The European football governing body, UEFA, will undertake dramatic and unprecedented measures to stamp out and eradicate match fixing from next year. The serious measures, perhaps long overdue, were triggered by an incident that occurred nearly five years ago between two obscure football clubs.

The UEFA board has raised accusations against the president of the Macedonian football club Pobeda Prilep, Alexander Zabrcanec and the former team captain Nikolche Zdraveski. They were accused of manipulating the final score of a football match for their own personal benefit.

The match in question took place during the first qualification preliminary round of the Champions League against the Armenian side Pyunik Yerevan, on July 13 in 2004.

All the evidence surrounding the case will be re-examined on April 17 by the control and disciplinary body of UEFA.

The European football central body will introduce a special, unprecedented monitoring system to be implemented by 53 members of UEFA. The grand scheme aims to cover 27 000 fixtures in the upper two divisions of each European country. The massive project will be financed by UEFA with financial resources being allocated to each country's football governing body.

"If football results are premeditated, then this sport is dead. This is a serious problem, threatening the entire game. We will not stand for it, and we are determined to eradicate it," said David Taylor, the UEFA general secretary.