Admin_2 Posted November 21, 2009 Report Share Posted November 21, 2009 "Around 200 games across nine countries have been implicated in the biggest match-fixing scandal to hit European football, with German police yesterday warning the cases they had so far uncovered were "only the tip of the iceberg". Fifteen people were arrested in Germany and two in Switzerland following more than 50 raids across those two countries, Austria and Britain during which cash and property worth more than €1m (900,000 pounds) was seized. At least 200 people, including 32 players, are suspected of being involved. None of the affected matches were played in British leagues, or in France, Spain or Italy. Among the games believed to have been manipulated are three Champions League matches and 12 Europa League games, all in this year's early qualifying rounds. A qualifying match for the European Under-21 Championship is also under suspicion. The most high-profile matches under suspicion took place in the top division of the Turkish League. At a press conference in Bochum, Germany, that was broadcast on live TV prosecutors, police and Uefa officials revealed that organised criminal gangs had influenced players, referees, coaches and other match officials in order to make millions of euros on the betting markets. The number of people involved is likely to be even higher because authorities say the number of affected games also could be higher according to Bochum's police director, Friedhelm Atlhans. "This is only the tip of the iceberg," he said. Peter Limacher, Uefa's head of disciplinary services, said he believed it was the biggest match-fixing scandal to hit Europe. "We feel a certain satisfaction but on the other side we are deeply affected by the scope of game manipulations by international gangs," he said. Limacher has been responsible for overseeing a new Uefa unit designed to target corruption and match fixing, monitoring betting markets to detect suspicious patterns. Uefa officials are believed to be shocked by the scale of the problem. Uefa said this year that 40 matches in its own competitions were under suspicion and confirmed yesterday that the 15 named by German police were on that list. "Uefa will be demanding the harshest of sanctions before the competent courts for any individuals, clubs or officials who are implicated in this malpractice, be it under state or sports jurisdiction," said Uefa's general secretary, Gianni Infantino. The governing body's new monitoring unit has been co-operating with police to provide information on suspect betting patterns. According to German authorities, 32 games are under suspicion in Germany, including four in the second division. The others were lower-tier matches. In Belgium, 17 second division games are under suspicion; in Switzerland, 22 second division games; in Croatia, 14 first division games; in Slovenia, seven first division games; in Turkey, 29 first division games; in Hungary, 13 first division games; in Bosnia, eight first division games, and in Austria, 11 first and second-division games. In 2005, the German referee Robert Hoyzer was convicted of fraud after admitting he had manipulated games. In March Uefa announced a crackdown on corruption. It promised to work with national associations to fund a monitoring programme across 29,000 fixtures in the top two divisions of all 53 member countries as well as its own competitions. Platini has made the fight against corruption a key priority of his presidency, telling Uefa's inaugural betting and integrity workshop in August that fixing matches "takes away their raison d'etre, deprives them of the magic of competition and is ultimately killing football". Its new Betting Fraud Detection System, a sophisticated piece of monitoring software operated by a team of anti-corruption officers, has been in operation since the beginning of the season." http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/nov/20/uefa-match-fixing-germany Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carz79 Posted November 21, 2009 Report Share Posted November 21, 2009 I'm hell surprised my Italian cousins were not invloved this time! It seems like we've tried to match fix everything else....including bocce games! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin_2 Posted November 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2009 I'm more interested learn about what effect this will have on the game in general. 200 games are being reviewed, which is extremely significant. Does this change the way people view the game at all? I remember when it seemed like every other Yankees (baseball) player tested positive for steroid use, it definitely killed a lot of the prestige the team once had. This, however, is spread across multiple teams/countries...and it involves more than just the players. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stramash Posted November 21, 2009 Report Share Posted November 21, 2009 I'm more interested learn about what effect this will have on the game in general. 200 games are being reviewed, which is extremely significant.Does this change the way people view the game at all? I remember when it seemed like every other Yankees (baseball) player tested positive for steroid use, it definitely killed a lot of the prestige the team once had. This, however, is spread across multiple teams/countries...and it involves more than just the players. I think most will realise that the domestic leagues concerned are not those which attract international attention or betting. The involvement of CL and Europa League games are more of concern, though of course it all depends at what level there has been collusion. Can see some hefty bans being handed down; UEFA are quite strict on this sort of thing. Don't see it having the same effects as the steroid scandal imho though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carz79 Posted November 21, 2009 Report Share Posted November 21, 2009 Agree with Iain. few years back when Italian soccer had a big match fixing scandal......Fiorentina was demoted to 3rd tier. In subsequent season the Italian FA did all they could to get Fiorentina back up. Now they're back in CL. This will all pass by I think. Unfortunately this seems to be the norm nowadays. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damnam1 Posted November 21, 2009 Report Share Posted November 21, 2009 yet again the Sapina brothers... Their whole family seems to be born in an amusement arcade..those croatian big time gamblers just cant keep their filthy fingers from football. It is a mafia like company which already organised the big scandal years ago. Most of those gamblers are from eastern Europe, they have no idea what normal work is about. Either they depend on sociall welfare and/or they are into anything that deals with crimes, drugs and weapons. They hang around in gambling bureaus all day long, place their bets on anything..they are foreigners here in Germany, but authorities cant kick them out of the country, as they are granted asylum or whatsoever, which is a shame. Hopefully this time the godfathers of betting will go down for ten years Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barsie Posted November 23, 2009 Report Share Posted November 23, 2009 I'd be interested to see which betting companies were taking the bets. It's pretty tricky to rip off any of the big uk bookies as they are very careful. Strange betting patterns especially with regular wins are picked up on very fast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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