Match Fixing in Football | UEFA and Interpol investigate
Do you think that the results of football matches can be rigged?
Match fixing in sporting competitions (thanks to the money involved - welcome to the dark side of sports betting) is not as uncommon as one might think, nor is it as simple as some suggest.
Football too has come under scrutiny, with UEFA collaborating with Interpol because of suspicious betting patterns in the preliminary rounds of UEFA club competitions. Uefa has given a 96-page report to Interpol alleging that 15 games in a variety of competitions were fixed - these games are all from lower-profile matches from Champions League, UEFA Cup and Intertoto qualification games.
To quote:
In one case, a second round UEFA Intertoto Cup match, the disciplinary inspector considered the circumstances serious enough to bring the case before the UEFA Control and Disciplinary Body.
Uefa have made a statement on the matter, which I advise you to read instead of the hyperbole and useless soundbites coming out of the BBC (this is serious for football, we’ve never seen anything like this before, betting = evil, etc etc).
Contrary to what the BBC claims, no Euro 2008 qualifiers are under investigation.
I’m looking forward to what UEFA / Interpol find - although for the sake of football, I hope they don’t make a PR spectacle out of it like the English police have done with the recent investigations in football corruption.
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- Italian Match-Fixing Scandal Verdict
Discussion - 8 Responses
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when i heard this i was thinking oh shit Benitez slipped milan tener in istanbul
Ahmed:
It is interesting that two of the highest profile teams in the world, AC Milan and Real Madrid, have Bwin.com as their kit sponsor.
If I recall correctly, Frederic Kanoute of Sevilla FC refused for religious reasons to wear their offical team kit last year due to a betting sponsor. He wore a special shirt without the name of the sponsor. They have the same sponsor this year; however, the last time I saw Sevilla play, it appeared that Kanoute wore their official kit.
They gonna investigate the England team? Kidding kidding…
For football fans this shouldn’t be anything new, & if it is you haven’t been following the sport for long enough. There are loads of instances i can think about in the past that have been ’strange’ games.
Most famous instances that have been much talked about are -
West Germany vs Austria WC 1974
Argentina vs Peru 1978
Won’t go into details. Its enough to say that there are ALWAYS things going on behind the scenes that people don’t know about.
As for cricket fans, this is the sort of news that they’re used to on a regular basis.
Steve:
Yeah, AC Milan and Real Madrid do have Bwin.com as sponsors, and you may think it is a little suspicious but then so too do Sevilla (888.com), Blackburn Rovers (Bet 24 - Let’s not go into the kit design aspect of it!), Leeds Utd so too have Bet24 and last season, ‘boro had 888.com sported on the front of the kit..
Simply, it is for sponsorship and football is a sport many bet on, So as punters sit down watching AC or Real Madrid do okay, the better will go - Wow, Kaka! Hes great , I spose I should put a tenner on AC Milan to win the UCL, or the same but with Cannavaro, Sneijder, Robben, V. Nistlerooy and others they too wil go “Better put a bet on RM to win the La Liga and UCL” oh look, they have Bwin as a sponsor so I suppose I should use Bwin.Com to place my bet, Simple as that.
It is like thinking Arsenal get free flights with Emirates Airlines and getting special “treatment” on the plane, Or Man Utd players and SAF getting really, really, really cheap insurance with AIG (American Insurance Group). Like Chelsea players getting free Samsung phones that Drogba can talk to Jose when he feels a little Blue (sorry, about the pun!) or to hold illegal talks with other clubs, or Liverpool getting pissed on Carlsberg after each win.. Simple as that.
Just because a betting co. sponsors a club does not mean that the club will make illegal ‘bets’
Phew, not to type even more on my Comp. Entry…..
..best get started
COMFIRM 101% soccer matches are rigged.
I wrote an article for the contest something about match fixing. 
I thought about the Istanbul affair too. Damn shame. My Old Lady (Juventus) is not the only culprit, lets see who the other big names are.
[…] is being investigated. Since I haven’t read the sources yet myself but I have looked into the whole betting / match fixing issue beforehand, my view so far is that any rumours of match-fixing are bollocks. Uefa have been focusing on […]