ZURICH: FIFA has wasted no time filling the gap to be left in May when director of security Chris Eaton heads off to the Qatar-based International Centre for Sport Security. New man will be highly-qualified German policeman Ralf Mutschke.

The 52-year-old is currently senior manager at the German Federal Criminal Police Office and a former Interpol  director. He takes up his new role on June 1, heading up the new FIFA security division which will face a busy time supervising all FIFA competitions, “a global security concept for football in general, security around FIFA headquarters in Zurich, the FIFA president and the FIFA administration” . . . as well as matxchfixing and corruption, of course.

Secretary-general Jerome Valcke said: “We have decided to strengthen the former security department, making it into a full division in order to continue to tackle all issues related to football security and the protection of the integrity of the game. This is another major step in our determination to ensure a clean and safe sport and to underline our commitment to the fight against match-fixing in football.

“Ralf Mutschke . . . has all the right qualities and expertise.”

Mutschke set out his priority as “the integrity of FIFA competitions . . . match-fixing, betting fraud and corruption.”

He has 33 years of experience at the BKA, where he is currentlyleading the operational services subdivision and is  deputy head of the central CID. His previous experience included supervising contact with team security officers at the 2006 FIFA World Cup and the last year’s  Women’s World Cup.

In both those roles he worked under the direction of Helmut Spahn – the man who has just ‘stolen’ Eaton away to work for ICSS.