Tip of the iceberg mate. AC were up to their balls in it but Berlusconi made sure they were well sorted out, oh what was it, reduced sentence, for Milan and Berlusconi Italian mega backscratching upper society has not changed since caesar's day. Now he's threatening to take others down with him while in the US a woman running a hooker ring threatened to make public her client list and the case disappears There is corruption and control in all leagues, cliques always form at the top. Friends do each other favours. in Italy it is so prevalent that Berlusconi can be up on charges of tax fraud statutory rape and price fixing and still be banned from serving in office.. for 5 years, not for ever.. and of course, after a year it gets lifted. He only got into politics to alter the course of investigations into himself. Alas he is the biggest scumbag in a heap of scumbags, his own words almost Napoli like others at some point lost their protection and were called to account though anyone thinking the premiership is clean might be a little naive to think scumbag business concerns care about fair play over making hard cash, thats the bottom line, and that game is never clean.
Everywhere is corrupt, but the corruption ranges from relatively reasonable and almost harmless to truly outrageous and very harmful. An example of the former is a story I heard about getting government licenses in Brooklyn, which you could only do five days a week. If you wanted something Saturday, everyone knew you paid the man $100.00 and he'd do it for you. This seemed like a good deal to everybody. US leagues ban for life anyone involved in betting on any sport. You have to do to avoid match fixing. No one in Europe, obviously, is interested in doing that.
Probably because it's completely ineffective, RWAEB. People just do it anyway, but with illegal bookies. If they're going to break the law once by fixing games, then why wouldn't they do it again with illegal gambling?
I'm not sure I understand your point, but: in the US most gambling on sports is illegal. The idea is that if a player is caught betting on his sport (typically with an illegal bookie), he's banned for life from the sport. (I think I exaggerated in an earlier post: you can bet, as long as it's not on your sport.)
Gambling on your own games is illegal in virtually any sport, I think, RWAEB. I was under the impression that most sports betting was just illegal in the US, bar Nevada and Native American reservations. Is that wrong?
I was about to say "they got relegated while match fixing? They were doing it wrong". It takes a bit for that penny to fall sometimes.
Calciopoli wasn't just Juve - Milan, Fiorentina, Lazio and Reggina were also charged. Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio were supposed to be relegated to Serie B and Juve to Serie C1, but appeals and (presumably) somebody noting that a Serie A without Milan, Juve and Lazio would obliterate the TV ratings saw that changed to points deductions. The relegations, points deductions, loss of Champions league revenue and Juve's colossal fine did have a lasting effect on Serie A, though. It added to Inter's trophy haul...
If you argue with them,you may get a dead horse in your bed......and I don't mean "she who must be obeyed!"
That's correct (though you might add Atlantic City, Biloxi, Pittsburgh and a few other places trying to fund civic corruption by fostering gambling addiction). But the internet has opened up a wide world of semi-legal betting. It is illegal, technically, but no one's tried to clamp down on it yet. I've failed to convince you, I think, that punishments for gambling athletes are more draconian in US sports than in football (I'd do better if I knew the exact rules for each!). One example: Pete Rose, who had the most hits in baseball history, was banned from any association with the sport (and entry into the Hall of Fame) after it came out that he bet on baseball while he played (though he didn't bet for or against his own team). Paolo Rossi led Italy to a World Cup after, I believe, being found guilty of match fixing a couple of years earlier. The players who fixed a world series (though they were never convicted) were banned from baseball for life. Even so, match fixers are convicted periodically in the US--which means that there are many who get away with it. I noticed some referees very likely fixed a Steelers game a few years ago--not the score but the point spread.
I think that baseball takes a harsher view of betting because of the Black Sox Scandal, whereas football got distracted from it's equivalent by WWI. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1915_British_football_betting_scandal Arsenal's chairmen then alleged used the smoothing over of the whole thing to get his club promoted. Allegedly... The only match fixers in recent British history that I can think of were Bruce Grobbelaar, Hans Segers and John Fashanu back in 1994. Nothing was ever proven, but Grobbelaar went bankrupt from the ensuing legal battles with the press. Segers went on to become a coach at Spurs!
Golly.I forgot about that post World War 1 Arsenal promoted by backhanders scandal! Spurs got the chop but got promoted then won the FA Cup! Honour restored just a little. I guess this was the beginning of the "we hate Arsenal" family hand me down thing! Good old "Woolwich boys!"
In the US there's a match fixing scandal in college sports every few years, not surprisingly. We may have more of a potential problem because gambling is illegal: it means criminals of some sort run most of it. There's also a puritanical streak which explains why gambling (along with many other victimless crimes) is illegal in the first place. But I don't like the idea of people being convicted of match fixing ever being involved with their sport again. It just teaches them that it's okay, and it makes me wonder whether the fix was in in, say, the Lazio game.
