By Tony Attwood
It is one of the central themes of Untold. A theme that the Premier League in England refuses to look at or address. A theme which is backed up by more and more evidence day after day.
A theme that simply says: match fixing is rife. So rife in fact that in October 2011 in desperation Untold even put forward the notion that maybe Arsenal ought to get themselves involved in match fixing since everyone else seemed to be doing it. We also provided evidence for one of the most blatantly fixed matches in the Champions League in November 2010
Now support for that theme has come from Europol. Because it is Europol they focus, as always, on match fixing for gambling purposes, rather than match fixing by clubs who seek to influence referees. So it is not the same as what we look at, but the outcome is the same. Results are not safe, matches are fixed.
A Europol spokesperson has said that Europol has uncovered an crime syndicate (amusing called in the UK press, an “organised crime syndicate” – which begs the question, what would a disorganised crime syndicate look like?) which is based in Asia (they are always based in Asia) that has influenced over 400 refs and assistant refs, club officials, and players.
Europol said matches affected include World Cup and European Championship qualifiers, two Champions League ties plus games in 15 countries, including “several top football matches in European leagues”. However Interpol says they have only seen the tip of the iceberg.
One interesting fact is that for the first time ever they have discussed the profit margin of match fixing. Apparently it is around 40% of the level of investment. Quite a nifty return.
So Interpol is saying that it has uncovered a major international network, but only seen about 10% of what is going on. Officials have admitted that they have been taken by surprise at the scale of the criminal activity. And one spokesperson said that it would be naive to assume that what goes on across Europe is not also happening in England.
They also say that a Champions League game in England is one of 380 matches that they have found to be fixed. Which means that one of Arsenal, Man C, Man U, Chelsea and Liverpool are most likely to have played in the game – although of course they might not have been party to the fixing.
Judicial proceedings are said to be “ongoing” which is why no individual matches are being cited.
Rob Wainwright, director of Europol, said that in Germany £1.73m is believed to have paid to those involved in match fixing. He said also that 50 people arrested so far.
UEFA has said that they would co-operate with the investigation; but then the could hardly have said anything else. But every competition that has been affected will now be seen as less reliable than it was seen previously. If several dozen Champions League ties are being tampered with a season, as seems likely based on the information in the report, then the Champions League is meaningless.
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Recent posts
- What is really going on inside Arsenal? It’s not so hard to work out.
- The case for Koscielny as a defensive midfielder
- Match Review: Mike Dean – Arsenal Vs Manchester City (0 – 2) [13/01/2013]
- Arsenal – Stoke: crazy assistants, mad tackles and bad punches. Oh and we won.
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The books…
- Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Arsenal’s early years
- Making the Arsenal – how the modern Arsenal was born in 1910
- The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal FC: crowd behaviour at the early matches
The sites…
- Referee Decisions - just what are the refs up to this season?
- Parent News - what is going on in schools these days?
- The weight loss programme: The only guaranteed way to stay fit
- The Arsenal History Blog from the AISA Arsenal History Society
One further point; Although it would appear very unlikely that Arsenal are involved in bribing officials to win games (I say very unlikely because it is clearly very rare that a referee will be in our favour, as shown by your reviews). There is nothing to say that Arsenal players and coaches have not been involved in ‘match fixing’ for gambling gains. Things that may seem quite innocent at the time, such as kicking the ball out for a goal-kick in the 4th minute, or for the manager to make a substitution in the 81st minute. (Like John Higgens missing a pink off the spot in a particular frame)
I’m not saying this is the case, but I think it would be far too presumptious to assume that no member of Arsenal football club has ever been involved at all, given the fact that it is clearly so rife within the game we love.
Well well well, not so paranoid after all hey Tony?
Well done to keep banging in about it Untold, something is definitely wrong here.
Watch this space..
@ nannu: Mate all u can say is haha your comprehension skills leave much to be desired, read the article again out loud… For the record ahh bugger it your not worth a reply to ur our if blue comment!
@Andrei
It may not be that the Arsenal Barca game was fixed as far as the result goes. It may be that a large bet was placed on Van Persie (or just an Arsenal player (or any player between 50 and 60 minutes)) being dismissed during the game and the referee was ‘persuaded’ to ensure this particular bet was not a gamble. This then had a bearing on the result but the actual scoreline may not have been on the agenda on this occasion.
Just a thought, I just feel that that particular decision was so so abnormal that it cannot be ruled out as being suspicious.
As a former professional referee, I can state that getting to officials in order to influence a game result is actually quite easy. The referees are always sequestered from anyone else and access to their dressing room or wherever they arrive in the stadium is not seriously supervised by anyone usually. However any influence buying would usually take place before the match and rarely involve all 4-5 officials, as that is quite a group to take a risk with.
It seems to me that influencing a game would go through the officials first and then the goalkeepers and defender second. If a keeper drops a clanger, everyone groans but nobody screams cheat. If a defender drags down an opponent in the penalty area, its squeaky-bum time for the fans but nobody screams match fixing. If either player was paid off to provide a clanger, or penalty it is almost impossible to prove that it was. imagine the referee ANd the defender knowing that sometime during the game a penalty was due to happen and it would be so obvious that nobody would dare complain!
Tony, organized crime syndicates are usually world religions and disorganized crime syndicates are usually governments!!!
Al, that Liverpool Debrecen now being mentioned in a few sources, though all at pains to say Liverpool themselves were not part of it, with the focus on the opposing keeper. Maybe the arsenal barca game was not necessecarily fixed by organised crime , but it was certainly fixed by someone……and Nicholas bendtner! One of the things that got me in that game was the barca players grabbing arsenal players throats right in front of the ref, who did nothing about that, but sent off our danger player for nothing. A fix is a fix, whether it be a eufa influenced biased ref, or a gangster, it is all the same thing, and the authorities need to get a hold of it…….just hope they are not as shy of dealing with this as they are with the games other big problems, namely racism……and probably ffp
@Mandy
I had forgotten all about the throat grabbing in that game. That was disgraceful, it was almost as if the Barca players knew they were untouchable and could get away with anything.
@Andrei. Match fixing cannot be an exact science. If you aim to fix it so the underdog wins you are going to struggle. If you want to fix it so the favourite wins you can normally do that with a few favourable decisions because that favourite will probably have most of the possession. Also fixing matches so the underdog wins is much more obvious. The most important thing in match fixing, not that i’m an expert, is to ensure the result you desire in the subtlest way possible. That normally means ensuring that the favourite wins. If you can continue doing this over many matches the punters make more money than if you attract the attention of the authorities on the first attempt or, worst case scenario, the match result turns out different to what you promised.
@Dan T you make an excellent point. You can bet on anything now so it doesn’t have to be the score or the result. Van Persie to get sent off is something that could be bet on. Obviously if someone decided to bet 5m on Van Persie getting sent off and it happenned that would be suspicious but I suppose they would spread the bets over numerous bookies to make it less obvious. Bookings and red cards are the easiest things to bet on. You only need to bribe either a ref or a player to make it happen. To fix a result takes a bit of luck but players know how to get themselves sent off and most players commit at least two fouls in a game.
@Andrei. Finally, just to emphasise my first point, Juventus were found guilty of match fixing when they were Champions of Serie A. If they were fixing matches they were fixing them so the favourite (themselves) won the match. You could argue the purpose was to achieve success rather than to make money but would it have gone unnoticed for so long if it had been a team at the bottom of Serie A fixing matches in their favour ? Also you know that people were making money by betting on the results of these fixed matches, many players have been found guilty of that.
There are some games when I have to confess that I’ve wondered if someone’s drugged Arsenal’s water bottles!
But seriously, what better reason for stalling video replays than a fixed game? We know that FIFA have many questionable officials…several of whom have been banned… and the ultimate football rules/law fixer (?breaker?) is….?? Correct answers don’t win a prize but may raise a smile.
I’m interested to know exactly where these people had their bets accepted.
Placing bets is not as simple as many believe.
And anyone placing unusual large sums of money in Britain are sure to send alarm bells ringing.
Gambling is scrutinised now more than at any-time ever before and any “suspicious betting activity” is sure to attract investigation.
Many gambling companies now work with sports governing bodies (SGBs). The process of sharing information with SGBs through ‘Memoranda of Understanding’ (MOU) including the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), the English Football Association (FA), Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and the International Cricket Council (ICC) to ensure sport is conducted fairly and is free of corruption.
Recent investigations include Ipswich’s Michael Chopra and ex-Manchester United player Mark Wilson who were given 10-year bans from racing after a corruption inquiry. They were among nine found guilty in an investigation by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) into gambling on horses to lose.
And snooker player Joe Jogia banned from the game following a probe into suspicious betting patterns.
Dan T
You are quite right there, its called spot betting.There are basically two types of betting, conventional betting which bets on overall result of the game, and spot betting which can be anything occuring during the game, and has nothing to do with the final outcome. Spot betting is more difficult to detect, than say a team winning 8-0. This could have very well been the case with the RvP as you and Mandy point out. The ref may have been ordered to send off a player between a certain period, and many bets would have been placed on something along the lines of a player will be sent off in this period. Thats why the rvp sending off didn’t make any sense to anyone watching that game.
Matt Le Tissier addmitted to taking part in his autobigraphy about kicking the ball out of play unecessarily after putting money with bookies that the first throw in of the match would happen within the first minute or something. Such things are heavily gambled on, and are difficult to detect as they appear as part of the game. While this liverpool game might have been fixed, I’d say there are many that may have been fixed here but the bets were not dependent on the final outcome. Fixers are clever, and they dont usually bet on the outcome as they know that can easily raise people’s suspicions. Talking of suspcious outcomes though, does anyone think the outcome of the 2005 champions league final between Milan & pool was tampered with? Milan’s performances in both halves were exactly the opposite of each other. After all its Italians we are talking about here:)
Just realised Charlie had summed it up, sorry hadn’t read all the comments. Fixing outcomes doesn’t have as much money as spot bettings. There’s only three possible outcomes anyway, which doesn’t give huge odds or huge returns. But try and ask the odds that a certain defender will concede a free kick between the 10th and 15th minute, which will result in a goal, and see what sort of odds you get. If that happens, would anyone even think there was anything suspcious with that? No.
I am very sceptical about this investigation. remember big money and people in high places in the FIFA & UEFA could be involved. would they want their house of cards come crumbling down? i don’t think so. they will make a scrape-goat of some player or some ref and close the case. reminds me of the 90′s cricket scam in India.
if they do a proper job on this and get all the accused, i will be happy, but not holding my breath.
Al,
Further to your comments, as the bets being placed are at high odds, the betting party would also be likely to have bet the same sort of thing a couple of time prior but without the fix in place in order to make it look like a more regular betting pattern. The third attempt on a 10-1 outcome is still going to make good money but the history would reduce the suspicion.
Yes Stuart, I would imagine they would try things like that to obfuscate any obvious patterns. These are people who have earned billions from these things and have learned how to perfect act.
Gouresh
Agree. This invloves people at the top of the game who will do everything and anything not to go down. Our only hope is its it involves Interpol, but sure even they will find some stumbling blocks placed in their paths. What would be best is if someone implicated in this just decides they’re not going down alone, and names all the high-ranking people to have been involved in this.
Dan T, Mandy Dodd,
And how about x-Cesc’s CL back heel “miss” that gifted the goal chance to his Barfa-boyfriend. That was argued here last year by commenters who closely reviewed the video. Cesc would have had other more personal reasons for gifting that gift, but I don’t think he is exempt or has been exempt from all manner of outside pressures either.
Given that name of Barcelona is often mentioned, I wouldn’t split this story from the story France Football recently published regarding something called “Qatargate”.
Fact 1 – Qatar will organize World Cup 2022.
Hypothesis (still unproven) – former French president Nicolas Sarkozy invited Michel Platini on dinner with himself and Prince of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalif Al-Thani to persuade former best player in the world to vote for Qatar in exchange for bribe and investment in French football.
Fact 2 – Qatar Investment Authority became major owner of PSG shares (they bought 70 percent).
Fact 3 – Barcelona had some questionable victories in Champions’ League ever since Platini became UEFA chairman in 2007.
Fact 4 – BBC reported that Barcelona signed sponsorship deal with Qatar Foundation on 10th December 2010, 8 days after Qatar was announced as host of World Cup 2022.
Fact 5 – Josep Guardiola was an ambassador of Qatar’s bid.
It has been revealed that seven matches were fixed in Bosnia. I’m surprised that number of fixed matches wasn’t even bigger given that, according to some semi-official reports, Bosnian league (as well as Serbian) was subjected to something called “three for three”. Three for three means two clubs agree that each of those clubs will win their home match.
Interesting times, Tony; maybe there is finally a chink of light at the end of this darkest of tunnels?
We wait with baited breath and live in hope.
Keep up the excellent work.
I read a report the other day from I think Declan Hill(?) about Dan Tan the man who is named as one of the people involved in the fixing.
But it drew a rather dreadful picture as the person was allowed to speak at an Interpol congress but his accusations on this Dan Tan were not written down in the final report.
Interpol has an international search warrant against this Dan Tan but he is hidden in Singapore and the government there doesn’t pick him up.
And Interpol doesn’t seem too much bothered to put pressure on the government.
And to close the circle…Interpol will open an office in Singapore.
So if you get the point….it’s all about politics and maybe giving Interpol that office is a way of making sure that this Dan Tan remains free in his home country?
Well that is what I remember but must say that I have read so much about it the last days that some facts could have been mixed up but that was the general line of the article I read. And I lost the link so can’t find it back
Have a read of http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21333930 its quite interesting. He makes a lot of suggestions, but as usual they seem to stem around the players/coaches.
Im amazed that no one has pointed out that neither the FA (and EPL) or the PGMOL are public bodies and as such are accountable to no one. There needs to be far greater transparency in the way that these two organisations work and by extension UEFA and FIFA.
We have already seen that FIFA has had a number of corruption claims laid at its doors. Are the press in this country really that naive as to think that there is no corruption in positions of power at the FA/EPL. Or are they aware of it and seeking to draw attention on to the players instead?
@ Mandy Todd – its been confirmed that the English team from the CL match was Liverpool. Check here http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21335331
As for the big issues, its been suggested that Racism is dealt with by a simple handshake, perhaps corruption (and bias) will be dealt with by a hug between managers?
Again from the BBC, http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21340269
Quote:
“Coleman, who has managed in Spain and Greece, said he witnessed on-field events that “made me raise an eyebrow”.
But he believes the game in Britain is unblemished.
Coleman, who managed Spain’s Real Sociedad between 2007 and 2008 and Larissa in Greece between 2010 and 2011, recalled games where he saw players “doing some crazy things” and “referees making crazy decisions”.
“You come off, and you are scratching your head and you are thinking: ‘Something [is] not quite right’.
“But how do you prove that, especially when you are a manager or a player or a coach?”
Again, I think we are being naive if we are suggesting that corruption or bias is just a foreign problem.
But for the referees there are somethings that we could try:
- Publish where each Ref is from (already done).
- Produce and list the directives that are given to the referees at the start of each season. I presume that this would be the FIFA Laws of the Game and in addition any particular local laws. Make sure that these are available publicly and are shown on FA/EPL/PGMOL/UEFA/FIFA web sites.
- Make referees accountable for their decisions (when wrong). Players are shown yellow/red cards and coaches are given bans. This could be in the form of a ‘controlled’ interview after the match with one/two people asking questions and the ref explaining why they made the decision he/she did. This then also fulfils the idea that the PGOML are actually educating the public about what referees are doing. Referees gaining enough “yellow” cards could then see himself banned from the next series of matches or demoted to lower leagues or have a financial penalty.
- All referees are judged in assessments after each match. Publish these along with the names (and affiliation) of the reviewers. This would avoid for example Pat Rice reviewing Arsenal matches and downgrading a ref due to quite obvious bias.
Actually I would also recommend http://www.7amkickoff.com/2013/fifa-and-uefa-threaten-to-turn-football-into-kayfabe/