Match-fixing claims in Germany 2006 and Bundesliga
Do we have another match-fixing scandal on our hands?
In an interview published by German news magazine Der Spiegel on Monday, award-winning Canadian journalist Declan Hill gave accounts that detail the manipulation of Ghanaian matches in the 2006 World Cup, most notably the second round match between Ghana and Brazil, which was won 3-0 by Brazil.
Hill’s interview included accounts of multiple meetings with an Asian man who was reportedly a key member of a syndicate that manipulated the result of football matches. He was present at a meeting where the Asian man, referred to as Lee Chin, met with an Ghanaian runner to arrange the bribing, along with the sums of money involved and how many players were said to be involved.
The claims in the interview are just a small part of what Hill unearths in his book, The Fix, which was published in Germany on Tuesday.
In the interview, Hill doesn’t say definitively that the matches were fixed, but he does say that Chin told him that the Ghanaian middleman had received the consent of eight Ghana players to manipulate the results of World Cup matches for $30,000 per player per game, and that Chin called him shortly before Ghana’s tie against Brazil to let him know that the fix was on and that Ghana would lose by at least two goals.
If you would like to read the interview, you can here. The interview was actually taken down for a little while after I’d read it on Tuesday, and it was put back up on Wednesday with some changes to it with an editor’s note that said that some inaccuracies had been corrected, corrections that may have been tied in with Hill’s comments that he was misquoted.
Misquoted or not, Hill’s supposed claims haven’t gone over very well, as the Ghanaian FA is planning to sue Hill for, as per a GFA statement, “publishing defamatory statements about the Ghanaian FA and their players.”
On top of that, the man that Hill mentioned as the go-between involved in getting the fix on, Abukari Damba, has come out to proclaim his innocence, though he says he met Hill twice in Accra when Hill was looking for a ticket to a 2008 African Cup of Nations quarterfinal between Ghana and Nigeria.
So, how believable are Hill’s accusations/claims/suspicions?
Hill’s putting his reputation, and perhaps even his life, on the line with his book, and with that in mind, you’d have to pay some mind to what he’s saying, even if the tone of some of his comments is more suspicious and not as clear-cut accusatory.
Knowing that he’s under pressure to present some hardcore evidence, he’s posted a message on the book’s website stating that he’s working to get more information up, and an interview with Ghanaian star Stephen Appiah, where Appiah discusses Damba, being offered and taking money in order to win games, and more, has been put up, with both audio and written transcripts.
Speaking of Damba, he was involved in another match-fixing issue involving a Ghana-Iran friendly in 2007, when he was accused by some players of offering them $6,000 to throw the game in Tehran, a match that Ghana lost 4-2.
While Damba proclaims his innocence about that and the new claim, he was sacked from his position as a coach, and in the interview with Der Spiegel, Hill actually says that Damba not only confessed in a hearing about the Iran friendly that he received money for arranging meetings, but also that Damba told him in one of their meetings that he had put Lee Chin in contact with Ghanaian players at the World Cup, including Appiah.
As for the players, you’d like to think that they wouldn’t let financial benefit affect their performance, one way or another, but as is backed up by the Appiah interview, the money men are just as willing to reward the players for winning certain games, not just for losing. Greed can be a factor, but so can trying to take care of your loved ones, and when you have a chance to earn a little extra money on the side, such an opportunity can be pretty appealing.
And given how match-fixing and bribing has been in the news far too much in recent times in other sports, the accusations are certainly going to create at least a little ripple, and it certainly has.
But, you do have to question just how much credence there is to his comments, because suspicion isn‘t always truth. That’s the approach that FIFA is taking, as Sepp Blatter says no investigation will be made into Hill’s comments. In fact, Hill says in the interview that he met Blatter to discuss what he knew and that he dismissed the claims as he’s doing now.
Do you think that Hill’s suspicions are justified, or do you think he’s going out on a limb that’s going to break in order to gain publicity for his new book?
Also See: Raphael Honigstein’s take on the Bundesliga match-fixing accusations.
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Declan Hill was in a talk-show on German TV on Monday and no matter how much truth there is behind his speculation, he came across like someone desperately trying to sell his book and nothing else.
His whole demeanor was highly polished superficiality. He came across a lot like a host of the evening news. And whenever he was asked about hard facts and evidence he just kept referring to his book - as in: buy the book and you’ll know. And the way he dramatized his meetings with that Asian boss, how he tried to come across as an emotional fan of football who fears for his favorite past time. Maybe he really is that way, but it looked extremely playacted.
So at the end of the interview all I remember him saying was:
“Buy my book.”
“Go to my webpage.”
“Buy my book.”
“I’ve been to a KFC in Asia.”
“Buy my book.”
“Somebody told me something and I made a book out of it and you should buy it.”
“No, I don’t know why this Asian big boss told me everything. Maybe he wanted to be famous.”
I didn’t read the book, but I’ve read reviews, which write that it’s all highly speculative and that he wouldn’t have come far during his Oxford days with the type of sources he provides for his assumptions.
But that these things could happen or do happen is still a possibility of course. Hill just doesn’t seem to have a smoking gun. Just some more money from selling his book.
I am shocked that Hill is being touted as an award winning journalist in Canada. It is opathetic that he has wasted the whole world’s time with his outrightly false claims. He said he met Damba in Bangkok and was gonna provide the pictures. He has still not provided the pictures and Damba has turned up on a telly station in Ghana with his passports that he has never set foot in that country before. This is a crude work with lies all over it to make money, deceive another organisation to give him an award and then he doesn’t care about those he might have destroyed with his sensationlism. No wonder he has gone into hiding with everyone mentioned in his book suing him left right centre. He is from Canada therefore not a football fans. It is a shark infested river. Hill will be devoured.
You forgot to mention, that, in addition to Bundesliga matches, the World Cup 06 quarterfinal Ghana - Brazil is subject to suspicions of match fixing. Allegedly, Ghana’s players were offered EUR 30,000 each for throwing the match - but would have received EUR 300,000 each by Ghana’s FA in case they had beat Brazil and made the semis! Also, the investigative journalist, who claims to have uncovered the match fixing scandal, has published a book on match fixing this week and has not been able to provide any solid evidence for the alleged match fixing when questioned on German TV on Monday night.
In short: The whole issue might turn out to be a PR stunt after all (hopefully)
Hill sounds like a slimeball, but are we reacting like this because he IS a slimeball or because we don’t want to believe that football matches can be fixed?
Where is Declan Hill right now to prove to the world of the truth behind his book? Why hasn’t he defended the claims that he has made defamatory comments? Where is he now? Is he running away, hiding away hoping that the scandal will pass? Mr Declan Hill, if you love the game as much as you say you do come out and defend yourself? Or do we need to buy the book?
I saw the same interview and thought he was quite polished. So I ordered the book I’m halfway through the book and its a serious piece of research. In fact it was the outcome of his Oxford phd research so its much more about explaining how corruption gets institutionalized than about picking on Ghanians. It has dozens of interviews and it almost too academic, dry, and thorough. I think rather than reviewing the reviewers reviewing reviews, you should read the book and see the ways that football outcomes can be manipulated.
I also saw the interview and it was very, very smooth and practised. The people who are making noise are the ones with vested interest, Blatter, Damba, Appiah, ofcourse they will deny this. For Blatter this book destroys the dream he potrays that football is pure and untarnished but i would want a balanced view. the fact that Hill is being attacked from Ghana, FIFA and Equador makes me think that he has uncovered something which Blatter most of all is trying hard not to think about. An Oxford phd is not something you get with your mind on your dinner. people should buy the book and make their own minds up not listen to those who have an interest in putting a clampdown on issues they find uncomfortable with. whether you think the guy was too polished or not it does not mean what he has to say is wrong.
I’m an American in London who loves soccer. I don’t know Declan Hill and couldn’t care less if he went to Oxford or not, I have friends who went to Oxford and they are as nutty and clumsy as the rest of us. But I’m reading The Fix because I’m not an idiot who will believe anything Blatter comes up with to protect his name, nor am I too blind to follow the chant of the beautiful game cannot be tarnished. I’m reading the book because I want to know what this guy has to say, to understand if and how the game we cherish is being attacked. The next time I grab a beer with my pals to watch a game of ‘footie’ I want to feel that everything that can possibley be done is being done to protect the game I live for.