisms it's impossible to bring this blight on our game to an end," said the president of the Liga, also highlighting the importance of the co-operation of the National Police Force "which has allowed us to move forward in the fight against violence and intolerance in football in the last few months."

Tebas also declared: "We have good players and good teams, but we also have a good police force. And between us all we we’ll make ours the best league in the world." President Tebas explained that the police will have at their disposition reports from all Liga matches, as a demonstration of the collaboration of the State Security Forces, and insisted that both bodies will continue to share resources.

Javier Tebas described the Police as "the only interlocutor that, with their experience, is going to help us accelerate this process, especially during periods of major risk of match fixing such as at the end of the season. We will gain agility and immediacy."

Ignacio Cosidó, the director general of the National Body of Police, declared that the agreement signed will allow "the possibility of having one of the cleanest Leagues in the world” and said the collaboration of the LFP and the Police was necessary to achieve that aim, “because we cannot win this fight alone".

Cosidó added that "the Spanish league is very safe for spectators" and made it clear that "the number of people arrested in the surrounding areas of the stadiums has decreased by 50 percent thanks to the greater presence of the police".

The president of the Department for Sport, Miguel Cardenal, reminded attendees that "there have been notable improvements" in the fight against match fixing and corruption in football.

"The Government is obliged to back these improvements and contribute all its resources to make the fight more efficient", he added. Cardenal gave a rallying cry to "all the bodies of football to unite in this battle, because no-one is too important for it. We need everyone to be committed." The minister added that "corruption is not just a problem in football but it does affect it in a more direct way."

The agreement of collaboration between the LFP and the National Police Forece has three fundamental tenets: the exchange of information by secure channels between both bodies; the understanding of all the actors involved and the development of Police units specialised in football.

In addition, it proposes the nomination of a person as a Point of Contact who, in collaboration with Manuel Quintanar the director of the Integrity of the Liga, is in charge of collating information and existing evidence in each case.

Another important aspect of the agreement is the launch of information campaigns for clubs, directors, professional football squads, youth teams and coaching staff oriented towards the prevention of match fixing, xenophobia, intolerance and violence.

Finally, the National Police Force announced the creation of a group specialised in sporting fraud and an email address, operated 24/7, to anonymously denounce suspected incidents of match fixing and corruption in football.