The European police agency has revealed that a wide-ranging investigation into match fixing has uncovered more than 380 suspicious matches. These games include World Cup and European Championship qualifiers and two UEFA Champions League games, one of which was in England according to UEFA. Europol's chief Rob Wainwright said the investigation uncovered "match fixing activity on a scale we have not seen before." Wainwright revealed the probe uncovered around £7million in betting profits and £1.27m in bribes to players and officials and has already led to several prosecutions. The investigation identified about 425 corrupt officials, players and serious criminals in 15 countries and 50 arrests have been made so far. Wainwright also stated that the involvement of organised crime "highlights a big problem for the integrity of football in Europe". It was not immediately clear how many of the matches mentioned have been revealed in previous match fixing investigations at a national level in countries including Germany and Italy. http://www1.skysports.com/football/...ion-uncovers-more-than-380-suspicious-matches
It would explain why we keep giving late goals away, and not getting results despite clearly being the better team
Some random thoughts in no particular order: Betting takes place not only on the result but on all sorts of side events. A colluding player and ref could easily "earn" a yellow card for dissent. Though a match can be fixed with dodgy penalties and offside calls, there's not much a ref can do about that 40 yard screamer from midfield on the 89th minute, that turns a win into a draw. (And I do hope that has happened and left these scumbags out of pocket) Who are the bookies taking these bets? If someone is consistently placing a large bets and earning a lot of money through gambling, shouldn't the bookies start start asking questions and stop taking the bets... unless the bookies are fronts for the same criminal gangs looking for an opportunity to launder their cash.
Certainly it is difficult to fix anything to certainty but you can tip the balance in your favour and over a long series of fixing, make a lot of money. There is also a balance between attempting to fix results, which is more difficult, and spot fixing, where you are not going to make so much money without being caught. A lot of this will be happening in East Europe, Turkey, Russia and so on where gambling is not very well regulated and/or has corrupt elements. It will be interesting when names start being named, to be honest I will be shocked if any notable names in this country are involved. But as a BBC journalist noted on their live update thing, this is not really a shock to people in a lot of other countries.
Don't worry, they do. Any punter showing regular profit on large bets will quickly have their accounts shut down. It's not in the bookmaker's interests to have gamblers who already know the outcome before an event - as they are the ones who have to pay out.
That's the bit I struggle with. I've had loads of accounts closed and I'm not a big better or sadly a big winner. Also most punters would struggle to get more than £100 or so on before the bookies ran for cover.Just look at the next managers markets as an example. A few small bets and the bookies suspend or slash the price.
Most I have ever made on one bet (not one game) is £680, from the looks of it most of the match fixing is starting of in China.
Its probably happening in countries where betting is illegal anywauy so the bookies would be in on it. If its anything like match fixing in cricket it would be on things like the number of fouls conceeded or the number of times a player is caught off side, bookings etc. Those things that the referee can control, with assistance from the players. Thinking about it... it must be Howard Webb and Fergie at the centre of it. With people taking bets to the nearest 15 minutes on how much time will be added on at the end of 90mins. Thats why UTD always tour Asia they put the bets on and Fergie gives Webb the nod during the matches.
In the Europol reports it says Turkey had the most 'match fixing' at 79 games. The Champions League game that was England was in the last 3-4 years.
If only UEFA put as much effort into tackling racism as they are putting into match fixing. Racism is just as big an issue but do **** all about it.
And the result is pretty hilarious: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...edly-fixed-by-Hungarian-sides-goalkeeper.html One, that match-fixers felt it necessary to rig a game so that at least three goals were scored in a match where you'd expect a Liverpool walkover...Debrecen surrendered at least three goals in each of their four games against Fiorentina and Lyon, and bowed out of the group with zero points and a -14 goal differential, the worst of any team. Two, that Liverpool only managed to score one goal despite the assistance of the opposing goalkeeper.
