"We started taking these actions with the national teams, but then we realized that we had to go further. We started going to a series of professional competition teams and realized that there was this lack of knowledge about whether or not they could bet. In the meantime, we did the same training in amateur and junior competition teams, we continued to realize that there is this doubt, but not as much as at the beginning. Therefore, I would say that we have evolved," he said, at a conference in the City of Football, in Oeiras.

The SAMF project (Sports Against Match Fixing, translating the acronym in English) presented the conclusions of two years of work, in which it contacted athletes from different countries and sports and, based on real stories, developed educational materials with the aim of raising awareness of all grassroots athletes on this subject, highlighting the existing prohibitions for players and other sports agents in placing bets.

Rute Soares highlighted the need to combat the manipulation of results and competitions, with the aim of taking advantage of a bet.

"In Portugal, betting is legal, although there is an illegal betting market, which is in fact a problem, because it cannot be monitored so easily. The problem is when games are manipulated because of a bet," he pointed out.

At the start of the event, the president of the FPF, Fernando Gomes, highlighted the "priority, crucial and urgent fight against the distortion of results and defense of the integrity of all competitions" that it is necessary to apply, recalling the work done by the federation.

"Integrity is one of the axes of all FPF activities and has always been present in the objectives throughout our mandates. Having an exclusive department for the subject is an added value for our activities. We do not believe in competitions without transparency and credibility," he said, adding: "We know very well that we are closer to the federation we want: transparent, exempt, loyal and incorruptible. The effort to combat match manipulation does not end here and we have a lot of work to do".

The Secretary of State for Sport, Pedro Dias, who was recently sworn into office, after several years as a director of the FPF, also expressed concern about the "global phenomenon that threatens sport", praising the federation for the fight.

"The FPF is a model. It adopted several measures to eradicate this phenomenon and invested in the prevention and education of all sports agents. We believe that dialogue and cooperation between public authorities, sports organizations and sports betting companies, on a basis of respect and trust, respond to the challenges of the problem of manipulation of sports competitions," he said in his speech.

The event was attended by speakers responsible for the European Union, Council of Europe, UEFA, International Basketball Federation, Olympic Movement, International Tennis Integrity Agency, Interpol and Judicial Police, as well as those responsible for 20 federations, district associations and the International Olympic Committee.