World Cup winners Spain dragged into probe as FIFA told to investigate seven matches

FIFA were told they might need to probe one of the games that World Cup winners Spain played on their way to winning the tournament after a betting monitoring unit feared something might be up.

Spain ended their World Cup campaign holding the trophy aloft after defeating Argentina 1-0, but they started it in surprising fashion by being held to a 0-0 draw against Cape Verde.

While the Spanish dominated the game and had plenty of chances they couldn't get past a titanic display from goalkeeper Vozinha.

It was a great footballing moment, but the Daily Star reports it flashed a warning in the Group of Copenhagen, which is the Council of Europe's betting monitoring unit.

One of the favourites to win the World Cup held to a goalless draw by a country with only around half a million people resulted in a 'yellow notice' being put on the game which means the betting monitoring unit thinks it's something FIFA might want to take a look at.

There was a concern from a betting monitoring unit that Spain's game against Cape Verde might have had some issues (Maddie Meyer - FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)

It doesn't mean something has gone wrong, it just flags that there's something which may warrant a probe, and with around £3.6 million bet on Polymarket that Spain wouldn't win their opening game against Cape Verde there were some concerns.

It was one of seven games flagged as a potential cause for concern, the full report hasn't yet been released but The Athletic reports that besides the money bet on Spain not to beat Cape Verde, South Africa's red card for Themba Zwane in the World Cup's opening game against Mexico and a three-and-a-half minute VAR check during Spain's 4-0 win against Saudi Arabia were among the other incidents.

Fortunately for the Spanish, FIFA's Integrity Task Force looked into the Cape Verde game and judged that there was nothing suspicious going on, it was instead just a 'remarkable result' that sometimes happen in football.

Sometimes that's just how the game goes, where World Cup winners Spain start their victorious campaign being unable to score against a 40-year-old keeper without a club.

That's just football.

In the end it was determined that there was nothing wrong, Vozinha just had an amazing game which produced an unlikely result (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

That particular result was reclassified as 'green', meaning it's all fine and there's nothing to worry about, and the Group of Copenhagen agreed with it.

The same was done for Themba Zwane's red card.

A lot of work goes on off the pitch to monitor bets, social media activity and other factors to determine whether or not there's enough of a sign of 'suspicious activity' around a World Cup game, to highlight potential match fixing in order to make punters money.

Many of these matters once examined will turn out not to have been a danger after all.

While seven of these 'yellow notices' were raised over the course of the World Cup, which relate to 'unexplained fluctuations in odds, rumours on social media or source information'.

FIFA's task force said 'no suspicious betting activity or indications of match manipulation in connection with any fixture'.