FIFA's head of security Chris Eaton held a roundtable with media this week to discuss the governing body's plan to implement a number of anti-match fixing initiatives in 2012. He spoke at length of the scale of fixing across the globe and the challenges that await them before opening up the floor to journalist's questions.
This process has been largely panned by those who have been investigating fixers at the highest levels of the global game, most notably Declan Hill, who has called the whole process 'a smokescreen' and a waste of time.
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And while I don't doubt Eaton's intentions here, he genuinely seems to be aware of the scale of the problem, this kind of action, at this point, is a case of too little, too late. Listening to him speak, he emphasizes points - such as how players appoint a leader to deal with the fixers - that much of the invited media would have been rolling their eyes at. Those who were in attendance from the media have been warning of far greater complexity for years - not just some piddly players getting together to fix a few games. These are international rings of organized crime who have gone as far to invent games for unsuspecting gamblers to bet on. So, even if FIFA has begun to understand the scale of what they are facing, they're still largely unaware of the depth.
Eaton goes on to discuss the outlandish presumptions of fixers, some daring to tell the heads of federations how to run their games, to which, again, you wonder what's the new news here? Federation's being handcuffed by unscrupulous members and outside influence is nothing new and it should come as no shock to anyone who has been following this story with even one eye open.
But he sums it up with more promises of enabling the individual FA's to start implementing their plans. Which, for those who have been waiting for some kind of sign of movement from their own governing bodies (ahem) this could be seen as a silver lining of sorts. We'll wait to see on that though.
And while FIFA has now clearly admitted to themselves there are indeed problems here worth looking at (remember when it was still just uncommon occurrences?) they won't instill confidence with their action plan and presentation this week. Anonymous tip lines and what amounts to neighbourhood watch programs are better suited to petty crimes and washing away local graffiti. If this is the starting point, the cleaning up of our game is a long way off.
You can read the action plan and listen to the roundtable after the jump.