UEFA has confirmed that it plans to investigate 40 cases of suspected match-fixing in the Champions League and UEFA Cup. Most of the cases were from Eastern Europe and involved games in the early qualifying rounds of the tournaments, according to Peter Limacher, UEFA’s head of disciplinary services.

Last year, the number of games being investigated was 25, and UEFA set up a six-man special investigation unit to examine corruption in their competitions.

There are now 40 games where suspicious betting patterns have been identified, 15 of those in the last two years. UEFA has been running its Betting Fraud Detection System (BFDS) since the start of the current season in order to catch suspicious betting patterns earlier than in the past. The Betting Fraud Detection System (BFDS) is an elaborate database application that can quickly compile a report if a match is considered to be manipulated. The BFDS report forms the first step of the thorough investigation phase that follows.

Match-fixing on this scale is largely driven by attempts to make a quick dollar from the multi-billion dollar sports betting industry. In many of the cases now before UEFA, it is reported that bookmakers alerted UEFA to suspicious betting patterns, and it is thought that most of the cases involved sides where players did not earn high wages, and so were tempted by a large pay-off. There are not believed to be either English sides, or any major European clubs involved.

What sort of punishment could be meted out to clubs involved? In April of this year, UEFA banned Macedonian club FK Pobeda from European competitions for eight years after match-fixing against Armenian side FC Pyunik in 2004.

UEFA have annulled an earlier decision to exclude Porto from next season’s Champions League. Porto were initially expelled from Champions League play over alleged bribery of referees in the 2003-04 season. UEFA’s appeals body decided to send the issue back for consideration to their Control and Disciplinary Body, effectively annulling the June 4 decision to exclude Porto from the Champions League.

According to a UEFA press release, the Appeals body listened to representatives of FC Porto, the Portuguese Football Federation, SL Benfica and Vitória SC, as well as UEFA. The Control and Disciplinary Body will now meet next week to take a decision on Porto’s admission to the 2008/09 UEFA Champions League. The date of the meeting has not been announced.

UEFA’s Control and Disciplinary Body has stripped Portuguese champions Porto FC of their place in next season’s Champions League over alleged bribery of referees during the 2003/04 season. UEFA cited Article 1.04 (d) of the 2008/09 UEFA Champions League regulations (available via this PDF) in their decision. The article states that to be eligible to take part in the competition a club must, among other things, not be or have been involved in any activity aimed at arranging or influencing the outcome of a match at national or international level.

The allegations relate to Porto’s 2-0 win against Estrela da Amadora and their 0-0 draw with Beira Mar. Porto won their domestic title and the Champions League in 2003/04 under their former coach Jose Mourinho, who has not been mentioned in any allegations.

Porto have already confirmed they will appeal against UEFA’s decision.