Council of Europe Chief Accuses FIFA of Opening Door to Fraud with Betting Deal
Council of Europe Secretary General Alain Berset published an open letter on the day of the 2026 World Cup final, accusing FIFA of providing an 'open door to fraud' through its partnership with prediction market company ADI Predictstreet. Berset criticized the decision to suspend a ban on US striker Folarin Balogun after a phone call between FIFA President Gianni Infantino and US President Donald Trump, stating that 'when the rules bend under pressure, every result is open to doubt.' He also condemned racist abuse of players by elected officials and called for a new integrity framework to be established before the 2030 World Cup. The criticism is notable given a 2018 memorandum of understanding between FIFA and the Council of Europe on human rights and good governance. Berset proposed urgent dialogue to strengthen sport integrity, referencing past Council of Europe treaties on fan safety, anti-doping, and match-fixing.
Editorial responsibility
- No named human review is recorded for this page.
- Reports are grouped by semantic similarity and deterministic rules. Language models may assist titles, summaries, translation and cross-source analysis; the page itself is projected from evidence records.
- Current automated evidence projection