Sport is made for betting

... and bring in a lie detector. Well, it's a start at least, but the problem goes much deeper than that. If players are disenchanted with their clubs or the wrong type of people are involved with the club, then their heads can easily be turned. The new rules need to encourage whistle-blowers, to keep the wrong people out of the locker rooms, provide players with a long-term future in the sport rather than making them survive on a low base wage and to see the K-League share information with the betting firms. Simply removing the option to bet locally, only makes it easier for match-fixers. Every bet then goes via illegal channels, mostly outside South Korea, and without any chance of tracing it. Regulation and establishing an audit trail is the best way forward..... K-League ups base salary after match-fixing stain The top local professional football league said Monday it will improve the welfare of its players and hand out severe punishments for corruption in response to a ...

This is utterly ridiculous. In a land where opponents of the self-appointed President simply disappear off the streets, and the police regularly get a slice off proceedings from armed robberies, the head muppet of FIFA has joined with Robert Mugabe in declaring match-fixing to be evil and that all people found to be involved in football corruption will be banned for life. FIFA Join Hands With Interpol On Match Fixing Investigations: Blatter Harare, July 05, 2011 - FIFA president, Sepp Blatter has hinted on a possible life ban on all those implicated in match-fixing scandals in Zimbabwe if found guilty. “We will ban all those involved in shady deals in this country if they are found guilty. This is a country that has talent which no administrator would want to see going to waste. You have work to develop that talent and not to kill it through things such as match-fixing,” Blatter told administrators during a press conference organized for him by Zifa. The press conference was ...

So once again England are ridiculed and isolated for making a stand against the self-righteous clowndom that is the Federation of International Football Associations. Pillars of the international anti-corruption community like Benin, Congo and Fiji yesterday stood up to reject the English FA's claims of corruption in FIFA. Of course, the representatives from these economic basket-case nations fly business class, live in mansions and drive Rolls-Royces because of their own individual business prowess rather than any untraceable cash which has fallen into their hands.... It's obvious continuing to complain and target FIFA with accusations and investigations isn't going to get anywhere. Blood is thicker than water, these guys work together to keep people they don't like on the outside and see themselves as above western ethical standards of business. So now it is time to try to a significantly different approach. Do things for the benefit of the sport, regardless of wh...

Nothing new here, but glad to see the Italians are actually doing something about it! Ex-Italy striker arrested for match-fixing ROME (AFP) - Former Italy striker Giuseppe Signori was among 16 people arrested for match-fixing in a co-ordinated sting by Italian police on Wednesday. Amongst those targeted were ex Serie A players and current players from both Serie B and Serie C as well as club directors from the lower leagues, all suspected of being part of an organisation that rigged games to fix bets. Perhaps the tide will turn in Italy and this stuff might start disappearing, but I reckon we are still a long way from that. It's a cultural thing, just like the endemic levels of corruption within FIFA. It is an old boys' club where everything is about greasing palms. Football is a dirty game run by dirty people. Its simplicity leads to its popularity and its popularity reels in the dodgy characters plaguing the game. The more we realise it is just one sport, rather th...

Item in today's RP suggests FIFA are considering banning in-play betting on football over corruption fears. 'What a great idea' will say the do-gooders and Daily Mail readers who don't have a clue about the outside world. Any knowledge of betting in football will let you swiftly decide this is the stupidest idea since awarding the World Cup to a country which bans alcohol and homosexuality, doesn't even have to hotel capacity to cater for one full stadium of visitors and will be 45-50C during July. Mark Davies has written an excellent post on it here - UEFA and FIFA: focus, please! If bookmakers offer 'micro-betting', markets on tiny events during the match such as next free kick or next throw-in, who is taking the risk? The bookie. What is a bookie's job to do? Manage risk. What happens when people fall out of trees to back one option in a multi-selection, reasonably random market? They shut it off and investigate, maybe even alerting sporting autho...

There's not much left to say on the farce that was the World Cup bidding process. We know they are as bent as a three pound note, so why pander to them and waste millions in doing so? I don't have a problem with Russia winning the 2018 bid. The country has made rapid progress in hosting big events in recent years, there's plenty of money in local football so facilities are improving all the time and presentation was well organised. I'm quite excited by the prospect of going there. It's the Qatar one which defies all logic. Good luck to them if they can pull it off, but little regard seems to have been paid to fans when they are not inside the air-conditioned stadiums. Getting into a major event stadium can often take over an hour, and in 50C, that's potentially lethal. Are they going to build 200 hotels to accommodate and provide liquid refreshment for foreign fans? Will there be a market for hotel boats moored 2km offshore where all the alcohol is served? And...

Is anyone actually surprised that there are stories in the press today about FIFA Executive Committee members, the guys who vote on the venues for the World Cup, are taking bribes to secure their votes for World Cup bids? Two members, named as a member from Nigeria and the President of Oceania Football Federation, have been caught out by a newspaper investigation. Of course the money wasn't 'supposed' to be going directly to them, but to fund some domestic football project they'd take a nice fat bung out of along the way. Newspaper investigation reveals FIFA officials offered to sell World Cup votes Two FIFA officials have offered to sell their votes on which country will host the 2018 FIFA World Cup, according to a newspaper report. The Sunday Times newspaper alleged that Amos Adamu, a Nigerian member of the world football governing body's executive committee, asked for $US800,000 ($A807,007) to endorse one of the bid candidates. It filmed him meeting with ...

Back page of the Racing Post today reports that a UEFA investigator has claimed Nigerian players were 'vulnerable to manipulation' - i.e. potential targets for match-fixing at the World Cup. One would think that was pretty bloody obvious. Based on the political reaction after the World Cup - banning the Nigerian team from major tournament for two years (soon rescinded), it's pretty obvious that the whole system there is a shambles, and thus a team such as that COULD be open to such a thing, especially when their final match had no upside for them - they couldn't make the next round. But the gambling world is extremely tight and well monitored these days. When something is up, it gets magnified exponentially, and there are certain teams & players where the first sign of trouble will cause bookies to switch the match off or slash limits right back. Nigeria is one of those teams. FIFA and bookmakers have dismissed the allegations as having no substance.

Is there any other sport ruled by a bunch of more overpaid, self-righteous pompous gits out of touch with the modern day? We see cheating pricks like Thierry Henry cost the Republic of Ireland tens of millions of pounds because the referees couldn't see what every person and every camera in the stadium could. We see Birmingham today beaten in an FA Cup quarter-final because the blind bastard posing as assistant referee couldn't spot what was blatantly obvious from the same position - daylight between the goalpost and the ball as it crossed the line. If it was Pompey in the same position, it could have spelt the end of the club. In amateur days, it mightn't have made much of a difference. This is when what happened on the field, stayed on the field, all the players shook hands and had a drink together after the game. The game is a long, long way from that in 2010. Poor decisions can cost players, teams and countries millions, and hoping the guilty player will hold his hand u...