So UEFA, the European football governing body, has imposed a life ban on a match-fixing referee. It’s high time action was taken to clean up Ukrainian football. The culprit, Kyiv referee Oleh Orekhov, received the ban from football last week for his involvement in a match-fixing scandal, with UEFA stating that Orekhov had breached “principles of loyalty and integrity”. 

However, it did not specify the particular matches in which he helped to influence results. This comes in the wake of an investigation by fraud officers in Germany, which looked into more than 200 matches played in a dozen countries.  UEFA President Michel Platini had earlier promised to act against those involved in corruption.

At the same time, Orekhov should not be made a scapegoat. After all, the investigation comes in the wake of even more serious allegations about rigging of World Cup matches in 2006. In the same year several top flight Italian clubs were severely punished. This latest probe found a Bulgarian referee not guilty of wrongdoing in connection with illegal betting.

Bribery, corruption, doping, match-fixing and other types of cheating are widespread in sport around the world, including the Olympic movement. The boom in various types of sophisticated match betting, aided and abetted by wall-to-wall satellite TV coverage from around the world, have only helped to make temptation more prevalent.

Sadly for Ukraine, such corruption to some extent mirrors society. Though bribery of referees in sports is no secret, things can be done at the level of national legislation or sports federations to root out conflicts of interest. A magnate owning two clubs which will be opponents is an obvious example.  Referees in Ukraine are now paid better than ever. The end of Orekhov’s career should be a signal for the Football Federation of Ukraine to get its house in order and help the authorities to get the country ready to stage the Euro-2012 football tournament.  Newly-appointed Sports Minister Ravil Safiullin and football chief Hryhoriy Surkis will also have to end their feuding. And the signs look good. Safiullin said on 19 March that he is ready to work with Surkis in one team for the sake of Euro-2012 as long as the latter shares his vision. The eyes of the world will be on Ukraine and it will be a great opportunity to really put the country on the map.