DFB Agrees on Betting Ban Within Soccer

A German Football Federation (DFB) extraordinary session in Mainz held in response to the Robert Hoyzer match-fixing scandal ended with the soccer authority agreeing on a complete ban on betting for everyone involved in the professional game from next season onwards. Players, coaches, referees and officials will be banned from gambling on matches in Germany after German soccer was rocked earlier this year when referee Hoyzer confessed to fixing matches in the Cup and lower leagues for a Croatian gambling ring. While preventing those within the game from betting, the DFB also harbor plans for getting a share of the betting market itself. "We would like our fair share of the betting market," the DFB's joint-president Theo Zwanziger said at the meeting in Mainz. "At the moment, we provide the conditions for the bets to take place but others take the money." The DFB estimates revenue from soccer betting to be 2.5 billion euros ($3.23 billion) a year in Germany. The DFB said on Thursday it was interested in joining forces with the German Football League (DFL) to work with state-owned bookmaker Oddset after the 2006 World Cup, if, as expected, the market is opened up to new competition.