Today, the Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) sat alongside Sportradar at a press conference to outline its education strategy that will see 32 workshops per season covering referees, BFU officials and all football players from the 1st and 2nd professional leagues along with individual e-learning modules and assessments each year.
The powerful statement of intent, a pledge to the fans and all the stakeholders of Bulgarian football, is reinforced by the fact that attendance of the workshops and completion of the e-learning modules and assessments will be mandatory for all players playing at 1st and 2nd professional leagues.
“On behalf of the Bulgarian Football Union, I’m very delighted to sign this contract. As President of the BFU, I promise my full support to this initiative. I am in no doubt that I speak for all my collegues in our Federation in this regard”, Mr Mihaylov said about the agreement.
“This agreement means a lot to us. We are taking a step forward, supplmenting the monitoring of the games already in place with a powerful educational strategy. I believe that organizing workshops all around the country will help us to present our position and so keep the integrity mission growing. This tour is one of our top priorities for the next few months“, said Deputy general secretary Pavel Kolev
“We all know how important it is to have such an educational strategy in place, because we have to bring integrity issues into sharp focus for the players, coaches, referees and all the relevant football stakeholders. Needless to say, we have to clearly outline the grave consequences of taking part in the manipulation of match results and events”, revealed the Integrity Officer’s statement Mario Kosturkov
Secretary General of Minister of Sport Assen Markov said: “We warmly welcome Sportradar’s educational strategy and congratulate the BFU on their strong stance in the battle against match fixing. I can assure everyone here that the Ministry of Sport will channel its backing to support this initiative.”
Adding his thoughts, Sportradar Group Director Sales Southern Europe, Mr. Alex Gerontikos had this to say: “Any federation that shows this level of commitment will always get our support. We are honoured that the BFU has come to us to devise the ambitious plan of safeguarding and securing sport, its participants and stakeholders against both betting-related match-fixing and corruption. There is a lot of work to do and we are fully committed to deliver!”
The press conference was held in the National Football Center in Sofia and the event was attended by the Secretary General of Minister of Sports Mr. Assen Markov, BFU Deputy General Secretary Mr. Pavel Kolev and BFU Integrity Officer Mr. Mario Kosturkov.
The contract was signed by Mr. Borislav Mihaylov – President of BFU and Mr. Alex Gerontikos – Sportradar Director Sales Southern Europe.
ABOUT SPORTRADAR
Sportradar is a global leader in understanding and leveraging the power of sports data and digital content for its clients around the world.
The company’s Security Services operation provides the Fraud Detection System (FDS) to several federations, including the AFC, CONCACAF and UEFA. This unique system allows the Security Services team to monitor betting behaviour and patterns worldwide and to identify suspicious activities. Those findings prove invaluable for sports federations and law enforcement agencies that are looking to pinpoint match-fixers. The Security Services also include the Fraud Prevention Service (FPS) through which Sportradar offers education tools and services that have been delivered to leagues and clubs around the world. These have been show to increase awareness of illegal betting and match-fixing among those involved in sport.
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