The Sports Committee of the German Bundestag convened for a public meeting on Wednesday, 9 October 2024. Among other things, the committee dealt with the suspicion of match-fixing in German amateur football. In addition to Mathias Dahms, President of the German Sports Betting Association, and Christian Okun, President of the Hamburg Football Association (HFV), Prof Cherkeh was also invited as an expert and representative of the ‘Sport Manipulation Reporting Centre’ to discuss this topic.
Manipulation in the context of sport takes place across all sports and leagues. The range of offences is diverse and extends, for example, from threatening or coercing referees to reporting ‘fantasy results’ of matches that never actually took place to the suspicion of manipulated matches and players at home and abroad - some with and some without reference to sports betting.