Corruption in the EPL

[hellava_tough]

On the eve of our game against Man Utd, a fixture that in the past has seen some very dubious refereeing decisions, I thought it would be interesting to discuss corruption in the EPL.

So, essentially, from it's inception 20-odd years ago how much corruption (if any at all) has there been in the EPL, and does it still go on to this day?

Does the league itself have an incentive to rig certain aspects of the competition in order to further its global brand?

Do clubs' owners resort to under-hand tactics in order to make more money for themselves?

Do match officials turn a blind-eye to certain decisions, because of incentives?

And finally there are the players, most of which are too highly paid to take a bribe, but who could potentially be blackmailed to affect a match result (it's interesting how no homosexual footballers have ever been 'outed' in the EPL, considering our tabloid culture in the UK).

There's also the gambling side of the industry to consider. There are plenty of bets placed on winning results, or winning margins, so it would be possible for a bookie to ask a player to play to win as normal, but not to win by 'too much', if it effected the bookie's spread.



Anyway, it would be interesting to discuss the topic seeing as how corruption is rife in sports and leagues all over the world, yet the EPL has never had a high-profile scandal of this type.

 

[tony0379]

Its been going on for years. Im not going to go too much into it. Back in the early 80's my grandad knew a bookie who had connections at the highest level, and he made a fucking fortune through match fixing

 

[hellava_tough]

Its been going on for years. Im not going to go too much into it. Back in the early 80's my grandad knew a bookie who had connections at the highest level, and he made a fucking fortune through match fixing

Come on Tony, you can't leave us hanging with a juice titbit of info like that!!

Were they getting to the refs or the players?

And by 'they', do you mean organised crime?

 

[lillywhites61]

Come on Tony, you can't leave us hanging with a juice titbit of info like that!!

Were they getting to the refs or the players?

And by 'they', do you mean organised crime?

Well we all know about Brucie Grobalaar, that is one straight away and I bet there was a fuck load more as well.

 

[Riandor]

Well we all know about Brucie Grobalaar, that is one straight away and I bet there was a fuck load more as well.

Where there's a lot of money, there's corruption. What I dislike is actually FIFA regulating that governments cannot interfere with football matters, where to me governments should be damn well making sure this sh*t is properly regulated (though i do understand FIFA's wish to keep politics out of it, which i agree with, but there has to be a fine line).

 

[michaelden]

Sepp is the rotten apple and so is pretty much everyone at the FA

 

[tommo84]

This guy here is onto something.

http://www.diminbeirut.typepad.com/

There is absolutely no way that the Premiership is clean. As Riandor said, where there's money, there's corruption, and over the years we have seen numerous events/decisions which should have led to serious questions about whether some people in the Premiership have undue influence over referees and the outcome of some games. Furthermore, as Nadim (the blogger behind Dimi in Beirut) notes, there are a lot of very powerful people who would stand to lose a lot if the Premiership ever lost its image of being 'fair' and 'free from corruption' (simply it couldnt be the best league in the world anymore), and one of those (Rupert Murdoch/Sky) has a huge amount of influence over the people best placed to whistle-blow if ever they learned of any corruption.

Everything we're seeing happen with Lance Armstrong now (the reputation in tatters, him refusing to contest the charges because he knows he's fucked but at least this way he can claim its an unfair one-sided process, years of the TdF basically meaningless from an historical point of view) could well happen in 10 years with Man United and Ferguson in relation to intimidation of referees or something similar. Its already happened in Italy when Juve got relegated as punishment. Meanwhile I'd imagine there are a lot of one off games in lower leagues where either the ref or some players take bribes from bookmakers etc, but in the EPL that is difficult to imagine as most prem players are already very wealthy, so they would have much more to lose than to gain.

I just hope one day somebody proves what Nadim writes about in his blog one way or another, because at times my suspicions really do sour my enjoyment of the game.

 

[hellava_tough]

This guy here is onto something.

http://www.diminbeirut.typepad.com/

There is absolutely no way that the Premiership is clean. As Riandor said, where there's money, there's corruption, and over the years we have seen numerous events/decisions which should have led to serious questions about whether some people in the Premiership have undue influence over referees and the outcome of some games. Furthermore, as Nadim (the blogger behind Dimi in Beirut) notes, there are a lot of very powerful people who would stand to lose a lot if the Premiership ever lost its image of being 'fair' and 'free from corruption' (simply it couldnt be the best league in the world anymore), and one of those (Rupert Murdoch/Sky) has a huge amount of influence over the people best placed to whistle-blow if ever they learned of any corruption.

Everything we're seeing happen with Lance Armstrong now (the reputation in tatters, him refusing to contest the charges because he knows he's fucked but at least this way he can claim its an unfair one-sided process, years of the TdF basically meaningless from an historical point of view) could well happen in 10 years with Man United and Ferguson in relation to intimidation of referees or something similar. Its already happened in Italy when Juve got relegated as punishment. Meanwhile I'd imagine there are a lot of one off games in lower leagues where either the ref or some players take bribes from bookmakers etc, but in the EPL that is difficult to imagine as most prem players are already very wealthy, so they would have much more to lose than to gain.

I just hope one day somebody proves what Nadim writes about in his blog one way or another, because at times my suspicions really do sour my enjoyment of the game.

The culture of bullying that Fergie uses is very difficult to prove, as the majority of the time there isn't any tangible evidence (reports, emails, brown paper envelopes, etc)

I know that in the US the FBI have done a number of investigations into corruption in sport (the investigations are usually gambling focused) and they've come up with nothing, except to say that it's 99% impossible to prove, but it still goes on

In fact it goes one stage further in the US. Apparently there was some scandal (match fixing or something) with the NY Jets in NFL in the 90s (or was it the 80s?). Anyway, a fan and season ticket holder, took the Jets to the Supreme Court filing a civil case, demanding his season-ticket money back. The Supreme Court said that the Jets were only obliged to let fans into a stadium and show them a game of football. That was it. What goes on in a game of football is not covered in the contract and it's up to the governing body, and the Jets as to decide on that.

Could this ruling be over-turned if the fan had a bigger legal budget/team? Possibly. The fact is though, it hasn't as of yet.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

This guy here is onto something.

http://www.diminbeirut.typepad.com/

There is absolutely no way that the Premiership is clean. As Riandor said, where there's money, there's corruption, and over the years we have seen numerous events/decisions which should have led to serious questions about whether some people in the Premiership have undue influence over referees and the outcome of some games. Furthermore, as Nadim (the blogger behind Dimi in Beirut) notes, there are a lot of very powerful people who would stand to lose a lot if the Premiership ever lost its image of being 'fair' and 'free from corruption' (simply it couldnt be the best league in the world anymore), and one of those (Rupert Murdoch/Sky) has a huge amount of influence over the people best placed to whistle-blow if ever they learned of any corruption.

Everything we're seeing happen with Lance Armstrong now (the reputation in tatters, him refusing to contest the charges because he knows he's fucked but at least this way he can claim its an unfair one-sided process, years of the TdF basically meaningless from an historical point of view) could well happen in 10 years with Man United and Ferguson in relation to intimidation of referees or something similar. Its already happened in Italy when Juve got relegated as punishment. Meanwhile I'd imagine there are a lot of one off games in lower leagues where either the ref or some players take bribes from bookmakers etc, but in the EPL that is difficult to imagine as most prem players are already very wealthy, so they would have much more to lose than to gain.

I just hope one day somebody proves what Nadim writes about in his blog one way or another, because at times my suspicions really do sour my enjoyment of the game.

I think that is interesting, but so far the research is very one dimensional and almost entirely focused on ManU. I think there is plenty in it, but it would need to be a little wider, with some more comparison. IE if Moyes has vehemently complained about a referee how often has that referee been given Everton games. Were the penalties given strong ones or all dubious.

I think the thing about referees being demoted is absolutely blatantly as punishment for the Utd games. But would like to know how many other refs have been demoted and how often this occurs.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

The culture of bullying that Fergie uses is very difficult to prove, as the majority of the time there isn't any tangible evidence (reports, emails, brown paper envelopes, etc)

I know that in the US the FBI have done a number of investigations into corruption in sport (the investigations are usually gambling focused) and they've come up with nothing, except to say that it's 99% impossible to prove, but it still goes on

In fact it goes one stage further in the US. Apparently there was some scandal (match fixing or something) with the NY Jets in NFL in the 90s (or was it the 80s?). Anyway, a fan and season ticket holder, took the Jets to the Supreme Court filing a civil case, demanding his season-ticket money back. The Supreme Court said that the Jets were only obliged to let fans into a stadium and show them a game of football. That was it. What goes on in a game of football is not covered in the contract and it's up to the governing body, and the Jets as to decide on that.

Could this ruling be over-turned if the fan had a bigger legal budget/team? Possibly. The fact is though, it hasn't as of yet.

It's a bit different from the gambling angle though, surely if you could prove that ManU have undue (or indeed any) influence over refereeing appointments, and that that influence is used to help obtain results, then you have defrauded gamblers and people who invest on sports indexes etc.

 

[OmarsComing]

there is approximately a 0% chance in match result fixing via betting in the EPL.

 

[tony0379]

Just look where Chris Foy refereed last weekend. I bet Fergie had a quiet word in someone ear

 

[nightgoat]

I do wonder where Foy will be refereeing next weekend. The Football League claim that him refereeing in League Two was because of a predetermined slot for elite level referees taking charge of lower league fixtures. If he's not back in the Premier League for the next round of games then that excuse would start to look even more dodgy than it did in the first place.

 

[tony0379]

One thing i did find out yesterday is tha Chris Foy is CID in Sefton. Would never of put him down as a copper.

 

[OmarsComing]

One thing i did find out yesterday is tha Chris Foy is CID in Sefton. Would never of put him down as a copper.

Former copper, like Howard Webb.

 

[thinktank]

[QUOTEChris Foy failed to give Manchester United a penalty in their 3-2 loss to Spurs last Saturday. The PGMOB have not handed Foy a Premier League game to referee next weekend: instead, he will referee in League 2 for the first time in more than 4 years.][/QUOTE]

Very interesting indeed.