FAI open investigation into Athlone

[pineapple stu]

I don't disagree.

Was more replying to disgruntled on the FAI not wanting to find anything to keep Athlone in the league and not go down to a 7-team First Division.

[ATFC-1887]

Have a look at the ongoings at Atletico CP. The same guys are in charge there. The club want them gone but can't get rid of them. I just hope thats not the case here. I hope both investor, and board, f**k off and let the real football people of Athlone get on with saving the club.
If the investor does leave but the current board stay, the club will remain the same, and will probably leave senior football quite soon. Getting less than 100 at games now and as long as the board remain, people will continue to stay away.

[Longfordian]

I think with the "overwhelming evidence" provided by UEFA, the FAI won't get away with finding nothing. So my guess would be that the full blame will be put on a few individual players who, of course, did that completely on their own without anyone else at the club being involved.

Unless they have firm proof that these players were involved then they can't get banned with the players having involved the PFAI. With hundreds of thousands of €€ involved these people won't be doing it in a sloppy way. I can't imagine they just transferred money to Igor and co's bank accounts.

[Martinho II]

The FAI don't want to find anything.
They have no desire to see the 1st Div reduced any further.

exactly. thats what a fellow Longford Town fan said to me last night and it makes sense. He should know as hes a brother in law of our chairman!

[Martinho II]

see Athlone Town released a press release last nightfor the players not to go to the press as Labuts is on the front page of the Sunday World today! of course this was after he did the interview with the Sunday World!

[geysir]

It's not all up to the FAI, if Uefa give Athlone the red card.
Afaia, if Uefa confirm that the betting patterns clearly indicate the fix was on in the game, that punter/s must have had prior knowledge of a result, that there was substantial financial gain running on the wings of that result, then the club is guilty. The FAI would have to impose the standard penalties onto the club.

Though I'm not sure of what has to happen before Uefa give out the red card, but it appears since they started flexing their zero tolerance muscles early this year, that clubs have been hit with heavy fines (http://www.insideworldfootball.com/2017/02/07/cypriot-fa-rejects-karmiotissa-aez-denials-issues-e50000-matchfixing-fines/)based on the above mentioned evidence.

[nigel-harps1954]

Athlone will inevitably end up being slapped with a huge fine. They'll pull out of the league. We'll get our first asterisk in a few years and end the season with 7 First Division clubs.

The fans will start fresh next season.

[total hoofball]

The FAI's "investigation" will likely conclude with nothing to see here etc. Not a chance they are going to fine & sink Athlone when they are implicated due to the awarding of Athlone's license without due diligence on Athlone's source of funding, no amount of anti-match fixing powerpoint presentations will cover their arses on that.

They may well refer to UEFA to do the actual investigating but then remember which CEO has just been elected to a UEFA Executive Committee and you wouldn't be entirely convinced UEFA will take the required action

[Longfordian]

From reading this article it would appear there's been no disciplinary action resulting from any of the games UEFA previously investigated involving any of the people under suspicion at Athlone.

http://extra.ie/sport/soccernews/special-report

[geysir]

From reading this article it would appear there's been no disciplinary action resulting from any of the games UEFA previously investigated involving any of the people under suspicion at Athlone.

http://extra.ie/sport/soccernews/special-report
The way Uefa approaches a case of match fixing against clubs has changed. It is enough for Uefa to prove that a betting scam has taken place in order to prove a case against a club. The precedent is a case taken against Skenderbeu which has passed muster with CAS (http://www.insideworldfootball.com/2017/01/27/cass-skenderbeu-decision-opens-doors-prosecutors-war-match-fixing/).

Athlone are already guilty by those standards, proving a case against individuals is a different proposition but it's not required in order to fine the club.

[Longfordian]

That's interesting thanks for that. Not good for Athlone.

[KBurke]

As if things weren't bad enough apparently Roddy is waiting in the wings to take over as manager and will bring in players of his own.

[geysir]

Look at it another way, such are the depths of ignominy that Athlone have been dragged down to, that Roddy and his crew on the horizon look like knights in shining armour.

[ATFC-1887]

Won't get the fans back regardless. Investor wants his players playing. He will leave if they don't. And athlone will die with the money.

[redobit]

Won't get the fans back regardless. Investor wants his players playing. He will leave if they don't. And athlone will die with the money.

Do these cowboys own 100% of the club?

[Battery Rover]

Do these cowboys own 100% of the club?

Nobody knows what is going on.

[geysir]

Even with half the Athlone team trying their best to lose game after game, they still have more points than Shels.

[Briuk]

It sounds more like an "sponsorship" deal, as the club keeps all the board and positions, get money from this investors but with the condition to use a % of this money to pay the coaches or players they say without putting any publicity on the shirts and obviously to get back fixing some games.

Probably they dressed it as if they were going to make money with those players getting transferred or whatever, or they told the board the players were going to be so good that they would promote to Premier and get money from europe. Hard to understand what they said to make it credible but obviously other clubs didn't believe in it.

[Lionel Ritchie]

Unsurprisingly the English media is taking an interest. First time I've seen the suggestion that the initial investment was up on €500k though. To be perfectly honest I'd be surprised if they had to go that high. I still think they'll find it hard to nail anyone officially connected to Athlone.

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/sport/football/article-4480776/Chinese-fixing-syndicate-real-new-threat-football.html

Aha! ...they said "Irish FA". Before I started reading it I put a little bet on with myself that they'd refer to the FAI as "the Irish FA" because ...yknow ...all British papers refer to the governing body of Football in the Republic of Ireland as "the Irish FA". Then you read through and it's like, you're rooting for them, they're nearly there, they're gonna make it, they're gonna make it, they're make it then BOOM -there it is "the Irish FA".

[DannyInvincible]

Emmet Malone discussed the matter on the Irish Times' business podcast yesterday (from 29m24s): https://soundcloud.com/irishtimes-business/pay-commission-flash-points-athlone-town-betting-scandal

Whilst, on the face of it, it might seem tempting to speculate or even assume that those players who, in the past, were involved in (multiple) matches abroad that have been under investigation by UEFA must be prime suspects for some wrongdoing or shady dealings here, Malone makes an interesting point:


We have, for instance, amongst the Athlone team, a number of players who've come over in the close season and two of them have been involved in matches on 17 previous occasions where UEFA have investigated, but neither of them has ever been convicted of anything. One, a Romanian player, has been involved in four games previously that were investigated. Now, it's worth noting at this point that all of the Longford players will, after this, have a game against their name that was investigated. So, if you play in the Romanian league, which is a car-crash for proper betting, bribe-taking and everything - there are stories every day of the week and only last week, a major story broke about bribery for the television rights for the league and the association there - then it could well be that it's almost impossible to avoid having been involved in these cases.

[osarusan]

Crooked Longford *******s. I always knew it.

[geysir]

The tagged on shame for Longford is their players won a game that the other players wanted to lose.

[Longfordian]

The tagged on shame for Longford is their players won a game that the other players wanted to lose.

Eh? I can imagine it being shameful if we didn't win alright. Like Sligo and that Albanian crowd.

[Nesta99]

Eh? I can imagine it being shameful if we didn't win alright. Like Sligo and that Albanian crowd.

Ouch!!

[geysir]

Eh? I can imagine it being shameful if we didn't win alright. Like Sligo and that Albanian crowd.

Ok, definitely no tagged on shame to Longford's victory, just no glory to the bragging rights.

[ATFC-1887]

Roddy confirmed as manager

[Nesta99]

Roddy confirmed as manager

Should stick that in the facepalm thread too. I have no reason to have any issue with the chap but then he never managed my club. He was always great craic when at games and his 'lifes a battle keep the faith' speech to Dundalk fans outside the Lilywhite Lounge in 2012 just before Monaghan closed up shop was quite appreciated at the time tbh. If not some odd joke the best of luck to him and Athlone Town and hopefully he will have the strength of character to keep these investors grubby paws off the playing squad bar paying their wages.

[ltfc_2004]

http://www.atimes.com/article/athlone-town-soccer-scandal-shows-no-game-small-rig/

Very interesting article !

[DannyInvincible]

Roddy confirmed as manager

A smart choice; with Roddy as boss, the owners won't even need to go to the bother of match-fixing any more to ensure they lose every game.

[DannyInvincible]

John O'Sullivan with a very good piece on how the investigation at Athlone puts the spotlight back on the financial strains associated with simply trying to stay afloat in the league: http://www.the42.ie/athlone-town-john-osullivan-3386603-May2017/


When any difficult child has an issue, they’ll look to their parent. Athlone have made it clear in their statements that the FAI knew exactly who was coming in to the club. If Athlone Town fans could use Google to determine the investors’ background, why couldn’t the Athlone Town board or the FAI?

The reality is likely to be that they were so desperate for the investment, so desperate to save the club, that they didn’t pause to ask the right questions. If we think Athlone are alone in this, we’re wrong. Pretty much every club is a couple of bad decisions away from going out of football.

We need to do better.

[disgruntled]

As usual a well thought article from John O'Sullivan.
This part of the article really stood out for me.

"When any difficult child has an issue, they’ll look to their parent. Athlone have made it clear in their statements that the FAI knew exactly who was coming in to the club. If Athlone Town fans could use Google to determine the investors’ background, why couldn’t the Athlone Town board or the FAI?"

It shows what the board of Athlone & the FAI were willing to turn a blind eye to just to keep things going.
I can understand why a board of directors desperate to hold on to power would go to any lengths, there is absolutely no excuse why the so called guardians of the League of Ireland the FAI would condone such shady dealings.
If ones parent is a gangster then you can hardly blame the offspring from turning into a problem child :(
It also shows what a farce the whole Licencing system is.

[DannyInvincible]

Whilst I see that apparent "prime suspect" Igors Labuts is still being selected to start in goal for Athlone since the controversial Longford game, I note there's been no sign of Dragos Sfrijan (the Romanian midfielder who committed an apparent mistake that led to Longford's third goal after being moved into the centre of defence towards the end of the 90 minutes) in either of Athlone's match-say squads since. Sfrijan had started every game this season for Athlone before that game, as far as I can make out (http://www.extratime.ie/fixtures/teams/team/10/).

Has he gone AWOL or what's the deal there? Just dropped or is his absence an indication of something more dubious?...

Is there any footage of the Longford goals online, by the way?


Do these cowboys own 100% of the club?

70 per cent, as far as I know.

From the piece on the Asia Times website (http://www.atimes.com/article/athlone-town-soccer-scandal-shows-no-game-small-rig/) mentioned in post #78 (http://foot.ie/threads/221927-FAI-open-investigation-into-Athlone?p=1919895&viewfull=1#post1919895):


It’s been a strange few months for Athlone fans. A year ago, the club was so short of cash that some players refused to play in one game in protest at unpaid wages. That all changed around early February this year, when an unidentified “Chinese Portuguese consortium” reportedly paid about US$500,000 for a 70% stake in the club. Suddenly, Athlone Town was stocked with foreign players and coaching staff. Unusual enough for Irish football, but more weirdness was to come.

[outspoken]

Whilst I see that apparent "prime suspect" Igors Labuts is still being selected to start in goal for Athlone since the controversial Longford game, I note there's been no sign of Dragos Sfrijan (the Romanian midfielder who committed an apparent mistake that led to Longford's third goal after being moved into the centre of defence towards the end of the 90 minutes) in either of Athlone's match-say squads since. Sfrijan had started every game this season for Athlone before that game, as far as I can make out (http://www.extratime.ie/fixtures/teams/team/10/).

Has he gone AWOL or what's the deal there? Just dropped or is his absence an indication of something more dubious?...

Is there any footage of the Longford goals online, by the way?



70 per cent, as far as I know.

From the piece on the Asia Times website (http://www.atimes.com/article/athlone-town-soccer-scandal-shows-no-game-small-rig/) mentioned in post #78 (http://foot.ie/threads/221927-FAI-open-investigation-into-Athlone?p=1919895&viewfull=1#post1919895):

There's only footage of the second goal

[ATFC-1887]

They don't own any of the club. That article is wrong. And they didn't give 500 grand. Was only 70k

[DannyInvincible]

There's only footage of the second goal

You got a link?


They don't own any of the club. That article is wrong. And they didn't give 500 grand. Was only 70k

Cheers for the clarification. What is the exact arrangement so?

[NeverFeltBetter]

It's weird that none of this, regards club ownership and investment, appears to be clear or even accessible.

[outspoken]

You got a link?



Cheers for the clarification. What is the exact arrangement so?

Link - https://www.facebook.com/AthloneTownFcFans/videos/1336655016417354/

[Longfordian]

I see the people that own the stadium have involved the FAI with regard to the money they're owed by the club. Hard to see any other outcome other than the current entity leaving the league and a new fan owned club taking its place with a new lease on the ground. I know in theory Athlone are supposed to be a members club but clearly it isn't as simple as holding an AGM/EGM and voting out the current regime.

[nigel-harps1954]

https://www.facebook.com/ATAFCOfficial/posts/792873257529591


The Athlone Town Stadium was broken into over the weekend and damage was caused to some of the internal doors and locks.
A small amount of money was taken and a lot of files were ransacked and scattered around, club officials are currently going through these files to determine what, if anything, was taken.
We would appeal to anyone who has information in relation to this crime to contact Athlone Garda Station on 090 64 92600 and pass it on no matter how insignificant you may think it is.


Amazing.

[total hoofball]

https://www.facebook.com/ATAFCOfficial/posts/792873257529591




Amazing.
It would be really unfortunate if any vital documents to the investigation just happened to be stolen

I'm sure the CCTV footage at the ground will capture the perpetrator. Not like Athlone could be any unluckier if the CCTV at the ground wasn't working that night or sumtin

[DannyInvincible]

I don't want to jump to any conclusions and maybe I'm being overly suspicious, but isn't it possible that someone on the inside (connected to the Portuguese investors/"owners") was behind this and was using an apparent crudely-executed burglary for cash as a cover to conceal any tracks or get rid of documentary evidence in the club's office that might expose or incriminate individuals involved in the betting scam? Seems like a really odd coincidence.

[pineapple stu]

You'd wonder alright if the file marked "betting scams" was the one stolen.

[Longfordian]

"Where will I put this paper file on the secret, illegal activities in China?" "Just stick it in the filing cabinet over there it'll be grand".

[NeverFeltBetter]

It's Always Sunny In Athlone.

[brendy_éire]

Presumably though, any important, relevant documents would already be in the hands of the FAI and their investigation team. At least, they should be.

[osarusan]

I don't want to jump to any conclusions and maybe I'm being overly suspicious, but isn't it possible that someone on the inside (connected to the Portuguese investors/"owners") was behind this and was using an apparent crudely-executed burglary for cash as a cover to conceal any tracks or get rid of documentary evidence in the club's office that might expose or incriminate individuals involved in the betting scam? Seems like a really odd coincidence.

I'd say that's what everyone thinks.

[osarusan]

I wonder will it turn out that the vandals randomly deleted emails as well for the craic of it.

[Martinho II]

thats not the first time that athlone have their offices ransacked! wasnt it earlier this season as well?

[Mr A]

Athlone's office ransacked in the midst of an investigation into gambling offences. Jeez, What are the odds?

[colonelwest]

It's Always Sunny In Athlone.


http://alexanderlozada.com/iasip/?Ikl0J3MgQWx3YXlzIFN1bm55IGluIEF0aGxvbmUiKFRoZSBHY W5nIGZpeCB0aGUgI2dyZWF0ZXN0bGVhZ3VlaW50aGV3b3JsZCk =