Lower Divisions Match Fixing Scandal About To Break?

[Kalimantan Gull]

Found this article from October 2008:

Will the Norwich City-Derby County match-fixing probe produce the right result? - Sportingo


Norwich City and Derby County please stand up. You have joined an ever-growing list of high profile professional football teams engulfed in a match-fixing scandal.

After the Sunday Telegraph reported 'irregular betting patterns' in Asia during the Norwich City v Derby County Coca-Cola Championship match, the FA has come out and announced its intentions to fully investigate.

Meanwhile, Norwich manager Glenn Roeder has claimed he is "100 per cent sure that no one at Norwich City is involved" and Derby boss Paul Jewell has played down the allegations, saying: "If it wasn't so serious it would be laughable."

The importance of this investigation could be unlimited. It is likely that the FA will investigate and release a low-key document in the coming months stating that Derby's 2-1 win was legitimate.

But, if irregularities are to be found then the repercussions of the FA enquiry could have severe consequences, not only on the teams involved, but English football as a whole, as many teams will be looking much more closely at potential abnormalities in their on-pitch fortunes.

 

[KneeOn]

I joked through gritted teeth in the pub after that game that when the lino called the ref over, he actually said "Look mate, I've got this down as a draw. Any chance we could put that free kick inside the box?"

OMG if that came true

Thats the thing, it woudln't surprise me

We shall see.

Mind, its NOW, so we might not see because its utterbullshit but they WERE on with the Cricket Fixing.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

Also:

Former Manchester United keeper Roy Carroll reveals all about the match fixing slurs, drinking, gambling and THAT ¿goal¿ | Mail Online

But at the age of 32 — relatively young for a goalkeeper — the former Manchester United and Derby keeper Roy Carroll still sees a future for himself in the Premier League and wants to put a few things straight.

In particular, speculation that he fell victim to a perceived gambling culture at West Ham that left him owing one team-mate £30,000.

The rumours began circulating again at Derby when his sending-off in a game against Norwich was linked to Far East betting syndicates.

‘There was supposed to be a big betting spree on me getting sent off,’ says Carroll.
‘My name was being mentioned in the papers. Nothing happened at the end of the day, but I think managers see things like that and it might scare them off.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

And:

April 2009 Match-Fixing Alive Well - - The Offside - Soccer News and Opinion from leagues around the world

The Blue Square Conference Premier League match between Grays and Forest Green Rovers – a team which made different headlines during the FA Cup 3rd Round – had betting called after an inordinate amount of wagers asking for Grays to go into the half losing but end the game victorious – a situation which offers incredibly good odds (22-1 in this case). Were the worries of Blue Square & William Hill substantiated?

Halftime: Forest Green 1-0
Fulltime: Grays 2-1

I’d say so. It may just be an incredible coincidence but such volume on a specific bet which comes to fruition is awfully suspicious. To the point neither of the bookies will be paying out any winnings on the match.

Then there is:

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/bets-files-and-videotape-ndash-inside-the-stanley-sting-1673340.html

How last match of season unfolded for Accrington

The action as it happened: the following is a verbatim contemporary match report from the Press Association, 3 May 2008...

"Andy Bishop, Bury's highly rated striker, took his tally to 25 goals for the season with both goals in the 2-0 win at Accrington. Bishop fired home from the penalty spot in the 21st minute after Phil Edwards had chopped down Nicky Adams.

"Then, on the stroke of half-time, the 26-year-old burst through and finished superbly past Kenny Arthur for the mid-table side. Stanley, safe from relegation, had chances in the first half, but Bury 'keeper Jim Provett did well to thwart Paul Mullin and Bobby Grant. The home side dominated after the break but were wasteful.

"Andy Todd blasted over in a good position, substitute Leighton McGivern scuffed a golden opportunity and Mullin was denied by Provett from close range to end a disappointing season for Accrington."

The Accrington Stanley midfielder David Mannix, 23, is a former teenage prodigy who played for Liverpool's Under-17s aged just 13, and won England youth caps. It is understood he was on a basic weekly deal of just £80 at Stanley at the time. The League Two club's small size and low crowds dictate lower basic pay levels than many clubs in the non-league game, let alone at clubs in the Football League. Contracts are heavily weighted to appearance money and bonuses, with Mannix on around £300 per actual game played back then.

But he did not play in the game against Bury. And so, when his weekly basic wage of £80 is set against the £4,000 that the FA allege he bet on his own side to lose that day, it is possible to see that he was not dealing in pin money. Quite why a player would risk so much might become apparent in the fullness of time, but the fact that Mannix and four other players related to Accrington wagered a combined sum of £10,505 on Bury to win, according to FA charges, suggests this was not a typical day's punting. Or if it was, then never have so many alarm bells sounded before.

Chains including William Hill, Coral and Paddy Power saw big suspicious sums, prompting reports to regulators. Industry insiders think up to between £500,000-£800,000 was wagered across all platforms, up to 10 times expected levels.

Betfair, the main online firm, saw increased trade, but not suspicious trade. Around £281,000 was wagered with them alone, but a lot of that was on the Saturday morning after rumours of a sting had emerged, but before kick-off. This was from general punters. The Independent understands no FA charges arose from Betfair data.

 

[magoo]

I don't think Sheldrake can be implicated. It was one of their players that shouted at him it was a pen then he decided to flag it. Unless the player had a tenner on the game.

 

[Easy 10]

It is INCREDIBLY difficult to fix a football match. Bent decisions are one thing, but whats to stop someone popping one in from 20 yards at the other end ? Even if the keeper is "a bit dicky", his team-mates up the other end could still nouse up the result.

You'd need a LOT of players "onside" so to speak to have a real chance of fixing a result for definite one way or the other, and I can't believe large groups of players one a team could be influenced like that. The more people you involve, the higher the risk of it getting exposed.

Football is a very difficult game to fix.

 

[Don Tmatter]

Football is a very difficult game to fix.

I dunno, Southampton & Spurs did it ok in the last game of the 77/78 season

 

[fatbadger]

English football IS corrupt, dossier claims ... A source familiar with the allegations told the News Of The World that the scandal would "blow the cricket match fixing scandal out of the water."

Championship games fixed in English football corruption scandal, says report in News Of The World - News - MirrorFootball.co.uk

Is this the same 'cricket match fixing scandal' which NotW 'broke' but which has now been declared unsubstantiated after investigation, by any chance?

 

[SNOOBS]

Who the f*** would pay for the NOTW website

 

[Pot noodles for everyone]

Who the f*** would pay for the NOTW website

Judging by his taste in low rent Z-list media whores - Desperate Gull.

 

[Gerbil]

News of the World = shit stirrers

What like EVERY newspaper?
They're all as bad as each other

 

[Ninja Elephant]

A mate of mine was at the Chesterfield vs Crewe game of a couple of weeks ago, and when Crewe went 5-2 up he text me saying he didn't think they were going to win. When Chesterfield scored their second penalty, to make it 5-5, he text me just one sentence, "It's fixed". At the time I half dismissed it as him being extremely pissed off that his side had managed to throw away a 3 goal lead. But there might be some truth in it.

Peterborough vs Swindon yesterday was a bit dodgy aswell. 3-0 after 24 minutes, 3-3 at half time, 4-3 to 4-4 and then a last minute OWN GOAL to gift Peterborough a 5-4 win! Ridiculous. Not to mention the 7-4 incolving Accrington Stanley a couple of weeks ago.

 

[KNC]

i dunno, southampton & spurs did it ok in the last game of the 77/78 season

this

 

[Foster House]

this

No exchange of cash there. Just a 'well done old chap that f***ed over those wanabees down the road eh? see you in Division 1'

 

[Nottseagull]

A mate of mine was at the Chesterfield vs Crewe game of a couple of weeks ago, and when Crewe went 5-2 up he text me saying he didn't think they were going to win. When Chesterfield scored their second penalty, to make it 5-5, he text me just one sentence, "It's fixed". At the time I half dismissed it as him being extremely pissed off that his side had managed to throw away a 3 goal lead. But there might be some truth in it.

Peterborough vs Swindon yesterday was a bit dodgy aswell. 3-0 after 24 minutes, 3-3 at half time, 4-3 to 4-4 and then a last minute OWN GOAL to gift Peterborough a 5-4 win! Ridiculous. Not to mention the 7-4 incolving Accrington Stanley a couple of weeks ago.

Yeah, I'm really sure the players are conjuring up scorelines like that for people to back. Must make it really difficult to track those suspicious betting patterns.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

Is this the same 'cricket match fixing scandal' which NotW 'broke' but which has now been declared unsubstantiated after investigation, by any chance?

Have they declared it unsubstantiated? I missed that news if so. And they were still bang to rights, even if Scotland Yard can't find evidence of fraud

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

It is INCREDIBLY difficult to fix a football match. Bent decisions are one thing, but whats to stop someone popping one in from 20 yards at the other end ? Even if the keeper is "a bit dicky", his team-mates up the other end could still nouse up the result.

You'd need a LOT of players "onside" so to speak to have a real chance of fixing a result for definite one way or the other, and I can't believe large groups of players one a team could be influenced like that. The more people you involve, the higher the risk of it getting exposed.

Football is a very difficult game to fix.

Of course. But if you take a 50-50 game, and improve the odds to 70-30, you'll win more than you lose over the long run

 

[Gwylan]

Have they declared it unsubstantiated? I missed that news if so. And they were still bang to rights, even if Scotland Yard can't find evidence of fraud

It was The Sun, not the NOTW

BBC Sport - Cricket - ICC rejects England-Pakistan Oval ODI fixing claims

I don't reckon that football would be that difficult to fix. If you've got a hooky ref, it's dead easy. Look at that German ref they copped a few years back and that dodgy Ecuadorian one in the 2002 WC who knocked Italy out (and was then sacked by the Ecuador FA for corruption) and Anderlecht have admitted bribing the ref in the game that knocked Forest out of Europe in the 80s. There have also been plenty of scandals involving refs and Italian clubs and, of course, Marseille were stripped of the CL title after match-fixing.

One thing that I don't understand though is how come authorities can pick up suspicious patterns of betting among Asian bookmakers when it comes to football yet cricket administrators say it's impossible to trace such patterns when it comes to cricket?

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

It was The Sun, not the NOTW

BBC Sport - Cricket - ICC rejects England-Pakistan Oval ODI fixing claims

OK, thanks, that was the Sun allegations for the Oval ODI, the NOTW allegations surrounding the Lords Test are still being investigated

 

[Gwylan]

OK, thanks, that was the Sun allegations for the Oval ODI, the NOTW allegations surrounding the Lords Test are still being investigated

Indeed. But they weren't match-fixing claims.

If it comes to spot-betting, it must be near to impossible to detect in cricket or football. After all, who's going to notice a wayward back-pass for a corner and guess that it might have significance?