‘The Next Crisis Has Already Begun’: Europe’s Top Official Urges FIFA to Act

Council of Europe Secretary General Alain Berset has urged FIFA to begin work on a new integrity framework for the 2030 World Cup, directly linking player-action betting and FIFA’s own prediction-market sponsorship with an increased risk of match manipulation.

Key Takeaways

• The Secretary General wants FIFA talks on an integrity framework for the 2030 World Cup.
• Berset says player-action betting and FIFA’s prediction deal widen fraud risks.
• FIFA says its partner already uses live monitoring and information sharing.

FIFA’s Promised Safeguards May Not be Sufficient

Council of Europe Secretary General Alain Berset called on FIFA to begin an international dialogue on protecting the integrity of the 2030 World Cup, declaring that “the next crisis has already begun.” In a statement published on the day of Sunday’s final, Berset said the sport’s emerging crisis had “two names: money and power.”

Berset proposed a “third half” in the form of talks between FIFA and the Council of Europe aimed at building an integrity framework before the next World Cup. The intervention is a proposal from the organization’s secretary general, not a resolution adopted by its 46 member states or a binding instruction to FIFA.

As has been the case elsewhere, markets determined by individual player actions rather than match results are the source of primary concern. Berset said bets on cards, corners, passes or other incidents that one participant can influence without changing the final score create an “open door to fraud,” which he argued FIFA has directly widened by bringing a prediction market into the World Cup’s official sponsorship program for the first time.

FIFA named blockchain-backed ADI Predictstreet its first official prediction-market partner in April under a multi-year agreement. The platform used FIFA data to offer markets involving match results, tournament statistics, standout players and key moments, while also presenting FIFA’s free-to-play bracket challenge.

ADI Predictstreet subsequently opened its real-money platform in Gibraltar and reached US traders through Fanatics Markets, while DAZN added a separate free-to-play experience to its World Cup coverage.

FIFA said when announcing the partnership that ADI Predictstreet would operate under a “comprehensive integrity monitoring framework.” The governing body said safeguards would include real-time monitoring of suspicious trading and structured systems for sharing and reporting information. It said those controls would protect fairness, transparency and participants.

Berset’s statement did not allege that manipulation occurred on ADI Predictstreet or identify a suspicious World Cup trade. Instead, it questioned whether monitoring arrangements are sufficient when markets allow traders to take positions on events that individual players can deliberately produce.

The warning followed an earlier Council of Europe statement on July 13 that described so-called negative bets as particularly vulnerable to manipulation. It said one player or one action may determine such a market without affecting the match result, making these products an “insidious” integrity threat.

European gambling regulators had already cautioned sports organizations against commercial relationships with prediction platforms. A coordinated nine-regulator warning issued before the tournament cited unauthorized gambling, weak age controls, money laundering and sports-integrity risks.

FIFA and the Council of Europe have had a formal cooperation agreement since 2018. Their memorandum covers integrity, good governance, major sporting events and operational coordination, and specifically committed the organizations to strengthening the fight against match-fixing.

Berset cited that history of international cooperation as the model for his proposed 2030 framework. The Council of Europe previously developed binding conventions on stadium safety, doping and competition manipulation, but his latest proposal has not yet produced an agreed process, timetable or new rules for FIFA and its prediction-market partners.