AFF brings Sportradar on board to monitor U19 Youth Championships
Press Release
Following on from the partnership agreement between the Asean Football Federation (AFF) and Sportradar finalised in November last year and covering the AFF Suzuki Cup, the federation which promotes and supports the interests of the 12 South East Asian football federations has extended the partnership to cover the AFF U19 Youth Championships being hosted by Laos between 22 August and 4 September.
This year’s edition, the 12th in history, is being hosted in the city of Vientiane in Laos. The competition will see 11 teams taking part in 24 matches, before the champion is crowned on 4th September 2015. Sportradar’s Fraud Detection System will notify the AFF if there are any suspicious betting patterns on any of the 20 group games or the four games in the knock-out stages.
Speaking about the deal, Lt Gen Dato’ Azzuddin Ahmad (retired), the General Secretary of the AFF, said: “We were so impressed with the clarity and focus of Sportradar’s support and insights during last year’s AFF Suzuki Cup, it was clear to us that we had to return to them for their peerless coverage during our U19 Youth Championships. We know that fixers try to groom and entrap players when they are young or naïve, and so it was important to us that we look to extend our vigilance to cover not just the senior team tournaments, but also the tournaments played by our talent of tomorrow”.
Sportradar’s Managing Director Security Services Andreas Krannich added: “The AFF have yet again shown themselves to be proactive and focused. After we developed a fantastic working relationship that took in last year’s AFF Suzuki Cup, it is encouraging to see the AFF extend this relationship to cover this important youth tournament. Match-fixing is a real global sporting issue, but one cannot fault a federation such as the AFF, who continue to invest time, energy and resources into protecting the integrity of their flagship competitions, but also the competitions that feed into those and which develop the players that will represent the region in the future”.
ABOUT THE ASEAN FOOTBALL FEDERATION
The AFF U19 Youth Championships is an annual football competition organised by the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF), accredited by FIFA and contested by the national teams of Southeast Asia.
A total of eleven teams will vie for the AFF U19 Youth Championships from 22 August to 4 September 2015. Teams from Thailand, Cambodia, Brunei, Philippines, Laos, Australia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Singapore, Timor-Leste and Malaysia will compete to take the trophy that Japan won last year in Vietnam.
The tournament will be hosted by the town of Vientiane’s two stadia: the Laos National Stadium and the Lanexang Stadium.
For more information about the AFF U19 Youth Championships, please visit: https://www.aseanfootball.org/v2/?page_id=20639
ABOUT SPORTRADAR SECURITY SERVICES
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.
More than 600 businesses in over 80 countries rely on Sportradar’s data depth and quality services in their daily business. Headquartered in Switzerland, Sportradar has offices in more than 25 locations around the world and employs over 1,000 highly experienced staff worldwide.
For more information about Sportradar, please visit: www.sportradar.com.
