Arsene Wenger is confident that match fixing is not a serious problem in England - but he says it's a issue that should concern the entire football community.
Match fixing is back on the agenda after the National Crime Agency reported that two men - alleged to be members of an illegal betting syndicate - have been charged with conspiracy to defraud.
Wenger believes in the purity of the English game but he has warned against complacency.
"I don't believe that in England people fix matches, but we live in an international world and you cannot just stop it at the border anymore," he said. "It's a new problem that we all face.
"When you see the happiness of the players when they score goals, even in the lower divisions, the passion of the fans when I was at Barnet for example, I can't believe there is a match-fixing problem in England"
"I still think that 99.9 per cent, the English game is completely clean. I hope that [the recent charges] is an isolated incident.
"When you see the happiness of the players when they score goals, even in the lower divisions, the passion of the fans when I was at Barnet for example, I can't believe there is a match-fixing problem in England.
"Can it be eradicated completely? I’m not sure. Is it a concern for me and you who love the game? Certainly yes because it it is not only a concern for me, it is a shame.
"Once you don’t know anymore if everyone is genuine out there, that is something absolutely disastrous. I think we have absolutely to fight against that with the strongest severity to get that out of the game.
"Maybe the lower divisions are a bit more under threat because it is a bit more anonymous, there is less money so it is easier to buy people. But I don’t think that exists in the Premier League at all."
When Wenger was at Monaco, his club was a victim of a match-fixing scandal that saw Marseille relegated.
"Yes, that was much more serious," he reflected. "It was a period where European football was not clean, for different reasons, but I hope we have that behind us. It was one of the most difficult periods in my life. But I think even in France now, the championship is completely clean.
"You know what it is when you're in a job like mine. You worry about every detail, about who to pick for the next game, to prepare the next game,
and when you go to the game and you know all that is useless, it's of course a disaster.
"I never wanted to walk away because I always felt that in the end the game will come clean again and the love for the game from everybody will take over."
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