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match-fixing not so rare according to The Independent

An article today in The Independent, one of the better British newspapers more focussed on fact than sensationalism like the red-top tabloids, delving deeper into the Accrington Stanley v Bury betting scam last year.

Betting scam is 'just the tip of the iceberg'

... Yet in a candid admission of how impotent the FA is in potential match-fixing cases, an informed source has told The Independent that the FA "is highly unlikely to charge a player with match-fixing" and will not do so in this case. Match-fixing is simply too hard to prove, to specific legal satisfaction, whereas infringements of football's own betting rules are more clear-cut and more likely to end in convictions, though the matter remains within the sport's governing body.

The only scenario where the FA can envisage match-fixing charges would be if a whistle-blower, involved in a crime, admitted it and implicated others. That remains unlikely.

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Bets, files and videotape - inside the Stanley sting

Criminal cases rely on the elimination of all doubt, whereas as a civil case just has to sway a judge or jury that it was more likely than not. Perhaps one day someone with a lot of time and money who has been shafted will take matters into their own hands and take it to court. Otherwise, the match-fix allegations are too hard to prove, desptie the fact, that in this case, the evidence is BLOODY OBVIOUS!

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