http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19667219
Football is being ruined with money and greed as it is.
Football is being ruined with money and greed as it is.
SWANSEA City manager Michael Laudrup has moved to clarify comments he made about paying rival sides to win games.
And he has again stressed that people found guilty of match-fixing should be banned for life.
Asked on Thursday about the issue, he said the term match-fixing needs to be âbetter definedâ.
He said: âIf Swansea play the last game against a team and a third team pays Swansea to win the game, I really donât see anything bad about that.â
But the Dane said today: âI am well aware that it is against the rules to accept or receive money to influence the outcome of a football match.
âI am in full support of these match-fixing rules and certainly do not advocate any payments of any kind.
âThe point I was trying to make was that the term match-fixing needs to be defined because there are different levels.
âIf two teams playing each other both needed a draw and the scores are level with 20 minutes to go, then I wouldnât expect either team to throw men forward looking for the winner"
âThat to me is not match-fixing.
âThe worst case of match-fixing I heard was in Italy in the early 80s, before I went there, when three or four players were paid to lose a game.
âCan you imagine what the other players felt when they got to know about that after they went out to win.
âPeople like that should be banned for life, not a few years. They should be out of the game forever.
âThe other point I was trying to make regarding defining the word match-fixing, and which was hypothetical and perhaps taken out of context in relation to the whole interview, was that if someone wanted to pay us to win, then fine, because we go out to win every game anyway. Thatâs what I meant by a bonus.â
Laudrup was asked about the issue because he played for Lazio and Juventus in the 1980s, and Italian football continues to be dogged by match-fixing claims.
If I understood it correctly Laudrup was inferring it was okay for one club to pay another club a bonus if they beat another side that was perhaps in a relegation fight. Is that wrong? Bear in mind strikers get a goal bonus and players invariably play to win.
Paying to lose is another thing altogether.
hmmmm....that does seem dodgy, i wrote this on the jack board but it seems my instincs were wrong...
'yes i read this and it has misquote written all over it for me....
havent heard the interview and context and i suspect this is the work of a journalist trying to make something controversial out of nothing.......;
Laudrup wants a bit more clarification on the rules around a very sticky issue. He has raised a valid point. However, it goes against the spirit of the game and rules have been put in place. However, what he suggests is valid to a point. But if a team that has performed badly all season suddenly gets a win against the title challengers then it's a different scenario. How have they suddenly beaten the challengers? Was money their only motivation?
Another thing to bear in mind is kit sponsors. Usually they will sponsor a winning team (no brainer) so, as an extreme, Man Utd have a 10 year deal with "Bodge it and Leggit" worth 50 million. Are they not being paid to win? Bodge may stay around but most will leggit after a season or two of poor results. What's the difference if Swansea paid sponsorship to Liverpool to beat Norwich? Not a long term deal but sponsorship all the same.
