Betting in Football

[gocatsgo]

I've heard a rumour. It comes from a pretty reliable source and it could become scandalous.

I won't mention names, but I think people will have an idea as to what I mean.

It involves a game earlier this season. A club alledgedly put money on themselves to lose against a lower placed team to reap money of a substantial amount.

This day they were paying just over $1 dollar against a side who was paying over $5 for a win.

[This message has been edited by gocatsgo (edited 21 July 2000).]

 

[Daniel]

If you could devise a way to do it without being detected, it would be a great way for financially struggling clubs to help themselves, wouldn't it? With the current publicity surrounding corruption in sport it is crazy if any club tried it, but I thought the same thing about Cronje..

 

[Arch]

dont suppose the effort of that losing team was described as "piss-weak" by one of its explayers ???

 

[gocatsgo]

It might have been Arch.

 

[sainter]

Two words gocatsgo,

GROW UP!

You my friend are the pissweak one.

 

[Daniel]

Hmmm, where have I seen this before? Oh that's right, during the cricket match-fixing scandal.

After it was suggested that Pakistan threw the match against Bangladesh at last year's World Cup, Bangladesh officials reacted by saying they won "fair and square" and that their players had been giving 100%, as if that made any difference to what Pakistan had contrived to do.

Well, Sainter is now playing the role of Bangladesh.

 

[Pessimistic]

I've heard of players secretly backing themselves to win when the odds are ridiculous.

Perhaps if they all got 10% of their match payments on themselves to win there might be a bit more passion at times !

 

[sainter]

Daniel,

Comparing St Kilda to Bangledesh national cricket team is not the most flattering comparison.

Besides, there is a lot of evidence to suggest that Pakistan did throw that game which clearly did not happen here.

We won the game because we were the better team. Yes, I acknowledge that Geelong played very poorly. But for a supporter of a team that will be playing finals football to continually harp on about how his team did not try and now that the result was contrived is very sad.

 

[gocatsgo]

Saniter, I'm not starting the rumour, let me make that clear. All I'm doing is reporting what I have heard.

If you must know, the rumour comes from the next door neighbour of a former Brownlow medallist.

I'm not saying that the rumour is true, I'm just saying what I've heard.

 

[Shinboners]

How much was bet on the match? $100? $1,000? $10,000? A bet of $100 hardly seems to be worth the risk. The same for $1,000. Why would a footballer risk his earnings for the sake of a couple thousand? That's what happened to Cronje....he may have picked up $US40,000, but he lost much more from his sponsorships. Now, if it was a bet of $10,000 or more, then the odds surely would have shortened (thus alerting people to something going on)....but then again, winning a "mere" $50,000 and risking losing your livelihood hardly seems worthwhile.

It doesn't matter where the rumour came from....the betting itself doesn't make sense. And surely in a club, something like that isn't going to be something that is 1. going to be accepted by everybody and 2. something that can be kept under the carpet for any length of time. Just accept that in footy, an underdog will come up and beat a more fancied opponent.

 

[Who_Knows]

Yes, I think that Fraser G from the Eagles is being paid money to play badly for the 2nd half of the season - that explains his form, committment to the ball. He is a good player and can play good football, but money means more then footy to him right now