Fixing is rarely a team sport. The betting syndicates influence one or more elements, Ref lino, keeper or player\s but rarely you'll find a manager and team all in on something like this, it becomes far too hard to hide. My money is on a betting fix, right amount of goals or definite loss by 3 or something like that, the host club in teh UK may have known nothing.
I don't remember you playing a single CL game in 2010...care to enlighten? And that's why I said almost certainly. Too subtle for you guys? Like I said, almost. Don't go sticking your pencil tache in where it doesn't concern you I thought that too, but then why'd the ref send off Abidal in that case? That almost completely knocked Barca out!
A remarkably sensible insight. Does that mean you no longer believe the PL has been fixed for the last two decades? Or a yellow / red card scam - a player gets themselves sent off in the last few minutes once the game has been won or a ref pulls a dodgy red. That's the easiest one to pull off - the gamblers bet there will be a red card, and the player / ref only has to do something if there hasn't been one already.; Another possibility is the 2011 final - the gamblers would probably have gotten good odds on a draw at HT, and Barca opened up remarkably easily for Rooney's goal considering they'd been rock solid right up until a couple of minutes before half time.
i know its before this has supposedly happened but i always thought Arsenal got the rough end of the stick against Barca in the final in 06. Barca do seem to have benefited from a lot of dodgy decisions and if you count 05 onwards it has been up until recently an English team in the final if not both teams, so maybe someone didn't like that lol. i know, i love a good conspiracy theory, makes the day go quicker.
Good point. Anyone know if Real Madrid faced any fallout a few seasons ago when Ramos and Alonso got themselves sent off on purpose so they would miss the last match of the group and be 'clean' for the next round?
I can think of easier ways to cover his tracks! If he'd been bribed for Barca to go through, the decision could have sent him to the bottom of a river if Iniesta hadn't scored in the last minute. Whilst I agree Chelsea were never going to get anything, Barca didn't get anything either. That match could've been fixed, but if so it was more likely fixed so that there were no penalties and one red card, rather than fixing the result.
Wouldn't need to be the whole team, just one or two players. It's not unprecedented - didn't Mark Hateley admit taking a bribe to feign injury for Rangers so as not to play against Marseille in 93 to ease their passage to the CL final? The Barca players wouldn't even need to fix the result, just make sure that they were going to give Utd a good hammering as expected, and then make a little slip to allow Utd to score a single goal.
I think it is quite clear given that it was only one match in the UK that it is most likely the away team that was at fault. However, I dont think we should let this fact get in the way of us slating each others teams.
To suggest that they'd take a chance of that nature in a CL final for a bung, is ridiculous imo. You're talking about multi millionaire players who are stood on the verge of making history for their club, not a chance they'd have allowed United back into the game for a bet. As for Hatelely he was offered a bung not to play & refused it, hardly the same sort of scenario. This will be some Eastern European minnow, fiddling a scoreline imo.
its far more likely to be a group stage match and frnakly i think its more likely to be a couple of years back.... there are of course two possibilities.. 1. rooney's family were caught up in a similar thing weren't they 2. john terry is total evil incarnate and would be up to this... lord knows he's done everything else!
Overview: For those who thought that Liverpool and Manchester United would never cooperate with one another, you are mistaken. In 1915, Liverpool and Manchester United met at Old Trafford in a game that was so obviously fixed that even the Chicago Black Sox would have been impressed. United were fighting relegation andLiverpool were at mid-table and out of contention. As such, Liverpool players agreed to take a dive and bet on themselves to lose. Most observers felt that Liverpool went out of their way to avoid scoring, including missing a penalty shot, and United easily won, 2-0. Result: Rumors abounded that the match was fixed, which forced the F.A. to investigate. A total of seven players (3 from United and 4 from Liverpool) were banned for life. Neither club was fined, nor were any points deducted, which meant that the result would stand. Chelsea would have been relegated instead, however with the F.A.’s decision to expand the following season, Chelsea and Arsenal were allowed to stay.
During the timescale quoted C4 aired a documentary exposing the connection between a far east gambling outfit and an ex-player, i know the player in question isn't well and i hope he has a full recovery, my point being it doesn't matter how famous they are or how much they're worth because greed is what makes a lot of them tick. "allowed himself to become enmeshed in a network of Far East crooks, many of whom seemed to have made their money by illegal betting scams." http://www.sportingpolemics.com Also lets not forget Bruce Grobblelaar's dirty dealings with far eastern betting syndicates and feeling that he might have thrown games where we could have won more silverware etc, football is greed based and whoever was involved deserves the **** storm heading their way.
