A well reasoned thread this one. I have been suspicious of certain referees for a number of seasons. Whether they have been nobbled by other clubs or by overseas punters is open to discussion. If you look at some of the money earned by getting into Europe; gate receipts (now a relative minor consideration), shirt sales to the 'faithful' abroad and TV money I sometimes have wondered how many club executives haven't had the thought cross their minds to bung a ref something like two hundred grand for three points. Whilst we can objectively say that neither of our teams are world beaters but there are some games which have been played where the result was simply wrong and it could be argued that it was down to one man; whether it's the referee or a touch judge. The former has the power to do anything and the latter can raise wrongly for offiside or fail to raise for a perfectly good goal. I would start with the referees. Until now I have been careful not to mention any names or highlight any particular incident because of the various libel laws. However, one thing I do know is that some managers are known to give a referee a fine and expensive bottle of wine after the game. This is corruption,albeit not on a large scale but give the referee a good bottle each visit and sooner or later a mistackle will be overlooked, a player in your face won't be booked and perhaps you will play a little to the home side. This practise has been going on for years and it's well known but the FA haven't stopped it. The New York Mayor many years ago started off a zero tolerance attitude to crime calling it 'The Broken Window' policy. Let broken windows go and then the neighbourhood starts, ever so slowly, to fall into decay. The same applies here. The referee gets his pay and should get his meal after the game and that's it. Nothing more. And that's not even starting with the big stuff because I am positive that there's a few referees walking around with lots more in their bank accounts or under their Tuscan villa beds then they ought to have.
Oh yes, the reason you are at the bottom of the league is because of match-fixing!! keep clutching at straws lads.....
All we are saying is that the decisions going against are too many and too bizarre to be coincidence. With that in mind, it is surely rational that we want to explore other avenues of possible reasons why it is happening..
Alan Shearer reckons there should be zero tolerance for spot fixing, this from the player who blackmailed the FA into rescinding a red card against him!
Great post. You a Malcolm Gladwell fan by any chance? That Broken Window policy is one of the most revolutionary things I've ever read about.
You didn't even read what i'm on about, my comments are in no way related to performance. It's about corruption in our sport as a whole! Are you ****ing stupid or what?
Was standing behind the goal when that went in. I turned round and said to my mate that he meant to put it in. He had no reason to touch the ball, especially the way he done it.
Starsport columnist Merson even believes HE was approached by match-fixers shortly after he hung up his boots as a player. And the former Arsenal and England midfielder is worried that this week’s arrests of players in the lower leagues could be just the tip of the iceberg. Here, he tells his story and explains his concerns about the possible corruption of the national game. I would rather be skint than fix a football match. People who do that disgust me. They don’t love football. They can’t, because if they did they would realise the damage they are doing to our game. I’m a betting man but I hate that kind of stuff. If you get involved in fixing in any way, you are killing people’s dreams and playing with working class people’s hard-earned money. But that didn’t stop something from happening to me that makes me wonder whether what’s been claimed his week is just the tip of the iceberg. A few years after I retired, I got a call out of the blue from someone claiming to represent a group of rich investors with a business proposition. They told me they wanted to take a bunch of veteran footballers on a big six-a-side tour of the USA to help promote the game over there and asked if I could help out. They arranged to meet me in a fancy London hotel and when they arrived they were all suited and booted and seemed legitimate. I think they were Arabic. They wanted to know who they should get for the tour and whether I had the sort of contacts go get some big-name players on board. However, all of a sudden, the conversation took a strange turn. They started asking me whether I had ever known the outcome of matches in England before they had started. They seemed very interested in that. They wanted to known how you get that kind of information. It was then that alarm bells started ringing for me. Why would you ask that? I saw straight away where they were going with it and I told them: “No, football is the straightest game there is.” They just looked at each other and they didn’t push me on it. But the thing is, I never heard from them again. Looking back on it now, I’m convinced it was an approach to get my help to fix a game. I think they wanted to use me as a middleman, to go to people and ask: “Can you fix this game?” I thought it was quite sinister. I’ve played in hundreds of football matches and I’ve watched hundreds more. I’ve never once seen anything I thought looked bent. But now I wonder. I don’t think there are players out there deliberately taking money to throw a game. If there are it’s absolutely disgusting. I don’t see how you could do it. I also think that if you walked into a betting shop in this country and tried to put a lot of money on a red card in a match they would laugh in your face. But these arrests are a real worry. They are a real eye-opener because some of these guys are not that far away from the Premier League. Anyone who is found guilty of any sort of fixing, whether it’s the result of a game, or just a red card or a throw-in, should be banned for life. There is absolutely no place for that in football. I just hope it’s not happening in the Premier League – but I’m convinced there is a lot more to come out on this, and that is frightening for football. If they find corruption like that going on in the Premier League it would be major, it would be so damaging. These guys are on £100,000 a week, so you would have to be talking huge sums to make it worth their while. The Premier League is watched by millions around the world. Every little thing is under the spotlight. That’s why I never thought fixing was possible at that level. But what happened to me back then now makes me wonder. Let’s hope there is no corruption at the top of our game because, if there is, people will turn against football very quickly.
DJ Campbell has released a statement : "I'm 100% innocent and hoping to play in our 1:1 draw at Millwall on Saturday"
i think bardo was somewhat wary of hazard popping up behind him and scoring. the mere threat caused him to fumble it in. says more about his ability than owt else.
No, until now I haven't heard of the gentleman. But I have looked him up on the intertubes and I will investigate his work further. My only journalist that I follow is Robert Fisk.
