The Ministry of Youth and Sports, the National Integrity Platform for Sport, the National Olympic Committee, and the National Anti-Doping Center held a meeting with representatives of UPL and PFL clubs regarding the fight against manipulation in sports.

Representatives of the Ukrainian Football Association (UAF), Premier League clubs, Professional Football League clubs, the Association of Futsal in Ukraine, the Association of Beach Soccer in Ukraine, as well as members of the National Integrity Platform for Sport and the National Anti-Doping Center participated in the meeting.

Photo by UAF press service

Welcoming remarks were given to those present by Ukraine's Minister of Youth and Sports, Matviy Bidny, President of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine Vadim Gutzeit, and Deputy General Secretary of the UAF Vitaliy Danilenko. Additionally, Stefanie Eichenberger, UEFA representative, joined the meeting online.

Photo by UAF press service

The main topics of the meeting included issues related to fixed matches and manipulation of sporting events at both national and international levels, activities of the National Integrity Platform for Sport, the state of anti-doping work in Ukrainian football, activities of the Ethics and Fair Play Committee of UAF in terms of ethics and integrity in sports, as well as best practices for combating corruption and fixed matches.

Photo by UAF press service

Oleksiy Perevezentsev, Deputy Head of the Inter-Agency Working Group "National Integrity Platform for Sport" and First Vice President of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine, along with Secretary of the National Platform Nataliya Radchuk, identified key directions for platform work. These directions cover operational information exchange with sports federations and international cooperation within the Network of National Integrity Platforms (Group of Copenhagen).

Photo by UAF press service

An expert from the National Integrity Platform for Sport and member of the Ethics and Fair Play Committee of UAF, Andriy Nekrutov, emphasized the shared responsibility of state bodies, sports federations, clubs, athletes, and betting companies in combating manipulation of match results.

In addition, the Ethics Committee of UAF, headed by its Chairman Andriy Davidenko, considers that monitoring bets at bookmakers is crucial because manipulation is not always visible on the field but often leaves traces in bets. 

The monitoring system analyzes various nuances:

1. Betting behavior.

2. Patterns and models.

3. Account data.

4. Some systems (for example, UFDS with integration of gaming operators) receive non-personalized but very important data (is the account linked to a history of suspicious activity; does it only place bets on one type of outcome or one club; is there active betting on markets with high corruption risk).

5. Geography and time.

Therefore, the system analyzes not just bets and coefficients but also when, where, and how bets are placed. Based on this, a signal is formed — "suspicious activity." This is not proof of guilt but rather an initial warning that triggers further investigation.

Photo by UAF press service

The Ethics and Fair Play Committee of UAF has studied all available systems over the past year, held meetings with providers, received commercial proposals and evaluations.

The committee uses several channels simultaneously:

— through FIFA/UEFA divisions — operational access to UFDS data;

— through the partnership of the national platform with IBIA — a direct channel to over 90 key bookmakers;

— through the network of national platforms in Europe — fast international information exchange.

Parallelly, representatives of the committee are studying new technology markets and analyzing an ambitious option — creating its own Ukrainian monitoring system with integrated AI.

Photo by UAF press service

Finally, the participants agreed that betting monitoring is not about numbers and coefficients but about protecting every honest athlete, coach, referee, and club.

Anastasia Bilenko, Secretary of the Ethics and Fair Play Committee, presented the main principles of the UAF Code of Ethics as well as examples of disciplinary decisions regarding violations of fair play and ethics principles.

Special attention was given to combating doping in football.

Sergiy Popik, Director of the National Anti-Doping Center, spoke about cooperation between FIFA, UEFA, UAF, and NADC as well as existing agreements that regulate their joint work in anti-doping.

Also, Yulia Grechko, FIFPRO representative, presented a mobile app called Red Button which allows professional footballers to anonymously report attempts at bribery or manipulation of match results.