ZURICH: FIFA can today confirm the worldwide extension of a sanction imposed by UEFA on a Moldovan official in connection with an incident of attempted match manipulation that occurred during the qualifying round of the UEFA European Women’s Under-17 Championship.

On 13 February 2014, the UEFA Control and Disciplinary Body decided to sanction Vasile Mungiu, an official at the Anenii Noi Sports School in Moldova, with a lifetime ban from all football-related activities.

The decision came after Mungiu admitted to attempting to manipulate the match between Moldova and Latvia on 4 August 2013, when he approached the coach of the Moldovan Under-17 women’s national team and offered her a bribe to manipulate the result. The coach immediately reported the incident to the Football Association of Moldova (FMF) and the police, and Mungiu was subsequently arrested.

The chairman of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee has decided to extend the sanction to have worldwide effect in accordancewith article 78 paragraph 1(c) and article 136ff of the FIFA Disciplinary Code. The decision was notified today to UEFA and the FMF.

For follow-up questions as to the substance of the decisions, media are kindly requested to contact the relevant confederation or member association.

FIFA continues to work closely with its member associations and the confederations to tackle match manipulation. As part of a ten-year programme of collaboration with INTERPOL, regional workshops involving key stakeholders are being held all over the world while recently launched e-learning programmes are also helping to educate players, coaches and referees on the dangers of match manipulation to help them to avoid becoming victims of this threat to football integrity.

Other initiatives include the signing of an integrity declaration by officials, the monitoring of the betting market via FIFA’s subsidiary Early Warning System (EWS) and the setting up of an e-learning ethics tool, an integrity hotline and e-mail address and a confidential reporting system.