Suspected Match Fixing in Europe

[Charlie Darwin]

This follows arrests last month of players below the football league.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/football-match-fixing-sam-sodje-2904353

This is the (bizarre) incident in question:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15CXZn_7_T4

[osarusan]

BBC reporting that Frazier Campbell is one of six being 'held' over allegations too.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25297600


Former Premiership footballer DJ Campbell is among six people being questioned in connection with allegations of fixing in football matches, his club have confirmed.

Mr Campbell, who plays for Championship side Blackburn, was one of six people arrested on Sunday.

The arrests came after ex-Portsmouth player Sam Sodje told a reporter he could arrange for players to be booked or sent off in exchange for cash.

[Charlie Darwin]

Tony Cascarino claims he was tipped off about a Premier League game a few years back where one team was set up to concede a large number of goals. Of course, Tony didn't bet on it.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/football/article3943383.ece

Since it will probably be paywalled soon:


It is going back a few years now, but I remember being told to bet on a specific game in the Barclays Premier League. I was told a heavy defeat for one side was guaranteed. It was an end-of-the-season fixture, with nothing much resting on it. I didn’t, but was not surprised at all when the scores rolled in, and, sure enough, there had been a hammering.

Those involved, it turned out, had not bet substantial sums on the outcome — a win for this team, a defeat for that — but on the number of goals that would be scored. Back then, such spread betting was a relatively new phenomenon. Now, though, it is one of the cornerstones of the gambling market.

You can bet on anything. The time of the first throw-in, the first corner, or the first booking — just what Sam Sodje, the former Portsmouth player, boasted he could arrange to an undercover newspaper reporter. It should be no surprise that players farther down the league, where money is not quite so free, or those at the end of their contracts and in search of a nest egg, are tempted to make themselves a nice profit by gambling on a market they control. On the surface, spot-fixing is to match-fixing what stealing a wallet is to robbing a bank. The sums involved are tiny and they do not necessarily affect the result. Only one player needs to be bought; it does not require mass participation. The idea of a game being for sale is a great deal more troubling.

But it is still a huge problem for football’s authorities, and one that must be dealt with swiftly. There need to be controls in place. It seems baffling that bookmakers even decide to take bets on these things, because they are just so easy to manipulate.

Players may well see it as a victimless crime. That is simply not the case. It challenges the integrity of the game.

[Charlie Darwin]

Genaro Gattuso under investigation for alleged match-fixing (http://www.sacbee.com/2013/12/17/6007032/gattuso-placed-under-inquiry-for.html)

[Charlie Darwin]

Stockholm (AFP) - Former Zenit Saint Petersburg defender Erik Hagen said Wednesday that he had paid a referee to fix a UEFA Cup match during his time at the Russian team.
The 38-year old Norwegian footballer said it was customary to pay for match-fixing and he and his teammates each paid a referee $3,000 (2,180 euros) to secure the outcome of a UEFA Cup match between 2005 and 2008.
In return he said each of them received a $12,000 bonus.

http://nz.sports.yahoo.com/football/news/article/-/22339390/former-zenit-player-admits-to-helping-fix-uefa-cup-match/#

[Stuttgart88]

Keith Keane and Graham Cummins arrested, two Irish U21s from a while back. 6 PNE players in total.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-26887860

[Charlie Darwin]

Stephen Dawson arrested too. That's not good. Cummins looked a real prospect when he scored the winner to put win the First Division for Cork.

[Charlie Darwin]

2014 Annual Fixed Matches report released. 460 games were identified as either fixed or suspected to have been fixed. None in Ireland but a few in the UK and a few in the qualifying stages of the Champions and Europa League, including both legs of Shakhter Karagandy (eventually knocked out by Celtic) and Skenderbeu Korca.

http://federbet.com/media/Federbet_report_v3.pdf

[BonnieShels]

Interesting news...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup/10918321/Football-match-fixing-deal-casts-cloud-over-World-Cup.html

[Charlie Darwin]

Irish players Keith Keane and Graham Cummins, plus four other Preston players, have been reprieved temporarily from allegations of spot-fixing following the exposure of the Fake Sheik: http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jul/25/preston-players-arrested-spot-fixing-released-bail