Eaton added that inadequate and incoherent international legislation was hampering the fight against match-fixers.
With FIFA due to open a hot line for whistleblowers in February and offer a temporary amnesty for players who own up to match-fixing but come forward with evidence, Eaton said 2012 would be a fundamental year.
High-profile cases have hit Turkey and Italy while FIFA is still trying to contact the referee of last year's friendly between Nigeria and Argentina, believing it could have been manipulated.
"We are very concerned about the safety of players [and] officials," Eaton told reporters. "There is anecdotal evidence that some players have been killed."
"We have evidence of players in South Korea committing suicide because of the shame of match fixing. There are players who pay the ultimate price for resisting or for the shame of match-fixing.
"That's why its incumbent on FIFA and global society to limit access of criminals to it. We certainly have information in some parts of the world... of threats to players who have come forward.
"Most are indicating they are under some form of threat; often these are players are under the control of a senior player, or captain, or technical coach, and these are the people we need to support."
"He displayed model behaviour for young players, he resisted significant money to fix what many players would consider an unimportant fixture," said Eaton, adding that Farina's high profile would protect him from danger.
"Wilson Perumal got the maximum penalty under inadequate legislation of two years," said Eaton.
"Had he been caught in Australia, which has very strong match-fixing legislation, he would have got 10 years. This needs to be addressed."
"Match-fixing is all about stealing money, it destroys the lives and careers of man
