STEWART REGAN believes keeping a zero-tolerance policy on gambling is key to ensuring Scottish football remains free of the match-fixing scandals becoming prevalent in other parts of the world.
The Scottish Football Association's regulations prohibit anyone under their jurisdiction - players, management, club staff and officials - from betting on any matches anywhere in the world beyond authorised and registered football pools. The recent high-profile Ian Black case - when the Rangers midfielder admitted charges of betting on 160 games, including three on his own team not to win - had led to calls from PFA Scotland for a softening of the rules to mirror those in England, where players can bet on competitions in which their club is not involved.
Regan, though, believes that the SFA are right to retain their hardline stance and hoped it would help avoid "opening the door to potential issues in the future". There has been no suggestion Scottish football has been a target for match-fixing syndicates but, in light of investigations in Australia and El Salvador, the chief executive felt it would be naive to think that would always be the case.
"My view is very simple," he said. "The minute you come off a zero-tolerance approach you're opening the door, no matter how slightly, to potential issues for yourself in the future. If betting, and match fixing in particular, are the scourge of the game and could be the scourge of the game going forward, why would you want to change it? Why would you want to allow any opportunity for players, coaches, managers, referees, anybody to be influenced?
"We had a conference a few weeks ago in in St Andrews, and one of the speakers was a guy I knew well: Ian Smith, of the Professional Cricketers Association. Cricket, where I spent a number of years, has gone through some major issues in match fixing and Ian made it very clear that the Scottish FA had set a very positive example by having a zero-tolerance approach to betting, and he believed that any attempt to come off that would be a negative step. That, for me, is testament that we are actually in the right place.
"We should certainly be aware of match fixing. Thankfully we haven't had any evidence to suggest there is match fixing in Scotland. But it could certainly happen here, of course it could. That's why we're taking a zero tolerance stance. Betting on football is just the thin end of the wedge. From that, there is an opportunity for people to be influenced. That can then lead to people being encouraged to do something and influence the result. It's not an automatic move but it could happen here and we're not prepared to accept it."
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