Comments on: It’s Much Worse Than You Think

By: software for bookies

software for bookies — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 07:47:17 +0000

I think that it is a pity that something like this happens. Because Sports is something to make an example for all those kids that they like to do something healthy.

By: Sport fraud, corruption, match-fixing: unfortunately, a Worldwide phenomenon | La Biblioteca del Tifoso "Bilanciato"

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 03:02:54 +0000

[...] but it’s a question we should ask ourselves.” Declan Hill says it’s “worse than you think” but provides few [...]

By: Coffee Talk Shop… » Blog Archive » High Tide: From A Whistleblower’s $14.5 Million Payout To Tehran’s Back Alley …

Wed, 30 May 2012 20:29:38 +0000

[...] or three years in the wake of a match-fixing scandal. The latest on the scandal is available here, here and here. (World Football Insider, Al Jazeera, BBC, Declan Hill, [...]

By: M B Mehdi

M B Mehdi — Wed, 30 May 2012 19:55:51 +0000

In terms of punishment no one does it like the Italians so they must be given credit for that. There was a match fixing scandal in Turkey but the clubs were conveniently cleared. I’m hugely suspicious of the EPL. As the most popular league, the league with the most money bet on it and gambling widely accepted as part and parcel of the British game I would be amazed if it was clean.

The players and coaches involved in the calcioscommesse scandal were named weeks ago. No Milan, Inter or Napoli players are involved.

By: Cecilia Keaveney

Cecilia Keaveney — Wed, 30 May 2012 19:09:41 +0000

Funny, in Ireland it was seen not as a scandal by RTE Sports but an opportunity for Ireland in the Euro 2012 Comp! Isn’t that a fair summing up of general responses to date??

By: Risto Rumpunen

Risto Rumpunen — Wed, 30 May 2012 15:13:24 +0000

Yes sad and strange to admit but Italians have being strangely almost honest about this. They have actually done some heavy actions on this issue. Have you heard of any other European top leagues doing anything like this? After the sentence that I just wrote I have to stop and ask stupid questions and wonder are the big teams in Milan as innocent as their appear to be in this scandal and what about Napoli? I wish

By: M B Mehdi

M B Mehdi — Wed, 30 May 2012 14:41:05 +0000

Romano In Italy the courts have wide ranging powers for example phone tapping is common and that’s why these scandals come to light. See this article on the subject :

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/may/29/is-italian-football-more-corrupt

In England the FA and at the authorities are slack. The match fixing scandal in the 1990s involving Grobbellar and Segers? It’s conveniently forgotten, hidden under the carpet or dismissed as a joke. It’s unthinkable that Liverpool, the biggest club in the country at the time, would be relegated yet that’s precisely what happened in Italy to Juventus.

Sporting Gijon have been accused of match fixing but Spanish football is a joke, clubs dictate terms to the league and the banks, how likely are they to face strict punishments?

http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/88/spain/2012/04/30/3070054/lfp-raises-concerns-over-alleged-match-fixing-in-la-liga

By: Mels

Mels — Wed, 30 May 2012 14:24:30 +0000

Hi Declan,

Good post. I’ve read your book in 2009 in Dutch. We know match fixing doesn’t stop at the Italian border. Unfortunately politicians and Dutch FA directors in my country don’t take fixing seriously. But since you can bet even officially on everything including Amateur matches like the Dutch Topklasse and youth matches there should be match fixing in Holland and probably every other European country.

Maybe you remember Zagreb 1 – Lyon 7 (all goals of Lyon scored in about 30 minutes, with really, really poor defending). Is there match fixing in de highest level of European football: the Champions League and maybe even te Euros in Poland and Ukraine? I am afraid so.

Our beautiful game is dying.

By: Risto Rumpunen

Risto Rumpunen — Wed, 30 May 2012 13:41:12 +0000

Yes I agree with you. Very few believed you in Finland when you predicted six years ago after the “Allianssi affair” that a tsunami of gambling money arriving and messing up badly European leagues. The Allianssi affair that was led by a Chinese, Zheyun Ye, living in Singapore had ties to the Balkans, Belgium, Italy and Sweden but the police did very little back then to investigate it in Finland which was sad to see. I followed it and a few other cases since then. I am starting to see very dark picture. Perhaps the most frightening of this is that the players get all the public shame and blame and the biggest crooks in the background are still largely invisible. They are often “legitimate looking” business man who get into right circles of football clubs and take the over with help of good international business lawyers. Soon these shady business men’s illegalities become and appear to be completely legitimate. They are seen as saviors. My latest story on this was published in German by a Swiss magazine Zwölf (May/June issue) and then translated by FC Servette’s fans into French. It is also sad to see how small minded media is in this mess. The police and investigation can often to do very little because legal restriction but the press and the media could do a lot more but they almost always prefer to keep their perspective very local and narrow when in fact these crooks operating in the business have a long time been very global players.

By: Starcade

Starcade — Wed, 30 May 2012 07:43:16 +0000

Romano: With absolute certainty, it’s happening in the other leagues as well. And it may not be just the Asians — a lot happened in the last day of the EPL season which was far too coincidental for my liking. Joey Barton almost merits a discussion unto himself in the “What was he thinking, or was it worse?” department.

The thing is, I disagree with Declan on one major point. Italian football is so corrupt that I’m not sure if it’s not part of the FORMAL system of governance, on a true level.

Richard: The true sadness is that, short of suspending all play in Italy for a time or even expelling the Italian association from FIFA, I’m not sure that the breadth of this comes to light. I fear it won’t be stamped out, and, between the fixing stuff in Italy, Turkey, and Eastern Europe in general, plus the racism explosion which threatens Eastern European football, this Euro 2012 tournament could descend very quickly into farce.