Footballer gets sent off to settle gambling debt

[BoringOldFan]

The Independent.

A footballer with a serious gambling problem has admitted accepting a £50,000 bribe to help throw a game in Britain, The Independent can reveal.


According to a source familiar with the circumstances, the player – who has a Premiership club on his CV – racked up a £50,000 debt with a bookmaker. The bookmaker said he would write off the debt if the player got himself sent off and also persuaded three team-mates to get booked in a specific game.

The player agreed, and the incidents were fixed as requested. His team lost the match, which was played in the past two years, the source said. The player subsequently sought professional help for his addiction, and was said to be "ashamed and full of remorse" about what happened. It is not known precisely how the bookmaker profited from the sending-off and bookings, but the assumption is that he either struck or laid "spread bets" relating to the cards, and that the game was at a level significant enough to warrant a sizeable market in this.

Some things never change. There was a big scandal in the 60s with players getting banned and more recently with the Fashanu/Grobelaar trial.

I wonder who it was?

 

[TheChosenOne]

Be very careful peeps. libel and all that.

However I reckon selling a story like that to the Indy could get you a nice few thousand quid.

 

[Flatters]

Mascherano?

 

[Fordy]

Etherington had a serious addiction didnt he? dont recall him being sent off though.

(allegedly)

 

[Stoof]

Be very careful peeps. libel and all that.

However I reckon selling a story like that to the Indy could get you a nice few thousand quid.

So the first post we get is ...

Mascherano?

Brilliant. :-|

Please refrain from not reading TheChosenOne's post because it will save us locking the thread.

 

[Flatters]

It could have been anyone, but I really can't see one player being able to affect a result with subtlety, let alone manage to get three of his team mates-booked.

 

[Rocksuperstar]

well, in the 05/06 season, there were only three players to be sent off twice - Dawson, Robben and Phil Neville, none of whom strike me as the gambling-problem type.

That said, Blackburn's disciplinary record that year was atrocious, surprise surprise, top of the stack in the yellow cards department (again 05/06) was Phil Neville closely followed by both Lucas Neill and Savage. Now, there's a couple of names that i'd have to scratch my chin at, especially the second one - i've seen his gaff and i've seen the way he spends so it wouldn't shock me.

Equally, there's a few i wouldn't be shocked at seeing mentioned when speculating - Harry Kewell, Robbie Fowler and Momo Sissoko seem to be constantly considered on the verge of villain-dom by quite a lot of people for some reason :shrug:

 

[NickHSpurs]

It says the player has a Premier League club on his CV, which would indicate he doesn't play in the Prem now, so it could be many many players!

 

[Kendall]

So the first post we get is ...



Brilliant. :-|

Please refrain from not reading TheChosenOne's post because it will save us locking the thread.

It would never happen really. I understand the image you & the rest of the mod/admin team want the forum to have, so I respect what you're saying, but I honestly don't feel there is a reason to be paranoid about people blurting a few guesses about. There are forums all over the net which are rife with far worse & this will be a conversation had by many of them.

 

[Stoof]

I understand the image you & the rest of the mod/admin team want the forum to have, so I respect what you're saying

To be fair, Kendall, can't you just leave it at that?

We know for a fact that Tottenham monitor the website as per complaints we've had from them.

We know that newspapers monitor the site, as we've been quoted in them.

As you can appreciate, that's where the buck stops and with things like this it can get very silly, very quickly. And yes, my post was a pre-emptive strike but like you say before you go on to contradict yourself, you can see what we're trying to do.

 

[Shanks]

Doesn't it state somewhere that its someone who doesn't play anymore, or who hasn't played in the PL for the last couple of years...

 

[Rocksuperstar]

It could have been anyone, but I really can't see one player being able to affect a result with subtlety, let alone manage to get three of his team mates-booked.

doesn't say they all happened in the same game though - it just says he arranged for it to happen :shrug:

Lets face it, whoever it is will be named and shamed - 99% of the british "media" know who it is, every scum journo from the rags will know who it is and in the end it'll just get around the old fashioned way - word of mouth.

When it comes out though, it'll probably be someone who played one game for West Brom or something, someone we've barely even heard of.

Besides, he got away with it, the law aren't involved and, there being no evidence to support this claim, it could end up just being attention seeking... who knows.

who cares?

 

[Flatters]

It could have been anyone, but I really can't see one player being able to affect a result with subtlety, let alone manage to get three of his team mates-booked.

Just noticed I put the dash between the wrong two words. :lol:

Anyway, you're right RSS. I just assumed it meant all in one game. It doesn't say a lot of things though. It doesn't say that this all didn't happen in PES2008. I've had so many players sent off before that the other team's won 3-0 by default. I wonder if gambling was involved with any of the virtual players there. :think: I'll let The Independent know. :up:

 

[Chris12345]

Didn't 99% of the West Ham squad have a gambling addiction a couple of years back?

 

[MarkTHFC9]

Gary Flicroft?

Seriously now, it will not be a player currently in the premier league, and im sure they would have mentioned if he had ever played on the international stage. I doubt he is a big player, still interesting though.

 

[chinaman]

In the shamateurism days in Hong Kong in the early 60s, quite a few top, top players were involved in game-fixing; but only two were given lenghty bans from the game when a smart referee sent them off for not trying. However they could not be send to a court of law as there was no concrete evidence.

 

[Rocksuperstar]

In the shamateurism days in Hong Kong in the early 60s, quite a few top, top players were involved in game-fixing; but only two were given lenghty bans from the game when a smart referee sent them off for not trying. However they could not be send to a court of law as there was no concrete evidence.

and FIFA would've said that the referee had already punished them so no other action would be taken, i bet? :lol:

 

[DJS]

It was...

Spoiler

MEEEEE!!!! MWA HA HAH!!!!! :lol:

 

[Real_madyidd]

I'm Sparticus!

 

[DJS]

I'm Real madyidd.



No wait, wasn't this done in the Dibby 2nd thread... :think: