Ms Kroes has made the fight against price fixing and other competition violations one of her main priorities.

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Some 200 representatives from 43 countries are attending the event, which aims to alert officials and law enforcement officers on how best to fight match-fixing.

BBC: Asia

Fixing European budgets remains a messy, bare-knuckled fight, but Herman Van Rompuy, the President of the European Council, will argue that he delivered a deal.

BBC: EU budget: National interests trump solidarity

Last month it said that soccer faces real threats in the form of corruption and match-fixing and it is important that FIFA be involved in the fight against organized crime.

WSJ: Probe Targets Global Match-Fixing in Soccer

The acting head of the Asian Football Confederation, Zhang Jilong, told a meeting in Malaysia about match-fixing that it had become "a pandemic" which no organisation could fight alone.

BBC: Asia

FIFA, the sport's global ruling body, said in January that soccer faced real threats in the form of corruption and match-fixing. and that it is important that it be involved in the fight against organized crime.

WSJ: Probe Targets Global Match-Fixing in Soccer

And in case that seems to leave brawny manual labourers still sunk in tears, isn't it these same men who drive the trains, fight the fires and hold society in thrall to their skill at mending motors and fixing the plumbing?

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