I am tempted to reply with; He would say that wouldn't he! Call me cynical but I would be very surprised if PL football was squeaky clean. Such huge amounts of money sloshing around in the game would suggest to me that's it's almost impossible to believe it is without corruption. We have seen on more than one occasion some very strange decisions and results especially, I recall, on the crucial last day of a season when the ramifications are huge. Goalkeepers letting in silly goals, officials making odd decisions and even the odd case of food poisoning at a crucial time. Luck? bad or good! yes maybe it is but I don't think you can blame me for being a tad suspicious. How much do refs. earn compared to the players? Hmm! Full article:http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/dec/10/fa-match-fixing-not-big-issue-football
Things are definitely fixed. Taking Saturday's performance aside, look how **** we've played! AVB's definitely been taking bungs there Joking aside, it wouldn't surprise me if all of world football has been corrupted with match fixing. The amount of money involved these days, certain owners/ investors rely on certain outcomes and so no doubt they've taken all measures possible to ensure they get the best sort of result for themselves/ their clubs.
This must be why I suck at the prediction leagues. Sepp Blatter reads the forum and then puts the fix in I doubt it's a problem in the PL, players get paid too much for it to be worthwhile. What gets me though is how no one noticed. If Sodje got paid £70k, how much must they have had to put on to make betting on a red card worthwhile? Surely it would have to be a very noticeable amount?
Its not one or even a few bets, its a spread bet, very well spread... all over Asia! its the sheer numbers involved, lots of small bets still add up.
The betting communities of the Far East have a lot of money riding on it, and they have resorted to skulduggery to make money from Premier League fixtures before: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/426148.stm
When our refs became full time, they were guaranteed £75k per year where as elsewhere in Europe I understand €300k is the norm. It has to be open to corruption. How many times have we seen extra extra time at Old Toilet? Had goals disallowed there that crossed the line by over a metre? Had goalkeepers sent off or dodgy goals allowed? How about Fulop at West Brom clearly letting in goals intentionally in the last match or the season (although this may has be in revenge to Spurs rather than corruption) I not accusing anyone in particular. Howardever, we need a straw Poll, there appears to be a Webb of conceit going on here. A Friend once said, for Foys sake there Moss be backhanders. Mark my words, I Dowd if the top flight has ever been honest but we Mason't give up. Oliver a guess that they are all at it, it is Riley obvious. But seriously, the only way to minimise it is to: ban spot betting, have video replays don't announce which officials will be at each match ( fly them in by helicopter). Pay Premier referees £1m a year each but suspend them if they make obvious mistakes. Take injury time out of the hands of the ref, stop the clock as in Rugby if the ball goes out or if the game stops through injury. You will never stop corruption but you can minimise opportunities for it to happen. The likes of Bruce Grobelaar you will never be able to cut out.
This has been a big talking point in recent weeks and the bookies in the UK have systems in place to suspend betting if they see irregular patterns on certain bets but abroad in the far east where there aren't regulations you get betting systems such as how many goals scored in a game overall and they are clearly targeting players who they feel are easy to push into doing apparently non risk bets. For example a team could be losing 3-0, match lost, and the player being paid could help his team concede a goal, 4 goals in total conceded and the player picks up cash thinking he hasn't done anything wrong as his team was losing anyway. Same with snooker, a player could throw some frames to win 6-4 instead of 6-0, he still wins the match but picks up a bonus and thinks he hasn't done much wrong as the outcome is the same. I agree it isn't widespread but it's clearly an issue creeping in with players on a lower wage.
It's certainly happening more and more in snooker since they lost their tobacco sponsorship money. Minimise the potential to cheat and zero tolerance to cheats is probably the best way of dealing with it. Life bans for cheats is the only way to deal with it, they will then expect to lose their livelihood if caught.
Well yeah but paying out a huge sum for one particular incident should arouse suspicion. I mean the market for that must be pretty insignificant at betting companies and with the amount of analysis they do you'd think it would get flagged, no?
Crazy thing about snooker is these players risk their career for such small amounts compared to what they earn playing extra tournaments.
I don't think the corrupt betting relates to the results of matches, but to more subtle things like the number of bookings or sendings off. It's easier to make money from this kind spread betting - and easier to influence the outcome. A player can easily get booked for time wasting in injury time, for example. It's much harder to deliberately concede a goal. And it's impossible for those watching to detect any wrongdoing unless there is evidence that a player has been approached by the fixers. So the truth is that we will never know just how rife it is and how, where and when it has been taking place.
Insignificant? what makes you say that? I'm assuming its just a standard red card bet in play, some bets you only have to choose a half the red occurs in, I doubt the bet was DJC to be sent off in the xx minute. Like Luke says, I doubt keepers and strikers are involved to concede/miss/score goals to affect a result that way, its more the bet in play gig, yellows, reds, corners etc. Not sure how the subject turned to refs, imo you must all be joking, can't see that at all. No, players all the time for me, paid enough money?, those involved are just greedy, 'enough' not being in their vocab.
It's definitely much harder to deliberately concede a goal but players would most likely lose their marker at a corner, play someone onside, give away a penalty, doesn't guarantee a goal being scored yet do all three in one game and you're virtually guaranteed to concede...... Unless the other team has Soldado up front! We see defenders stay on for 90 minutes even if they are having a mare so as long as they aren't doing it every week, they can get away with the odd dodgy performance.
It's being going on for years, except it was league fixing and bungs rather than spot bets. Without harping on, Sir Henry Norris, Woolwich Nomads, Man U v Liverpool. Brown Envelopes, Threats, bribes, blackmail, need I say more?
There's match fixing in the NFL, where any player so much as seen gambling on the NFL is banned for life. There's match fixing in every sport. My feeling is, as some have mentioned, it's huge in the PL, and may well determine key spots in the final standings. That's just a hunch though, based on some very odd results, and the general nod and a wink attitude towards gambling and even match fixing in football. Rossi was suspended for a year for fixing matches, if I recall. That's the higher-ups way of saying, "Paolo! You know it's okay, but you can't be so sloppy next time."
Did anyone else's heart lift when they saw Campbell was suspected of match fixing, only to find it was the wrong one?
I'm was expecting to hear fulops name mentioned, but apparently he's a Spurs fan! www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/tottenham-vs-arsenal-preview-marton-1740700
