HeronAddict
20-03-2006, 05:11 PM
Don't know if anyone on here reads World Soccer magazine, but in this month's issue there's a really interesting article on the problems of match fixing in Belgian and Scandinavian football in particular, but also looking at the case of the German referee Robert Hoyzer and other enquiries currently going on in the lower leagues in France and Italy.
The writer points out that the practice is much more common in these leagues where player income is low. It doesn't make any sense for a Premiership player to take the risk of throwing a match given the relatively small amounts of money (in comparison with their wages) on offer. Less attention is also paid to strange results in these leagues and their governing bodies are ill-prepared in regulating the problem.
The main source of income is from far-East Internet betting syndicates trying to manipulate results. For example, £343,000 was bet on a game between St. Truiden and La Louviere in the Belgian First Division last year, and after the scam was uncovered it was found that £120,000 was offered to the La Louviere team to throw the game, which they did.
It goes without saying that an amount of this magnitude would be far more than any first, second of third division player in Scotland would make in the course of the season, so I was wondering if anyone knew of any initatives the SFA have taken to tackle the issue? The article concludes by stating that as national bodies already affected by match-fixing get wise to the issue, the problem is only likely to spread to other countries who are less aware.
I'm not saying that games in Scotland have already been affected, although I suppose you never know, but I definitely think this could certainly be an issue that affects us in the future. I'd personally worry that the SFA's past history suggests they'd rather stick their head in the sand and ignore the issue rather than confronting it.
The writer points out that the practice is much more common in these leagues where player income is low. It doesn't make any sense for a Premiership player to take the risk of throwing a match given the relatively small amounts of money (in comparison with their wages) on offer. Less attention is also paid to strange results in these leagues and their governing bodies are ill-prepared in regulating the problem.
The main source of income is from far-East Internet betting syndicates trying to manipulate results. For example, £343,000 was bet on a game between St. Truiden and La Louviere in the Belgian First Division last year, and after the scam was uncovered it was found that £120,000 was offered to the La Louviere team to throw the game, which they did.
It goes without saying that an amount of this magnitude would be far more than any first, second of third division player in Scotland would make in the course of the season, so I was wondering if anyone knew of any initatives the SFA have taken to tackle the issue? The article concludes by stating that as national bodies already affected by match-fixing get wise to the issue, the problem is only likely to spread to other countries who are less aware.
I'm not saying that games in Scotland have already been affected, although I suppose you never know, but I definitely think this could certainly be an issue that affects us in the future. I'd personally worry that the SFA's past history suggests they'd rather stick their head in the sand and ignore the issue rather than confronting it.