MOSCOW, January 15 - RAPSI. The Russian FA is importing techniques to combat match-fixing from England and Italy by including police on the investigation committee, the head of the country's Audit Chamber said Tuesday.
It represents the latest salvo in new FA chief Nikolai Tolstykh's campaign to clean up Russian football after he dissolved the old committee headed by Anzor Kavazashvili last month.
"Tolstykh is creating a special group in place of Kavazashvili's committee that will include high-ranking officials and law-enforcement representatives, as is done in Italy, Turkey and England at the moment," Stepashin said.
Match-fixing is still thought to go on in Russian football, but Kavazashvili's committee had very little power and failed to identify any fixed results since it came into being in October 2011.
Kavazashvili's committee was disbanded after he told R-Sport that police could be called in to investigate claims of match-fixing in a game against Amkar Perm with over $13 million and a player's life reportedly at stake.
Anzhi’s 2-1 win at Amkar Perm in November was assessed by the FA and pronounced clear of suspicion before reports emerged in the Russian media that a former Amkar player was among several people to place unusually large bets on Anzhi.
At the time, many bookmakers suspended betting on the game.