Probably the most disturbing aspect regarding the corruption of sporting sectors worldwide is the omnipresence of the shadow of criminality. It seemingly makes not an iota of difference whether one looks at horseracing, football, cricket or the Olympics, the distorting influence of malignant money upon both the administrative hierarchies and the event outcomes is increasingly the normal template.
Some recent media effervescences highlight this reality.
Pornography was the route that Birmingham City owner, David Sullivan, chose to create his wealth. Nice. Sullivan is currently attempting to sell his share of the midlands club to Carson Yeung, a Far East gambling sector magnate who made his own particular fortune via the establishment of a casino in Macau and through illicit underground trading on the global football markets (see: http://footballisfixed.blogspot.com/2007/07/betting-baron-buys-birmingham.html). Yeung is dragging his feet and Sullivan is getting nervous. The even-more-objectionable Thaksin Shinawatra has developed a stranglehold over the Premier League and the Professional Game Match Officials Board (PGMOB) through provision of a linkage to these self-same illegal markets and through the marketing coup of enabling one of his client companies to be sponsoring PGMOB referees and officials. When a cartel is in the process of being manufactured, there is no room for competition and Yeung is outside the power loop, at least for the moment. Hence the delay in completing the buyout of Brum to the consternation of Sullivan. Quoted this week, Sullivan gave the ex-barber until the end of 2007 to sign on the dotted line otherwise an alternative buyer will be sought. Fair enough. But the most interesting part of Sullivan's moaning was in regard to the financial strategies of the new Premiership hyper-owners. Utilising his inside knowledge of the financial structure at West Ham United (where he has a minority stake), Sullivan points out pertinently that the figures simply do not add up. And they don't. Unless, of course, you add gambling income to the accounts. Then the figures most certainly do add up and then some. It is a ludicrous piece of sector specific spin to claim that the types of individual buying up the Premiership clubs are doing so because they desire a trophy club, something to boast about in the clubhouse. These men are financial operators who care not about history and culture and community and sport but about wealth. The bottom line is where their focus lies. And, in the week that saw the first £1 billion global betting market, for anyone to claim otherwise is a deceit of some stature.
Take a bow Richard Scudamore, the highly compromised and cartel-integrated chief executive officer of the Premier League. Having been keeping a somewhat lower profile in the aftermath of the various and numerous scandals that have undermined any remaining efficacy and trust in himself or his organisation, Scudamore had to respond to Michel Platini's open letter to European heads of government regarding the major concerns felt within UEFA over the input of "malignant money" into the sport. Scud's missile had twin warheads. Firstly, he backed Gordon Brown's assertion that government should not interfere in the corruption underpinning English football and, tongue wedged in cheek, claimed that there is no instance of such malignancy in the profit and loss columns of the takeover brigade. Really. This one does not warrant a response... Scudamore's major concern doesn't relate to corruption caused by the impact of the betting markets, the lack of any fit and proper persons testing, the creative fluidity of the Premier League's rule book, nor the presence of dodgy money and even dodgier owners. No no no, Mr Scudamore's prime concern is that the media rights bestowed, at a cost, upon the likes of Sky and Setanta are being undermined by underground Asian firms offering peer-to-peer (P2P) streaming free of charge. Gymnastic contortions are necessary to warp reality into the perspective of the boss man of the English game. When the bodies that are coordinating the corruption of football lose monies to a gang of Asian criminals, this equals a dreadful indictment on their cash flows. When the same bodies gain monies through their own proprietary manipulations alongside Asian criminals, this equals a valid business strategy. Malignancy is okay so long as it is our malignancy.
But, it isn't only football. The recent Twenty20 baseball tournament in South Africa was smothered with corruption. The betting market volumes on the India versus Pakistan final were of soccer-esque proportions globally and some Pakistani players, evidently having buried any association with guilt over the demise of Bob Woolmer, were actively involved in the manipulation.
Or check out the banning of Kieran Fallon from horseracing in Britain. Now, Kieran has always been a bit of an entity with his high risk bedroom capers with the wives of the British establishment and an equally creative attitude towards the betting markets. Having fallen out with virtually every toff in the land, the Horseracing Regulatory Authority (HRA) have confirmed his ban despite his recent appeal. The selective vision of the HRA is Scudamorean in its lack of objectivity as Mr Fallon is merely the tip of country-sized iceberg of corruption. The authorities, owners, trainers and jockeys who manipulate the "sport" of horseracing in Britain should look closer to home for numerous examples of criminality amongst their own flock. Checking out the public and private betting patterns together with activities in the betting ring and on the rails clearly indicates that race outcomes are impacted upon negatively by betting market liabilities. 90% of the leading British trainers are associated with this widespread scam so the targeting of Fallon is evidently some type of imperial throwback. Historically, I've even had extensive conversations with Rodney Brack (formerly chief executive of the Horserace Betting Levy Board) about the structures of this manipulation. Of course, that was before he realised that I was from the other side! Must be something about the post of chief executive, I reckon...
One sporting extravaganza that has largely avoided the polluting impact of gambling money is the Olympics. The reason is blatantly obvious. Bookmakers corrupt events by offering inducements and incentives to insiders whether such insiders are jockeys, footballers, batsmen or referees. It is fortunate for sport that the kudos of winning some sporting events undermines any externalised corruption - a gold medal being one such scenario. Consequently, the bookmakers hardly bother to price up the Olympics markets as a level playing field comes somewhere near the bottom of their list of requirements. If only the authorities in control of the Olympics were equally squeaky clean...
The disgraceful charade of the lack of accountability that is the London 2012 Olympics is indicative of organisational corruption. Prior to the games being awarded to the south east of England (there will be a nett loss of £4 billion to the regions), Tessa Jowell and Richard Caborn from the Department of Culture Media and Sport were promising that the total cost of the games would be £2.4 billion. Before the IOC voted, Jowell knew that this was a vast underestimate but she creatively withheld the reality from both parliament and the House of Lords for fully sixteen months while also burying away Professor Adam Blake's report on the financial consequences of the bid. Jowell claimed that every corner of Britain would feel the 2012 effect and, in truth, she is correct. London is only paying a fraction of the cost. Additionally, Caborn repeatedly told MPs that the projections were robust despite warnings from P.Y. Gerbeau which indicated that a figure of around £7.5 billion would have been more honest if compared to the Paris bid. Of course, with the prize won, the duplicitous Jowell can now spin her way to the truth that the current cost estimate is £9.3 billion. When asked on a recent Channel 4 Dispatches programme why this was the case, the bid chairman, Lord Coe, was prevented from providing an answer by an overly insistent PR minder. And this is the core of the matter...
Public money is being used to back the financial mismanagement of this bid. And yet, LOCOG the authority in control of the process, is private. Non-disclosure of financial realities by a private firm using public money would normally only be allowed in the upper masonic sectors of industry and most certainly not in the arena of amateur sport. Coe's brigade repeatedly flout the Freedom of Information Act and Lottery money is being diverted from numerous good causes such as sport in the communities, culture, heritage etc to pay for the financial shortfall deliberately perpetrated by members of the LOCOG board. And, what an interesting board it is. Chaired by silver spoon merchant, Seb Coe, LOCOG's chief executive is a former chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs, Paul Deighton. Also on the board are such luminaries as HRH Princess Anne, Spurs director Sir Keith Mills and athlete Jonathan Edwards CBE. The gongs are mentioned as, out of a board of sixteen people, there are 2 lords, 2 sirs, 4 CBE's, 3 MBE's, an OBE and a princess which is an exceedingly egalitarian effort. Mike Leigh, who was involved in the bid process, has spun himself off as a freelance consultant with access to privileged information denied to taxpayers while Coe stands to personally gain around £5 million from the stitch-up.
Inevitably, there are even less pleasant liaisons if you dig a little deeper. Coe should be careful who he selects as his business partners as tax-exile Peter Abbey has a little bit too much history to have involvement in an allegedly flagship event. The inappropriate linkages spread further and LOCOG has strategic alliances with a rum bunch of characters including John Prescott's Las Vegas chum, Philip Anschultz (of super-casino infamy). Anschultz has levered his AEG company into the events spotlight and his Millennium Dome will be used for the Olympic basket weaving competition or some such trivia. Mr Anschultz is too compromised by his major global gambling interests to be situated anywhere near the public money being suborned for these games.
I understand that is foolish to hark back to the periods of the four minute mile, Jesse Owens and even those bearded East German women gymnasts, just as it is to fondly remember Stanley Matthews or Donald Bradman and to think that any of this has any relevance to the commercial obliteration of sport that surrounds us today. But the Olympic Games represent one of the last beacons of hope for meritocratic non-corrupt sport. Despite the Performance Enhancing Substances (PESs) and the nationalism, you could enjoy sport as it should be. Lord Coe, despite not really being as good as Steve Ovett, should remember this legacy. For it is the hands of people like him, Jowell and Anschultz that this legacy is being sold out to a grouping of inside commercial interests emanating from the shadier areas of western business, mafia, masons, private security interests and government.
It would be folly to expect the style of the Barcelona games with these cowboys (and girls) in control. Ever inflating costs and a high risk of terrorism would be my guess... Oh, and a load more gongs for the elite. Bless.
© Football Is Fixed/Dietrological
