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.
Add Sportslens to your Google News Feed!
