Burkina Faso coach Paul Put (pictured), whose own career was blighted by his involvement in a match-fixing scandal in Belgium in 2005, says the problem has always existed in soccer and little can be done.

The Belgian has made progress in his bid to rehabilitate his reputation by taking the unfancied side to the African Nations Cup semifinals on Wednesday but his murky past has become a focus in the build-up since the release of Europol's report this week detailing widespread European match-fixing.

"Match-fixing has always existed in football. If you look in cycling, at Lance Armstrong, it's always him who is pointed at but everybody was taking drugs.

"When I played football I saw a lot of things. I don't think you can change it. It's unfortunate but I think in every sport you have to face those things," he said on Tuesday ahead of Burkina Faso's meeting with Ghana in Nelspruit, South Africa.

Put and players from his club, Lierse, were paid to throw matches in the 2004-05 season, generating betting gains on Belgian soccer in China in what became known as the Ye scandal after the Chinese businessman Ye Zheyun, who Belgian police said was at the center of the affair.

Put said he had fixed two matches while in charge at Lierse in 2005. He said his family had been threatened and feels he was a scapegoat.

"I think it was worse in the past. It was a very hard time for myself and my family and my friends. If they point at you and you are the only one, it is hard. I was threatened by the mafia. My child was not safe. They threatened me with weapons and things like that."

Reuters

(China Daily 02/07/2013 page24)