Alisher Usmanov And The Takeover Of Arsenal #

Howard Zinn: "In a society held together by falsehood, knowledge is an especially important form of power".

It is a general rule that the establishment don't feel that they are able to trust us, and we don't feel that we are able to trust them.
The establishment goes for surveillance.
We prefer sousveillance.

Dara Ó Briain: "In Ireland, we don't do authorities and we don't do laws".
At Football Is Fixed, we gladly feast on those who would subdue us.

Time to mash up some football on this final Sunday in August.
And not any Sunday, but a Sky Super Sunday...
...like xmas eve in a lunatic asylum.

Today's post gives you all of the following:

* The Takeover Of Arsenal By Alisher Usmanov
* The Real Premiership League Table
* The Refereeing Crisis In Scotland
* The Real Olympics Medal Table
* The Exposure Of Another Racist PGMOB Referee
* The Worst Hooligans In Britain League Table
* The Crisis At Manchester City - An Update

Now, that's what I call a Sunday Supplement.
But you don't get nuffin' more if you don't pay for it.

Unfortunately, the remainder of this post and all posts labelled # are available in full to subscribers only.

© Football Is Fixed/Dietrological

How To Be A Postmodern Football Fan #

Already bored of the fake theatre of the new season in the English Premiership?
Do you have any concern where on earth Dimitar Berbatov might end up?
Is it really true that Liverpool are focusing on the Premiership rather than the Champions League?
And, if it is true (we think it is), should it really have any consequence on our lives?
And, what about Ronaldo?
It doesn't matter, see...
...when you think about it.

Gary Imlach is right.
It is not possible to passionately support a PLC.
And, in that case, it is totally im-fucking-possible to support the business entity of an oligarch or a human rights abuser.

Chelsea aren't Chelsea anymore.
Manchester City aren't Citeh anymore.
And, as for Portsmouth...

The Manchester United fans got it right with the creation of FC United Of Manchester.
If the rules allow for the leveraged buyout of your club by a bunch of neo-capitalist philistines from Texas or wherever, then your leisure time is best spent elsewhere.
Like Buxton, where FCUoM won a thrilling and Real football match 1-0 at the weekend.

Anyone fancy helping set up a FC Celtic Of Glasgow?
It is not possible to passionately support chairman John Reid.
Or owner Dermot Desmond...

Or better still.
With the end of football-as-we-knew-it in Britain, why not simply pick a team off the global conveyor belt?
And rather than choosing teams for spurious reasons like "the plane stopped off at their airport for refuelling" or "their away kit looks a bit like the Arsenal shirt", lets choose a proper reason for supporting a football team.
Politics.

Below we explore the range of options for the discerning post-Marxist, postmodernist, class conscious football fan.
If you are of a more fascistic persuasion, you will probably find that the neighbours of the sides listed below will offer you your required daily dose of neo-nuttiness.

We have kept away from the major rivalries in British and Six Counties football - Celtic/Rangers, Liverpool/Everton, Villa/Birmingham, Arsenal/Spurs, Linfield/Cliftonville, United/City - as such club animosities have been historically based on religion primarily, although, in a non-meritocratic tiered society like Britain, religion usually defines class.

* Boca Juniors (Argentina) - If you are after a big team to replace ManLiverArseSki, Boca is the only option. Maradona would be reason enough, and then Carlos Tevez came along.
Living in La Boca, next to the Bombonera stadium, Tevez refused to move once he became a favourite Boca player. He simply had a tunnel built from his run-down home to the stadium so that he could avoid all the adulation on match-day.
Boca have a totally Real history including the tango and class warfare. The masses who support Boca have always struggled to cope with economic hardship and solace has been found in the solidarity that is Boca Juniors.
La Bombonera is the best venue to watch football and being a Boca fan is even more long-lasting than the Citeh-til-I-die type of longevity in that there is a line of coffins available for dead Boca fans (or living River Plate one's, one assumes), as well as an official Boca cemetary (once again, not to be confused with the numerous unofficial examples that litter Buenos Aires).
Proper footballers, proper fans, proper history.

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© Football Is Fixed/Dietrological

A New Far East Criminal At Manchester City? #

Manchester City are swapping Thaksin Shinawatra for Gary Glitter!
Harry Redknapp is Sir Les Patterson!!

Andy Gray: "This is an infamous league for late goals".
Martin Tyler: "Well, a famous league...".

The illusory, invalid and infamous gambling league is up and running...

Having spent the last three months worrying about fictitious transfers that never occurred, we may now turn our attention, instead, to fake football which fails to exist, even as the theatre is gamed out in front of our eyes.

The early season league tables are a nonsense.
The degree of nonsensicalness extrapolates upwards when the volatility of structures based on just a few observations are combined with the impacts of the illusion being perpetrated on the pitch.
Yet, the early season table is critical in two key ways.
Firstly, a momentum (or a deceleration) may be evoked as over- or underperformance impacts upon the club on a psychological level.
And, secondly, pressure for change may be created or dissipated via the highly visible first two matches of the season.

The Real Premiership Table gives our traders' assessments of the Real Results in the games to date. This is founded on two fundamental inputs. The final match score is adjusted both for the inappropriate influences of the match officials and for the most likely outcome based on our proprietary analysis of the match data.
We do not claim that the match outcomes so created are accurate.
But, they are more precise than the Hyperreal version of the table that we are sold - we remove the impact of corruption, errors and statistical anomalies to more clearly define the Reality.

But it can be difficult to assess.
For example, John Pantsil should have been sent off for his outrageous challenge on Emmanuel Eboué. It was early in the game, it was 0-0. A reasonable assessment would have to have been that Arsenal would have gone on to win the game. Yet, we incorporate the staleness of the Arsenal performance into the equation and our outcome was a 1-1 draw.
Whatever.
This is still a more accurate reflection of the match than a Fulham victory.

So, what should the Premiership table appear like this morning?
We'll show you.

Unfortunately, the remainder of this post and all posts labelled # are available in full to subscribers only.

© Football Is Fixed/Dietrological

Skint Footie - Live On The Telly #

From 15:45 BST today, we are going to offer a live commentary on the Manchester City versus West Ham United Sky Live game.

Turn on.
Tune in.
Drop out.

Manchester City - The owners' money is held in Thailand. Mark Clattenburg is banned from officiating. They keep pretending to sign players for real money but payment is non-existent or made in crisp Thai baht, with smudged ink.
No longer able to clear the already low threshold offered by the fit-and-proper-person test (FPPT), Shinawatra is offering to stand down to a chorus of "yes, fuck off you human rights abusing psycho".
But this week Mark Hughes finally got to meet His Excellency for the first time and a new defender was unpurchased before the end of the week.
Will The Fraudster attend?
Will the buried crystals prove to be of more use than they were against Midtjylland?
Do His Excellency's security outfit really feel that the VIP is risking his life stepping into the directors box in East Manchester?
Could we just possibly get the first assassination attempt at a Sky Live Spectacular?

West Ham United - Manager is favourite to be the first to get the sack. Bilic keeps popping up. The sneaky bankers who bankroll the club are having a very tough time in the global credit crunch - Iceland has been one of the worst hit territories.
So everybody has got to be sold.
Still, apparently Dean Ashton is the best player the world has ever seen...

Both these teams are unbackable, having each been in a state of internal uproar for the whole of 2008.
To make matters complete, the least-decent-referee-not-yet-banned takes control of the match ############
So, come back before Kick Off to see if The Fraudster can overcome The Debtor under the gaze of The Police Officer.

Well, what about the pre-match betting markets?
Clever money around on ########### - there certainly seems to be a dynamic against them losing to the paupers from the #####.
So, ########### at Draw No Bet seems the bet if you must get involved.
But it is ############.
And they are deep in uproar.
We're staying out of this one on a trading level...

It is not football anyway.
Remember.
This is entertainment to a script.
The only enjoyment is spotting who-is-doing-it in time to make a suitable portion of your living from the betting markets.

The Premier League: "Get On with The Game".
Football Is Fixed: "Get On With The Gamble".

Apparently, there is a mole inside Manchester City with a "vendetta" against the club.
Who is it that is so irked by the autocratic behaviour of His Excellency that he/she risks summary execution in order to reveal the truth at the club?
We know of several players and one agent who are well pissed off with the situation - the agent could indeed be said to be waging a vendetta against City.
Champions League?
You're havin' a laugh...
In fact, UEFA Cup Proper, you're having a laugh...

Oh, at least the pre-match will be fun as Sky are giving us Ray Wilkins and David Platt to offer the views that the ###################################.
#########################################################
##################

Sky has just cut to the dressing rooms and the FA/Premier League "Get On With The Game" farce.
There are strong rumours around the offices that this game is #####.
As we said.
"Get On With The Gamble".

Hey, hey. Shinawatra is in the area.
#################
Will Scudamore be sitting next to him?
How does this sit with the FPPT thingimijig?

Gary Cook, the ex-Nike slimester running the show at Eastlands on behalf of Shinawatra, assured Sir Richards of the FA and the Premier League that neither Thaksin or his wife have anything to do with the day-to-day running of the club.
Just turns up to games to sit with the posh people, then?

You know what, right?
Why are all those Thai names in the boardroom if His Excellency is not involved in the day-to-day running of the club?

15:55 Five minutes to Kick Off. You can almost feel the tension building in the City of Manchester stadium - the Bird's Nest of the North.
Almost.

15:57 Well, there is going to have to be a lot of people coming into the ground in the next three minutes if we are going to have any atmosphere here.
Real atmosphere that is.
Not the sort that involves the Sky TV sound production man shoving up the fader on the crowd volume control.

15:59 So Platt and Wilkins are anti-City.
Shinawatra attends. He only attends if he is in control of the situation.
There is clever money on City.
Webb referees.
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

16:04 The Thai adverts are back. Great news for City.

16:06 Nope. Bochum versus Wolfsburg is more interesting...

16:07 City denied 0.5 of a penalty as the grass takes Elano out of the game. Too soft even for Howard Webb.

16:09 Robert Green is the best English goalkeeper. But he doesn't have close links to ################. This is undoubtedly holding his career back.

16:12 City are winning the 50-50's. Then again, they're probably threatened with a beating on the soles of their feet if they lose today.

16:14 City denied another 0.5 of a penalty. Then a clearance off the line. Then they hit the bar. Webb gives a dodgy free kick to relieve the pressure. Gosh...

16:18 Howard Webb looks like Hellboy :)

16:22 Free Kick. Central. 30 metres. Petrov... Off the post. Those crystals are failing City here.

16:24 Surely only a matter of time before City score here. Wonder if the match officials #############################. Just wondering...

16:28 The blood money signings are playing well for City.

16:29 Anybody else noticed that Martin Petrov only plays for half the game, and only plays for half the season too.

16:30 Blue Moan rings out. Its a draw.

16:33 Well, The Fraudster should be happy with everything apart from the score. Well worth missing the Olympics Closing Ceremony and a couple of court appearances for...

16:37 Pretty much standard fare for the park this. Only a bit faster. Not very 'Top Class' at all, really...

16:39 Howard Webb has done the business. Just as we thought. Noble has been sent off.

16:40 This game could represent a prime example of a ################ market.

16:42 City have had their sixth penalty appeal of the half turned down. Its a Webb Mad Market.

16:44 Hellboy does Mike Dean...

16:49 I've got to analyse the Half Time Markets. Gimmee 10... And then I'll tell you about Chung Mong-Koo. Can't wait. 8 shots to nil and still City can't score. Feng Shui is simply not up to the task.

16:54 So, Chung Mong-Koo. He was the chairman of Hyundai, who was sentenced to 300 hours community service for embezzling $90 million from his company. That works out at $300,000 for every hour of sweeping up and railing painting. Shinawatra's crimes warrant the withholding of $1.6 billion by the Thai authorities. Perhaps he'll get about three years community service. Perhaps he is a fit-and-proper-person.

17:00 Well, the ideal Half Time bet is undoubtedly #############################
####################################################################
But, uproar is uproar.
It matters more when there's money on it.
Not when it is an ###############################, it doesn't.

17:02 Why would anybody voluntarily choose to drink Budweiser?

17:03 Oh, a view of my beautiful city from the SkyBet blimp. It matters more when we take the piss out of you. Its a boiler room scam. Its a Murdochracy Spectacular. The match is simply #############

17:08 A collision of heads. How exciting.

17:09 Oh no. Micah Richards has a serious injury. There goes the only asset.

17:11 City players are looking ashen-faced - its one of those career threatening injuries...

17:12 Blue Moon v Blowing Bubbles is the Mexican wave of choice.

17:16 7 minute break. Always good to trade the #################### market in-running after an injury like that.

17:21 City are fitter. Its 11 against 10. The stars are on their side. The crystals will surely come good. Shinawatra doesn't like to leave things to chance...

17:24 Its a beautiful game. Not that you would recognise this fact if you were to stumble across this nonsense as a prime example of the sport.

17:25 The City faithful are becoming unfaithful in their Mancunian moaning. Self harm time. Time for City to score then. G-OOOOOOOOOO-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL...

17:27 SkyBet are beside themselves with glee. Andy Gray can hardly contain himself. There have been some very big bets landed on this ###############.

17:31 We're already looking forward to ###########################.

17:32 Oh another goal. How exciting can this get for Mr Gray?

17:33 When City were a decent club, that would be before Malcolm Allison got involved, this would be about the time in the game when my father would start glancing at his watch. 7 minutes to the car, 17 minutes home, back on the garden.

17:35 The Singha adverts are becoming more showy with the 2-0 lead - the wonderful link between marketing and markets via a football match.

17:37 Oh my gosh! "Is this Manchester City's holy trinity?" weaseled Andy Gray as The Fraudster lands ######################. 3-0.

17:39 We have a rule in the office. When a match reaches 3-0, we shut down the screens and move on. Its like a modern day equivalent of leaving early for the car park. Like father...

Unfortunately, the blocked out parts of the posts and all posts labelled # are available in full to subscribers only.

© Football Is Fixed/Dietrological

Richard Scudamore - Desperately Seeking Omerta (A Flashback) #

The new subscription structure of Football Is Fixed includes provision for a couple of Flashback posts per month, in order that we may either demonstrate our prescience or allow for the continuation of the arguments set out in the original post.

On the day after Richard Scudamore forced Brian Barwick out of the FA, it seemed relevant to go back a year to last August when we had already had more than enough of the Murky One.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

RICHARD SCUDAMORE - DESPERATELY SEEKING OMERTA

The Premier League chief executive, Richard Scudamore, in his increasingly desperate attempts to escape censure over his extensive mismanagement of our national game, continues to paint himself further into a corner from which there is no exit available that might allow his stature to be maintained and his career in football to continue.
We have highlighted in numerous previous posts the inappropriate roles undertaken by Scudamore with respect to the Quest inquiry into bungs in football, the West Ham United scandal, the fit and proper persons test for Premiership team ownership and the entirely invalid links being developed between the Premiership and the ###### ########################.
A couple of weeks back, Scudamore began making public statements which he hoped would draw a line under the rampant corruption which his stewardship has overseen. By implying that he had been a victim of highly improbable circumstance, he hoped to generate an atmosphere of sympathy before sliding out of public sight to get on with the real business behind the conversion of the sport into a gambling medium par excellence. But there are too many loose ends and his own belief in being entirely teflon results in a lack of security in his own personal portrayals of integrity.
This last week has demonstrated the non-sustainability of his position.
As we reported last week, Scudamore decided that it was valid to sit alongside Shinawatra for Man City's match against Derby County just 24 hours after an arrest warrant had been issued in Thailand for His Excellency and his wife over illegal land deals in Bangkok. This was not a bright move. By allying himself with the most inappropriate of characters in the English game at such a time and in such a manner, Scudamore was voluntarily placing the noose around his neck. We have itemised in detail Shinawatra's corruptions, betting market activities and human rights abuses over the last month but the most succinct description of His Excellency was made on Monday by one of our business contacts in the Thai capital. When asked about the view of the Thai people to Shinawatra, our contact informed us that the rural farmers of the north east of the country have been bribed into supporting Shinawatra but that the elite and the educated wished for nothing to do with him to the extent that they preferred to be run by the military until democracy is restored. Quoting our contact: "Thousands of people have simply disappeared. Nobody knows where they are or, indeed, if they are still alive. Shinawatra is a GANGSTER".
The second hiccup in Scudamore's strategic plan was that Sheffield United just won't let it lie. With adequate justification, the Yorkshire team are suing West Ham United over their relegation from the Premiership. This legal process will stretch into the New Year and will keep the illegal machinations of the Premier League and Scudamore very centrally in the public's gaze for much of the current season. West Ham understand that they do not have a judicial leg to stand on and Scudamore must be concerned that both his and the Premier League's refusal to impose the rules of the game on one of its member clubs will continue to produce column inches across the media. Even more disturbingly for Scudamore, Kia Joorabchian has teamed up with Sheffield United to provide inside information about this massive corruption. Significantly, Joorabchian has drawn to United's attention a document dated 1 December 2006, reputed to be an amendment to the player's original contract made after West Ham had been acquired by their new owners. Joorabchian is co-operating with Sheffield United because he is unhappy that the Premier League made him pay West Ham £2m before allowing Tevez's transfer to Manchester United and because he is thought to be under pressure from the financial backers of his MSI organisation. Taking each of these points in turn. The Premier League insisted on the £2 million payment in a desperate attempt to disguise the Tevez transfer to Manchester United as not being a deal based on a Third Party agreement. As we have posted previously, West Ham will get the two million quid while, eventually, Joorabchian's gang will receive upwards of £30 million which looks like a Third Party arrangement to me. The second point is indicative of the unethical natures of the individuals with whom Scudamore chooses to conduct his business. MSI are known to have or are rumoured to have links with a rum group of characters ranging from Joorabchian to Boris Berezovsky and from Pini Zahavi to Roman Abramovich. The battle between these characters and the characters within the Premier League hierarchy has been joined throughout the recent controversies relating to the bungs inquiry, the raiding of selected clubs by the City of London police, the battle for control of the global betting markets and, of course, the West Ham affair. There is an accepted wisdom that one can judge a character by the company he/she keeps and Scudamore's linkages with the MSI criminals and the Thai gangster are simply not compatible with his position at the summit of the Premier League.
The third problem facing Scudamore is that Joorabchian is willing to use his extensive knowledge of the corruption in the English game to bring the edifice tumbling down. At the weekend, Joorabchian offered to personally fund a new inquiry into the Tevez scandal as he searches for "honesty and transparency". Leaving aside the rather obvious point that Joorabchian claiming to show an interest in the moral high ground is undermined by a whole spectrum of incidences including the arrest warrant which exists in Brazil against him for money laundering, when a mafia man becomes a whistleblower the corruption that usually resides below the surface of spectacular society attention comes bubbling to the surface. Joorabchian's press release continued: "Let's have total transparency Mr Scudamore, we have nothing to hide. Why was a full, transparent and thorough investigation not done when your member clubs have a right to know what's happened? Why are they [the Premier League] clouding this issue? Why were the full facts not heard? Why were people not questioned? They never once asked us about any paperwork, never held discussions with us, never wrote us a letter. How did they decide on a £5.5million fine with only 50% of the facts."
In conclusion, we repeat our call for Scudamore to resign or to be sacked. Our legal people prevent us from going into details involving Scudamore, the Premier League, Shinawatra and the ############################################ but, if readers undertake some joined-up thinking, you will not be too far from the reality that is structurally demolishing Premiership football as a competitive sport. Eventually, the full truth will out but, in the meantime, Scudamore and the Premier League are going to have to find £2 million (probably plus a little extra blackmail cash) to buy off Joorabchian and his ############################. These arrangements will necessarily take place behind closed doors as Scudamore and the Premier League desperately try to extricate themselves from the quicksand of their own mismanagement.
Gangsters, mafia, extra-judicial murders and disappearances, money laundering, arms dealers, betting markets liquid to over a quarter of a billion pounds, kickbacks, bungs, coercion, illegal transfers, corrupt referees, offshore financial centres, coups and the sight of His Excellency sitting alongside English football's boss...
Whatever happened to football?

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"Fu Ze Ren Bu Zae" #

"The Man With The Key Is Not Here".
Whenever you reach the termination of a cul-de-sac of investigative research in China, this is the statement that reveals the futility of any extra efforts on that particular line of enquiry.
Forget it.
The Key is not for the likes of you.

Today is a first for Football Is Fixed.
We are going to provide you with The Key to a few floor-level rooms.
We do not think that you will like what you see.
Subprime.

One of my colleagues has spent the last month in China and the Far East.
His task was a potent mixture of broker appraisal, debt recovery and the monitoring of the Olympic Games underground betting markets.
Additionally, our prime Asian broker, whom we have traded with for over a decade, agreed to give us an exclusive interview regarding the state of football...
...from the perspective of an Asian bookmaker.

Below are some selected sections of the original transcript together with some explanation of the subject matter covered (for readers not aware of how the global betting markets function).

Dietrological (our Football Information Provision Service) have a dichotomous relationship with the Far East - our very best contacts and the very best analysts are South-East Asians; our very major debtors are also dotted around the fringes of the global football gambling engine-room.
Yet, from the coverage of the English game in the media circus, you would not be aware that the Far East has any impact on the sport.
The media prefers the spectacle to reality.
The media peddles the illusion of the hyperreality.

So, my man started the conversation with focus on the power of the Far East betting markets.

FIF: "In Britain, there is no public knowledge of the importance of the betting markets in Asia. Does this surprise you?".
Mr. P: "Most people do not understand what they are seeing. They accept what they are told. ###############################################
FIF: "Okay, there is a betting market on a top English game that is liquid to the $2 billion level. #################################################################### #########################################################. Does this money influence match outcomes?".
Mr. P: "Yes, in most cases Premier League games are hit by the markets. The hit varies. ################################################################
#########################".
FIF: "So, for example, lets look at the big two matches that opened the English season - Chelsea versus Portsmouth and Manchester United versus Newcastle - I'm told by the office that both these matches were fixed. Is that true?".
Mr. P: "Yes".
FIF: "How were they fixed?".
Mr P: "############################ were for Chelsea. Very big money was down on Chelsea ############################. Clever money. ##########. The result was fixed".
FIF: "And the United game?".
Mr. P: "########### fixed it. ##################################. The big traders were changing their positions - one way, then the other team, then back again. ##### ########### stopped it".
FIF: "Stopped it?".
Mr. P: "Yes".
FIF: "How?".
Mr. P: "I only tell you something. ################################### - ##########
################################################################################
########################################
FIF: "In Asia, this is accepted. In Britain, they pretend that it does not happen. Why is that?".
Mr. P: "You complain about Chinese gymnasts being small, but do you complain about American and European gymnasts being big through doping? You see what you want to see".
FIF: "You have been involved in the Asian markets for a long time, what changes have you seen?".
Mr. P: "More money now. Money is more important now. In England, ##################
########################. The private markets are powerful. ################ is now the most important person in the game. ################### fighting to control it. In Italy too".
FIF: "When you started, Asia dominated the markets through superior analytical skills and clever trading techniques. It has become more difficult recently, hasn't it? ############################################################################# ################################################################################# #######################".
Mr. P: "Western traders are shit. They fight, they shake hands, they fight, they shake hands. They do not think about tomorrow, only today. ###################### #############. There is different mafia. ###################".
FIF: "######################?".
Mr. P: "##########################".
FIF: "In England, people are slowly accepting some of the things that have been knowledge in the trading community for a long time eg the use of performance enhancing substances (PESs), corrupt ####################, ############## involved in match outcomes, the regulators and authorities treating the game as a product with a defined outcome etc. Have you noticed this with your clients?".
Mr. P: "Yes, but it is black and white/ yin and yang. First, they say soccer is not corrupt. Never. It is clean. Then, they find the truth and, now, all soccer is corrupt. Every game is corrupt. Every game is different. It is a different market. Not black. Not white".
FIF: "English football is not popular in China as a sport but it is very popular as a gambling medium. Why is this?".
Mr. P: "The betting markets. This is the only reason. The games are in the night. But you can bet more money and the street knowledge is very good".
FIF: "Compared to Europe?".
Mr. P: "Yes".
FIF: "Over 60% of the readers of the Dietrological blog live here in the Far East, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, but the blog is banned in China. Why do you think that is?".
Mr. P: "I don't know. Lots of things are banned. ################################ #######################".
FIF: "I want to return to the subject of referees. The referee is big information now. The authorities understand this and this season has seen further delays in the release and the publicising of the match officials [for example, UEFA only publicised referees for the Champions League 3rd Qualifying Round at 11:00 GMT on the day of the match]. In the Premier League, things have changed too. I am told that referees are complaining as the weekend appointments are not being released until late on the Tuesday night, rather than a week earlier as used to be the case".
Mr. P: "The referee selection is changing the markets. I want to trade big on West Bromwich and Everton. How can I? If the referee is ########, ######## will probably win. If the referee is ########, ######## will probably win. There is lots of money and small wages. This is why Champions League selection is so late".
FIF: "What do you think about the impact of Thaksin Shinawatra on the English game?".
Mr.P: "##########################################################################".
FIF: "We understand that Thaksin has very close links to the Bangkok betting markets".
Mr.P: "##########################################################################
##########".
FIF: "Of course, the problem with these very liquid and very private markets is that they are only partially visible to outsiders. More importantly, these markets are not regulated by the game. By allowing anonymous trading of tens of millions of dollars on football matches, isn't the sport simply selling out to the markets?".
Mr. P: "Yes. Soccer sold out. ##########################################. Soccer is very big betting. The limits are higher and higher. They go up by ##% a season".
FIF: "Do people ever not pay you?".
Mr. P: "Only once [laughs]".
FIF: "What is the view over here about the Premier League plan to bring English games to Asia and to other parts of the world?".
Mr. P: "Big betting and big markets. Some people objected and said 'no' but the markets will be big enough. In China, the match is not important. Sunderland or Manchester, its the betting that counts. It is easier to bet when not at the match".
FIF: "So, ###########################################?".
Mr. P: "Yes".
FIF: "Which other European leagues have the most gambling activity? We trade on the big six tournaments [Premier League, Serie A, Champions League, La Primera Liga, Internationals (UEFA or FIFA) and Bundesliga] but which other leagues are big in the betting markets?".
Mr. P: "Russia, Israel, Beitar Jerusalem games are very big betting. The same people as Portsmouth. ################################################################# ########################### Most countries. ######## is getting very bad. So is ########. And #########".
FIF: "But England is the worst?".
Mr. P: "Yes".
FIF: "Okay, finally a fixed question! One of the reasons for this interview is because we share a common goal with regard to the football betting markets. At the moment, the people who control the betting markets, ############################## #################, are ######### in both their activities and intent. The organisations and individuals who are gaining financially are only gaining due to these corrupt practices. Dark pools of anonymous trading are destroying both the game and the possibility of a competitive and meritocratic marketplace. The global betting markets must be properly regulated to limit the amount of insider trading and market abuse that dominates the current set up. Is there any chance that an alternative market could be established soon with proper levels of liquidity and security of payment?".
Mr. P: "The problem is this. How do you regulate a global market? Who says 'yes'? The best is for markets on the bourses. There will always be the black market".
FIF: "So, the two in parallel. Regulated and non-regulated?".
Mr. P: "Like the bourse, yes".

Gary Imlach: "Conversations with friends revealed a sort of non-specific unease about the brave new world of the Premiership. They were reluctant to mourn the loss of a connection with the past for its own sake; a break with tradition may be no bad thing if that tradition consists of standing to watch the game ankle-deep in a stream of other people's piss. Still, how do you passionately support a PLC? How do you maintain the undying devotion that makes you a fan when the club is doing its damnedest to turn you into a customer? One answer is that you simply blank it all out and focus on the team, on what happens on the pitch. But what if the team is a rotating cast of millionaires with no more connection to your world than Tom Cruise...?".

And, what if you do blank it all out and focus on what is happening on the pitch?
What is it that you see when you watch Manchester United play Newcastle United?
You should be seeing a mixture of ############################################ determining outcome.
An uncertainty defined in a boiler room scam.
Blank it all out.

Unfortunately, the blocked out parts of the posts and all posts labelled # are available in full to subscribers only.

© Football Is Fixed/Dietrological

Gimme Respect And Get On With The Game #

What would happen if Richard Scudamore was in charge of the Olympics?

While this question was hanging in the air, a more important decision needed to be made.
Do I watch Arsenal against West Bromwich Albion or the Olympic cycling?
The latter won.
Indeed, if the choice had been between the Premiership game and Tobacco Monopoly FC versus the Royal Thai Army, the latter would still have won.

Although you would struggle to find any prolonged or detailed media reference to such things, the English Premiership is starting the new season with a potent mixture of uproar and mutiny in refereeing circles.

As we recently posted, witness the following statement by referee 'Albert' regarding the morale among the match officials: "What a great shame that the PGMOB are not as transparent and clear in their conduct. Over the past few seasons a number of officials have been removed from the list without it being made clear. Take a look at Andy D'Urso (a fine referee and a man of integrity) - more than can be said of the conduct of the PGMOB officers. ###############################################################################################################################################################################################################
################################################################################################################################################################################################################### We are in a poor state - no respect from players - money buying points and players - matches that do not attract (or need) spectators to survive.
#########################################################################################################################".

The PGMOB Inner Circle of the Select Group comprises ################################
############################################

More disturbingly, ##################################################################
###########################################################################

The 'live' Premiership officials at the weekend were Webb, Riley, Wiley and Dean.
These appointments were not made meritocratically as our internal ratings show these match officials to be, respectively, the 2nd, ################## worst officials in 2007/08.
There must be another reason why, for example, over two-thirds of Howard Webb's refereeing appointments ################################
Of course, the PGMOB could demonstrate that their roster is meritocratic by releasing the marks that the competing clubs give to the PGMOB match officials after each and every game.
Simple.
Such integrity would force the PGMOB officers to explain why Webb keeps getting the ######################### when he is the second worst referee in the Premiership.

Obviously, we will never be allowed access to this data as the publicising of the ratings would massively undermine #####################################
So, like the "undisclosed fee" that is defining the summer transfer markets, we have the undisclosed ratings that define the abilities of individual match officials.

This season, one of the two new officials is Stuart "Fasttrack" Attwell.
Having only officiated at 4 Championship matches prior to this season, Attwell is obviously talking to the right people.
He began with Sky's televised Forest v Reading match last week.
This weekend, he was down for the 4th Official spot both for 'Boro v Spurs and the Super Sunday climax at Old Trafford.
And, just as Attwell was thinking that all his 25 birthdays had arrived at once, he was then given Saturday night's live Sky Championship game in Bristol after the initial choice was pulled.
We have examined the man's officiating early season and we think that it is fair to say that you are going to be hearing a lot about Mr Attwell.
Over the next quarter of a century...

At the hierarchical levels of Webb and Attwell, everything is going exactly to plan. £57K per annum is the annual income of the Select Group referees, and this is before one considers ###############################################
######################

At the opposite end of the economic scale, some assistant referees receive only £145 per game - there is no parity with their European counterparts.
There are two impacts of this wage differentiation.
Assistant referees have to maintain outside jobs, and jobs where employers are willing to allow considerable time off to take account of the travelling involved in officiating.
################################################################################################################################################

The assistant referees are made to understand their relative (un)importance in the big scheme of things by one simple PGMOB gesture. At Half Time, the referees get a change of outfit for the 2nd Half; the assistant referees are expected to continue in the same kit regardless of the weather.
If the assistants want a change of shirt, they have to pay for it.
With the increasing importance of the 4th official, the assistants are aware of their declining status.

Prospect, the Union representing the match officials, are demanding a £5K retainer and significantly higher match fees for assistant referees but the PGMOB has said 'no' to the former, and is only offering incremental increases to the latter.
The offer is much lower than the officials had hoped.

Alan Leighton, the National Secretary of Prospect says: "Even if the claim was met in full, we would be talking about rewards that are considerably lower than in many other parts of Europe, when we're talking about the Premier League being the richest league in the world".

The non G14 referees are unhappy.
The assistant referees are unhappy.
The match officials' union is unhappy.
#############################

####################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################

###########################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################

#################################################
######################################################

Currently, the Premier League, under the odious Richard Scudamore, the FA and the PGMOB are marketing a Respect agenda calling for an improvement in the treatment of match officials on the pitch.
The foundations of this campaign have absolutely nothing to do with 'respect'.
They have everything to do with ###########################################

##############################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################

This is Scudamore's version of 'respect'.

Scudamore refuses to make any comment on the unrest among the PGMOB rank and file membership. His argument is that the issue of fees is an internal matter for Keith Hackett and the PGMOB officers.
Really?
The PGMOB is funded by the Premier League, the FA and the Football League.
Oh, and #######...
###########################################################
################################################
#############################################################################################################

The Respect Agenda is not the only one being peddled by Scudamore.

There is a new Premier League offensive to persuade managers, captains and match officials to be friendly to one another - it is called "Get On With The Game".
Prior to each Premiership match, these core insiders will meet in the referees changing rooms to show 'respect' to one another.
At best, this is facile.
At worst, it is something altogether more murky.
Think of that next time you have paid your hard-earned money to witness an agreed draw.

Unfortunately, the blocked out parts of the posts and all posts labelled # are available in full to subscribers only.

© Football Is Fixed/Dietrological

Manipulated Markets And Folksy Racism #

"At what dilution of cash to content can you no longer taste the sport in sport?" - Gary Imlach.

Is it lonely up there on your pedestal, Mr Scudamore?
The timing of media leaks always indicate the hidden agendas of the institutions behind the leaking process.
And yesterday's leak that the FA have found Portsmouth FC and football agent Willie McKay guilty of breaking the rules of the game with regard to two transfers of Benjani was certainly timed for minimum media impact.
The story had disappeared from the ether by this morning when the masses were logging on for the opening day of Premiership action.

There are seven primary types of corruption that are destroying the sport of football.
Yesterday, we provided an example of an owner, Thaksin Shinawatra, who should never have passed the fit-and-proper-persons test (FPPT).
Today, we look at a football manager and an agent who would each fall below the threshold if matters of integrity were taken into account when decisions were made regarding FPPT's for their respective roles in the demise of football.
In the next two posts, we cover examples of the institutions, the referees, the bookmakers and the players who are also involved in selling you short.

Willie McKay ("Murky Willie") and Harry Redknapp ("'Arry") have had their business practices questioned repeatedly by this blog since we first started in November 2006.
We are not going to go over old ground again here as we wish to focus specifically on yesterday's action rather than their historical shenanigans.
Suffice to say, though, that the FA's ruling is totally unrelated to the still ongoing City of London police inquiry into bungs, in which Murky Willie and 'Arry are two of the seven charged with alleged financial indiscretions, and then some...

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© Football Is Fixed/Dietrological

The Reality Of Post-Thaksin Manchester City #

This was the week that Thaksin Shinawatra ran away from both mid-Thailand and Midtjylland.

This was the week when Portsmouth claimed that future transfer activity would be severely reduced due to the credit squeeze when, in fact, it is their banning for the illegal usage of agents that will prevent future market activity.

This was the week when the threat of a strike by the Premiership Select Group of assistant referees became more likely.

The completion of the summer news vacuum that so tests the journalistic abilities of the gutter press is evidently spiralling to its chaotic conclusion.

Now is the time for real news.

In the first of four posts to mark the launch of the 2008/2009 Product, we laugh at Shinawatra.
In the second, we laugh at Willie McKay and Harry Redknapp.
While, in the third, we laugh at the treatment of assistant referees by the PGMOB.
And, finally, we provide an exclusive interview with a leading Asian underground bookmaker which provides many revealing insights into the state of the English game on the eve of the Bland Brand #17.
This last post is no laughing matter...

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© Football Is Fixed/Dietrological

Lies And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them #

It all began on September 10th 1960.

That was the date of the first live televised match on English television, the Division One game between Blackpool and Bolton Wanderers.

It was also the occasion of the first instance of disinformation from the broadcasters to bolster their product (although it is doubtful whether ITV were aware that they were instigating a process where the greatest sport would become a media brand).

After the game, critics complained that the commentators overpraised what one could see was a poor game and talked about a packed house when the crowd of 17,000 meant Bloomfield Road was less than half-full.
The following week, Arsenal refused to allow the cameras in for the second live ITV match, an act mimicked by the club owners in the following weeks, meaning that the Lancashire derby was the only live match to be shown.

Inevitably, Blackpool lost 1-0.

But, sporting media disinformation had been born.

Nearly half a century on, it is no surprise to find that the attitudes of the mealy-mouthed mainstream media have developed somewhat.
But the basic formula remains a constant - utilise disinformation to disguise the Hyperreality.

This post looks at several current Spectaculars and provides the hidden Realities behind the Spectacular Neorealities.

We check out Thaksin Shinawatra and Manchester City - we know how this one will play out. Big news about the Citizens plight.
We check out Mike "its-the-truth-I'm-known-as-a-liar" Ashley and Newcastle United - isn't there something in British law about owners lying to shareholders?
We check out the summer transfer markets - how the mainstream media gamed the disinformation to maximise profits.

Unfortunately, the remainder of this post and all posts labelled # are available in full to subscribers only.

© Football Is Fixed/Dietrological

The Bum Ref Index - Final Table For 2007/08 #

Last Thursday morning, at 07:42, we posted about the inappropriate financial linkages and behaviour of PGMOB referee, Mark Clattenburg.

Two hours later, he had been suspended for allegedly dodgy business practices.

We're taking requests from readers for future libellous content...

Just like the hyperreal Premiership title race, the battle to become the worst match referee last season went right down to the wire.
Mark Clattenburg, Rob Styles and Howard Webb all went into the final round of games knowing that a poor performance would guarantee them the Worst Referee Title.
Styles, unfortunately, only got a 4th Official post and struggled to add to his seasonal underperformance. This left the sprint to the finish open to Mark Clattenburg, and he did not let us down with ######################################################, to claim the title for the first time.
From being the premier referee in 2006/07, Clattenburg has morphed into last season's most problematical official.

From Integrity to Murky in twelve months.
From Anti-Hero to Zero over the summer break.
From Flavour of the Month to Suspension in one week.

Life is nothing if not dynamic for The Electrician.

Before we go on, here is the Bum Ref Index Final Table 2007/08.
Note that only the inner core of 14 Select Group Tier 1 officials have been included.

Best Referee of the Season: Peter Walton.
2. #################
3. #################
4. #################
5. #################
6. #################
7. #################
8. #################
9. #################
10. #################
11. #################
12. Rob Styles
13. Howard Webb
Worst Referee of the Season: Mark Clattenburg.

Last season, 18 members of the Select Group of PGMOB referees were used in the Premiership (one game was refereed by non-Select Group official, Andy D'Urso, due to illness). #############################################################################################

We like the symmetry.
The G14(18) no longer exists.
Long live the G14(18)!
The PGMOB 14(18) most certainly still exists.

Whereas Bennett got 31 games and Riley got 30, Uriah Rennie, the one Black official had just 5 matches, while Stroud and Mason only officiated at 7 games.
Barry Knight got zero.
Nil.

The data becomes more curious when one assesses the televised games.
############################################################################################################################################################################################################

We judge the PGMOB officials in a range of ways to come up with our Bum Ref Index.
####################################################################################################################################

#####################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################

Anyway, back to Mark Clattenburg.
Last weekend, Clattenburg gamed the illusion of the Arsenal versus Real Madrid betting event, and on Wednesday night, he was in Hungary for a rare, if meaningless, European game.
As he and his new hair settled down for a good night's rest, he will have been looking forward to officiating at the season opener between Man Utd and Pompey at The Mall.
His career was going well.
By Thursday lunchtime, the man's life ###################### was uproar.
The PGMOB had decided to suspend Clattenburg over alleged debts to a former business partner in the electronics company that they control (Clattenburg has numerous 'outside' interests).
The suspension was inevitable.

As more and more fans are joining-the-dots and discovering the invalid links between referees and bookmakers, the authorities within the game are doing their utmost to keep this reality opaque.
In the close season, there has been ample coverage across the European media for developments in match-fixing cases involving referees...
Italy - Several players involved in a new calciocaos.
Portugal - Porto buying off referees in 2003/04 and the banning of these officials.
Germany - Bundesliga referee Robert Hoyzer released from prison for his role in match-fixing with Croatian mafia.
Romania - Gigi Becali openly buying off match officials to try and buy Steaua the title.
NBA - Referees working with broadcasters to achieve desirable and marketable outcomes to matches and tournaments.
In the British press, there has been next to nothing - too busy focusing on the illusory transfers of Adebayor, Ronaldo, Lampard, Owen, Berbatov, Barry et al.
The link mustn't be made explicit.
That is why Clattenburg was removed from the Community Shield.

And the mealy-mouthed media keep up their good work on behalf of the destruction of the sport.
Paul Wilson writes a whole piece himself today on The Guardian website.
Entitled "Time to Show the Ref Some Respect", the article covers today's Community Shield and the subject matter of its headline.
At no point does Wilson mention Clattenburg.
Two-and-a-half days is evidently too long a time in Wilson's world.

The Guardian/Observer have another delight for us today - an article by The Count, Richard Scudamore. In it, The Destroyer Of The Game refers to the 'virtuous circle' than underpins the Premiership.
He doesn't delve into the depths of this circle, otherwise names like ################################################################################################################ alongside bookmaking figures from the black and grey markets.
It might well be a circle but virtuous it ain't...

Scudamore's agent is working overtime at the moment, for only last week The Murky One was informing us that: "Football can spill over and get ugly. We have a responsibility to deal with these excesses".
It is not known whether this represents a thinly veiled threat as to the degree of intent that unites 'the virtuous circle', or a manifesto to game the illusion.
The very reasons that English top flight football has become ugly is the input of 'the virtuous circle'. To claim that he is our saviour, come to deliver us from the quagmire generated by his own excesses and manipulations, is chutzpah of the very highest degree.
Do one, Scudamore...

Mark Clattenburg was fast-tracked into the Select Group of the PGMOB. His debut as a Football League referee, at the age of 25 in 2000 allowed him to set a post-war record at the time. In 2004, he was promoted to the Select Group.
As we posted earlier in the week, Stuart Attwell has been similarly fast-tracked and joins the Select Group for season 08/09 at the age of 25.

##################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################

Of course, none of this should suggest that either Clattenburg or Attwell are suspicious simply because they have been fast-tracked.
Attwell is an interesting case. Nothing more, at the moment...
Clattenburg is ##############.

A very common template in the world of corrupted sports betting markets is the #################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################

I am thinking of suing the Premier League under Italian law for "Existential Damage".
The Napoli fan who took Inter Milan to court claimed that such damage was caused by offensive chanting and banners when the teams met last October.
"The Sewer of Italy"; "Ciao cholera-suffererers"; "Neapolitans have got tuberculosis".
The Napoli fan was left feeling "indignant and deeply hurt".
The fan won his case.

The Economist provided a blinkered special report on Sports Business at the beginning of the month. One of my colleagues spoke with Patrick Lane, the reports compiler. Despite a shared knowledge of the corrupt links between sport and the betting industry, no mention is made of this link in the final report.
Indeed, the report concludes: "Music, theatre and film may provide much the same experience. But in sport there is no script. That, in the end, is why people watch sport and will keep on doing so. They want escape, excitement and suspense".

Unfortunately, in the English Premiership, there is most certainly a "script".
This kind of undermines the reasons for football being able to continue as a mass-spectator sport - there is no escape, no excitement, no suspense.
The markets are rigged.
The outcomes are pre-destined in the large majority of Premiership matches.
Football is greyhound racing.
Its like white noise, nothingness.

Unfortunately, the blocked out parts of the posts and all posts labelled # are available in full to subscribers only.

© Football Is Fixed/Dietrological

Universal Energy And Propitious Clouds And No Logo #

Football Is Fixed is a banned blog in China - although the great wall came down for a few days in March, over 1.3 billion people are denied access to our assessment of the corruption that underpins the great game of football.
Much of the malicious hacking that we respond to also emanates from the People's Republic of China.
Furthermore, the broker who disappeared with our trading winnings in May is also Chinese.
And, he is directly linked to some of the key underground operators in the Far East who game the illusion of European football.

One World. One Dream.
Censorship and Corruption.
In China as in Europe.
Harmony.

The Opening Ceremony for the Beijing Olympics existed as an artform - a real-time Koyaanisqatsi.
Koyaanisqatsi visually explored the different aspects of the relationship between humans, nature and technology and, within a nationalist template, the Opening Ceremony achieved a similar reality.
The leadership of the world is passing over to an altogether more impressive culture.
At a level of the masses, that would be...

Shame about Darfur and Tibet, really.

In our extensive dealings with China and the Chinese, this is a recurrent theme - astonishing people, autocratic power.
The most talented traders and market makers in the global football betting markets are all Chinese.
Think about that for a moment.
These characters have analysed and modelled a sport from an entirely different culture, they have developed extensive ways of gaming these markets against any strategy of their European competitors, they know more than any of you, professionals and amateurs alike, about the intricacies of the global markets.
My favourite Chinese trader is unequivocal in his dismissal of the Westerners, describing all investment banks as "shit" and the English bookmakers as "idiotic mafia".

China isn't Communist. Just as the Soviet Union wasn't Communist.
Marx was writing before the political economy had produced its full range of economic atrocities. But that is his only excuse. By placing the analysis of the capitalist mode of production at the centre of his thesis, Marx ensured that workers were unable to think of themselves as existing under any other sign than that of production.
"...Marxism assists the ruse of capitalism. It convinces men that they are alienated by the sale of their labour power; hence, it censors the much more radical hypothesis that they do not have to be labour power" - Jean Baudrillard.
Both China and the Soviet Union represent(ed) the same model of government as that offered by our own 'democracies' - that is, a state-based economic system.

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© Football Is Fixed/Dietrological

The Referees Are Revolting! #

"We are in a poor state - no respect from players - MONEY BUYING POINTS AND PLAYERS - matches that do not attract (or need) spectators to survive".

So says 'Albert' - a Level 5 referee, on an officials-only website for referees.

The senior levels of the English game are becoming equivalent of the Corrupt Bastards Club that dominated Alaskan politics until recently.

The conversations on the referee-social-networking-site are very revealing about how referees are feeling regarding the developments in the English game under the tutelage of the PGMOB.
There is evidently a substantial body of match officials who are not happy about how events are unfolding.

For example, the PGMOB have recently announced their roster for Premiership season 2008/09.
Well, that is only half true.
If you hack into the PGMOB site, you will be able to find the roster for next season.

* The remainder of this post assesses the controversial appointments and demotions in the Select Group of PGMOB officials for next season, the successful appeals of two 'relegated' referees, an overview of Stuart Attwell and Mike Jones (the new refs) and details of the controversy within the world of refereeing about how the PGMOB is ruining the English game.

Unfortunately, these treats are for subscribers only, as are all posts labelled #.

© Football Is Fixed/Dietrological

The Meaning Of Mark Clattenburg's Hair Implant #

So, Mark Clattenburg is a narcissist as well as antisocial.
We had already gathered as much.

Watching Arsenal versus Real Madrid in the Emirates Trophy, something felt not-quite-right.
Something was missing from Clattenburg's officiating.
Then he gave Arsenal one of his more generous penalties and we suddenly realised...
The bald patch had disappeared!
How sneaky.
In the close season too.

Rated the worst official in Football Is Fixed's Bum Ref Index for 2007/08 (a pithy assessment of the quality of the PGMOB referees - the full ratings will be provided in a future post), Clattenburg is evidently going in for disguise.
He'll be blacking up next.

Last season, Steve Coppell described Clattenburg as "a terror".
We would describe him as a highly problematic official.
In 2006/07, Clattenburg was rated the best referee in our Bum Ref Index.
The inversion in one season from Best to Worst is always worthy of some analytical focus in any market place.
Just as, for example, the demises of Leeds United, Celta Vigo or Kaiserslautern deserve attention, so does Clattenburg's regression from a solid respectable match official to something altogether less pleasing on both an ######### and an aesthetic level.

It is little wonder that the man's hair is falling out.
He has probably gone grey too.
It is our assessment that Clattenburg is out of his depth.
Suburban man is mixing with some very powerful operators, he should remain aware of his position in this hierarchy of greed.

One very obvious inappropriate association, though, by no means the only one, is the Terror's link with the State Terrorist, ###################.

* The remainder of this post details the association between ########### and Clattenburg, ###########'s current legal travails, the problematic nature of the relationship between the PGMOB officials and UEFA, referee-rigged friendly matches, proprietary trading by match officials, and a description of the template that allows the corrupting of Premiership matches from a behavioural perspective.

Unfortunately, these treats are for subscribers only, as are all posts labelled #.

© Football Is Fixed/Dietrological

Gene Doping Is Not A Country And Western Singer

Nietzsche's Superman - the modern marketed paradigm of hyperreal humanity.

The Scene...
Nothing less than the leadership of the Free World (sic) is at stake.
Winning is Everything.
When the skewed incentives create such a competitive and nationalistic template, one may only be certain of one thing.
Cheating...

Firstly, a prediction.
Dietrological are trading massively on a private Olympic Games market in Asia.
Our position is a Buy.
#################################################################################################################################
And, you know what, the reason that we think that this is a solid position (as well as being a one-parameter market!) is that Cheating is the Core Competitive Advantage in the modern Olympiad.

The cumulative impact of the incentives - personal, cultural, economic, political and national - are marked in Beijing.
Additionally, the incentives are in tandem - unlike, say, when the Black Power protests by Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Mexico City extravaganza demonstrated the real feelings about living in the world's "only remaining primitive society".

The unipolar world is about to become bipolar.
Measured at purchasing power parity (PPP), Goldman Sachs reckon the Chinese will economically overtake the US of A this very year. In reality, 2028 is the projected date for the changeover in No 1 seed in the global economy - this second date is based on the modern concepts of mathematics and statistics, rather than the sleight of hand of a street magician used by proponents of PPP.

So, they're up for it.
Big style.
The People's Republic of China versus Team USA.
How spectacular do you wish for your sport to be?

Anyway.
Back to Cheating.
Herbert Marcuse: "...play is precisely a breaking off from labour and a recuperation for labour".
The Circularity of Play in the Political Economy is equivalent to the Circularity of Cheating in the 2008 Olympiad.
When the prize is so great on so many levels, Cheating will define the games.
This Cheating will, literally, exist on two different strata - Performance Enhancing Substances (PESs) and Gene Doping.
Lets take these two in turn.

PESs - Remember Euro 2008? Remember how much energy ###### and ###### possessed in a run of their respective games? Remember how tired the ######## looked in their abject ########## defeat to the #######? Remember how the ##### never stopped running, even in between matches?

PESs are now commonplace in all sports - the information is "in the price", so to speak. As an example of this, count how many of those super-energetic ####### and ####### footballers have secured moves to the G14(18) teams following their overperformance at Euro 2008. We'll save you the trouble - the answer is zero. No top tier club makes an evaluation based on PESs.
The competitive advantage has turned away from the usage of erythropoietin (EPO), perfluorocarbon (PFC), blood doping, steroids, amphetamines etc, and to the development of masking substances instead.
Originally, the monitoring regimes were so lax that maskers weren't necessary. Indeed, a cynic might argue that the global regulation covering the illegal utilisation of PESs is suitably time-lagged to allow the next wave of 'innovation' to be initiated prior to more cumbersome regulations being developed for earlier forms of Creative Cheating.
But, in spite of this, PESs are secondary in impact to the Next Big Thing.

Gene Doping will distort outcomes at the Beijing Olympics.

Do you need to know the science?
Okay, here's a bit...
This physiological advancement (sic) is based on introducing extra copies of particular genes into the body (transgenes). EPO is the prime transgene target. It was the biotechnology industry that introduced EPO in the late-eighties and an EPO transgene would not be detectable using any technique.
The Perfect Crime.

Repoxygen is already freely available in the sorts of locations where you can purchase guns and things. Other Big Pharma advances include IGF-1 (which is muscle specific - think javelin or tennis), vascular endothelial, Switching Genes that act as an on/off device, advanced endorphins for pain control etc etc.
The specificity of these designer doping genes allows particular products to be aimed at particular sports. One can even game the detection regime via the use of Switching Genes.

Now, when the leadership of the Free World is at stake, surely the unknown health risks to a few athletes are not worth worrying about?
Cortisone? Who cares?
And, in a parallel pharma-verse, notice how quickly Vioxx has disappeared from the hyperreality?

As The Economist correctly states, the decision on Gene Doping should be based on safety and fairness.
However, the right wing libertarians then proceed by totally ignoring the former (profit over people) while producing illogical, unscientific and selective arguments in support of the latter.
The Economist think that Gene Doping is a Good Thing.
Over their column inches, even the name changes.
Gene Doping, with its nightmare-state images of Frankenstein-athletes...
...becomes Gene Therapy, with an altogether more comfortable-couch-with-caring-counsellor sort of image.

If we are going to be objecting to the hunger merchants of the next millennium imposing genetically modified foods on us, we must be equally assertive in our objection to genetically modified athletes.

The Economist uses the case of Eero Mantyranta to promote their case. This Finnish athlete was fortunate. His body produced large amounts of EPO entirely naturally. He won a couple of Olympic Golds in those bizarre sports that involve snow and rifles and forests and things.
So what?
Sport is about natural ability.
That is the point.
Fairness.
No corruption or advantage through PESs, Gene Doping, control of match officials or whatever.

The list of negatives to The Economists arguments are extensive, too extensive for my working day.
But here are a few points worthy of input (in random order):

* If natural ability is to be artificially equalised using Gene Doping then some of the most beautiful things that we have ever witnessed will never happen again.
Maradona, Tiger Woods, Don Bradman, Gary Sobers would all have just merged into the crowd of heightened mediocrity. The incentives would make it imperative that all athletes partake in Gene Doping - what chance in outrunning or outjumping an android without becoming one yourself?

* In the end, it will still probably be natural ability that provides some edge but not before Big Pharma has made extensive profits out of gullible and desperate athletes equalising their gene intake. The profits of the pharmaceutical industry are one of the foundational bases of this ruse.

* Big Pharma will also game the sector. Generic Gene Doping will be available off-the-shelf, in a manner of speaking, for the poorer participants. The G8(12) will have proprietary Gene Doping established with particular pharmaceutical giants - Team Pfizer USA. This will help maintain the most psychopathic nations at the top of the Medal Table.

* Longer-term health risk is the biggest issue. Corners will be cut in pursuit of glory. The real impacts may only become evident in future decades when the athletes are well away from the lens of the spectacle. And the athletes take on the Total Risk ie Life. The profiteers simply count the cash...

* Numerous unnecessary industries will benefit from the introduction of Gene Doping - advertisers, sponsors, the media, merchandisers, sportswear firms, bookmakers etc etc etc.
For example, lets look at bookmaking.
Natural ability is very annoying to bookmakers.
As we hopefully demonstrated in our recent post at http://footballisfixed.blogspot.com/2008/07/why-bookmakers-hate-olympics.html, the layers do not appreciate competitions where the incentive to win is considerably greater than the incentive to cheat.
Gene Doping will solve this.
And then some...
As only the leading nations will be able to take advantage of Gene Doping, and as the leading nations have very mature betting industries, the inevitable linking of the Dopers and the Layers will produce internally controlled betting markets on currently dangerous spectacles such as the Olympic Games.
Take the 100 metres.
This is a flagship event.
Of the top ten competitors in the betting markets, 3 are Jamaican, 3 are Trinidadian, 1 is from the Bahamas and the other three are from Team Pfizer.
In a world where the bookmaking and pharmaceutical industries cosied up to one another for mutual advantage, and oodles of insider trading opportunites - all industries love those off-balance sheet little grey and black market earners - the possibilities of gaming the 100 metres outcome for proprietary trading advantage is obvious.
For example, inside knowledge of the use of Switching Genes would be valuable both with respect to historical 'form' and real-time hyperrealities in the race.
The worst two industries, apart from all the others, are pharmaceuticals and bookmaking, and their collusion is not an edifying sight.

The Economist dresses up the whole argument regarding Gene Doping on the basis of fairness. Apparently, it is unfair that the likes of Eero Mantyranta have natural ability providing natural advantage. It would be much fairer, claim a tongue-in-cheeked Economist leader, if rich countries could develop an unnatural advantage for themselves through drugs and doping.
"Why should others be denied the chance to remedy ...[their] deficiency?" argues The Economist.
Aside from all the above (and more), the winners of the prizes should be the individuals who have natural talents, have selected the correct sports in which to demonstrate those talents, have trained while their peers partied and who avoid the competitive advantages bestowed by PESs, Gene Doping or linking to the bookmaking industry.
Exactly the sort of individuals who will not be winning Gold Medals in Beijing, in fact...

This post is the August freebie to non-subscribers. All other posts, apart from a couple of Flashback historical posts per month, are available in full to subscribers only.

© Football Is Fixed/Dietrological

Even Murky People Think Scudamore Is Too Murky #

The controlled journalists were informed on Friday.
The mainstream media placed carefully crafted articles over the weekend.

The 39th Step "is still very much a possibility" according to a Premier League (PL) leak.

Richard Scudamore understands how to hype, scam and otherwise promote His Product.
And, it is His Product.
Scudamore is, effectively, a Dictator at the PL.
He tells Sir Richards what to do.
Sir Richards tells the minions what to do.
Then Richard and Sir Richards 'liaise' with other power lobbies to financially game theorise their Illusion.

When the idea of a 39th Round of Premiership games was first introduced by Scudamore, the reactions were polarised.
People interested in the integrity of the game, the sport of football, the link between fan and club, all fiercely resisted the plans.
The moneyheads, wherever their location, rubbed their grubby little hands with glee.

The Illusion is actually Superillusory.
The whole charade is marketed as being based on the Huge Appetite for Premiership football across the world.
This Huge Appetite does not exist.
In China, the Huge Appetite is so Huge that English Premiership football is only the 14th most popular soccer league in the country, with WinTV, the pay-tv company with exclusive rights to the English game, only achieving 2.5 million customers in a land of 1,313 million people.
And, it is China that is always quoted as the example of this Huge Appetite.

In my experience, the biggest English teams do get shown in, say, your average beach bar just as the Boston Celtics do. But, as soon as there is a local option, the channels are switched and the place comes alive. And this is only for the Big 4. I can assure you that nobody anywhere on the planet has any interest in Hull City versus Fulham.

Andrew Zimbalist, an economist, thinks that sport is different from other industries. "You can't produce your product in one country and sell it in another. You can do it with laptop computers, but you can't do it with a game".
True.
But try telling Scudamore that...

American sports have been attempting overseas growth for a decade or so, largely unsuccessfully. The NFL ruined the pitch at Wembley as the FA's short-term profit was placed ahead of the success of the national football team; baseball matches have been played in Mexico and Tokyo; the NBA plays friendly matches abroad; next season the NHL will play four regular season rounds in Praha and Stockholm.

As we posted recently, the Manchester United versus Portsmouth match in Nigeria was a dry run for the 39th Step in one of its forms (we outline all of the options further below).
Garth Crooks was employed by Sir Richards to oversee this event.
It is our belief that Mr Crooks is incapable of overseeing anything more complex than breathing in and out.
He was selected because he is Black - token Black.
Crooks crookedly crowed:
"It was one of the best friendlies I’ve ever seen".
"The appetite for English games is insatiable".
"It was as near to a proper game as you can get".
"I’m in absolutely no doubt whatsoever it [the 39th game or tournament] would be a success, whether in Australia, Asia or Africa".

Lets check the Reality rather than slimeboy's Illusion.
The 60,000 capacity ground was less than half-full.
Indeed, it would have been less than a quarter-full if 10,000 ticketless fans hadn't been allowed in after the Kick Off.
And, even this was problematic.
In the middle of all his salivating, Crooks gushed: "A number of fans who couldn’t afford the ticket price tried to storm the gates and the police beat them back". But he quickly qualified this statement, lest it might be interpreted as an indication that he is supportive of police violence underpinning the 39th Step, with: "The more chaos at matches, the more Africans enjoy it".
What?
All of them?
Oh my gosh, it will be easy to market to them then...
Incidentally, ticket prices ranged from £40 to £100 which totally undermines the fallacy of the PL bringing the English game to the global fan.
The global fan cannot afford such prices.

The reality of the Nigerian experiment was that it was a forerunner of next season's Community Shield being placed in some random global location linked to the international betting markets - Nigeria is Africa's biggest betting centre. The Nigerian experiment is also linked both to Scudamore's original concept of an actual round of Premiership games being played around the globe and to future expansions of both the biennial FA Asian Cup and to the creation of a mid-season tournament, once again sprinkled across the major global football gambling centres.

* The remainder of this post details the timescale for these developments, who is backing the venture, the role of the media, the impact of gambling money and the opportunities for creative fraud and corruption.

Unfortunately, these treats are for subscribers only, as are all posts labelled #.

© Football Is Fixed/Dietrological

Premier League Rnd 1 - Where's The Clever Money Going? #

"Top class" growls Andy Gray in conclusion to the outrageously hyperreal Sky pre-season advertisement to promote their football output for next season.
Not content with the fake of Page 3 girls (sic) playing fakely on fake instruments to a fake backdrop of football matches totally tarnished by the gambling industry, Gray suitably defines Sky's product across their various media.
Top Class.
Total Fake.

To optimise returns to shareholders, the gambling sector requires three fundamentals to be suitably dovetailed - the sport, the media and the corruption.

Profits and turnover are significantly limited when a sport is only linked to either one of these other factors.
That is to say.
Sport + Media (but without Corruption) = Less Profit.
Sport + Corruption (but without Media) = Less Turnover.

With regard to the football industry, in the good old days, these three fundamental requirements were resident in a variety of business locations, enforcing a competitive, if still corrupt, template upon the sector.
The inefficiencies resulting from such a competitive market were the driving force behind the development of Sky Television.

Murdoch's business model was/is simple.
And psychopathic.
Firstly, arrange a leveraged power relationship with the sport. Make football dependent on the Sky financial input. Use skewed customer-relationship paradigms to railroad clients to ever greater involvement in the brand.
Secondly, adapt the sport to the Sky media hidden agenda. Alter kick off times and control the fixture list. Work with the sport to develop suitably branded mega- and hyperrealities to maximise financial returns.
Thirdly, ############################################################################

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Murdoch does Muscle. ########################################################################################################################################################################################
Other entities use Mind.
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Predatory trading, price collusion, insider trading, establishing crowded exits, price fixing, creative cornering, any number of trading strategies might be utilised in a fragmented cartel to create competition with regard to the eventual control of the match outcome. Different entities and power groupings have different potential strategies open to them in this secondary level of corruption.
Whereas the likes of Sky ####################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################
This is a simple cornered market that demonstrates one simple way in which the corrupt template of a fragmented cartel can impact upon the integrity of the sport.
There are many many other templates!

We might touch on a few of them in the remainder of this post as we address the early activity in the global betting markets for the 1st Round of Matches (1RM) in the English Premiership and a few other assorted pieces of financial chicanery of the sort that underpins every aspect of our lives in this disgrace of an economic system.

When the shady operation known as Football DataCo Limited released the 'randomised' fixture list for season 2008/09, there was minimal market interest in Europe. Eventually, the various players started to price up the matches but in a very staggered manner. Ladbrokes, the self-styled Magic Sign, only priced up the matches yesterday, over a month after the fixtures were announced.
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In Asia, #######################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################

In general, Premiership betting markets are, at most, a 7 day window. Indeed, when there are midweek games in the league, the markets can be as short as 3 days in the period of activity. The 1RM offers a two month market in contrast.
This template allows a very different market strategy to be developed by the market participants.
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One of the key reasons for the delay in Ladbrokes offering prices was The Big Unknown.
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So, lets check out where the money has been going so far.
This market neoreality has a far greater impact on the eventual match outcome than any of the fallacious transfer twaddle that is allegedly so enthralling.
Interestingly, the turnover in Europe is negligible. For example, an average Sky live Sunday match might yield pre-match betting turnover of £2.5 million ($5 million) on Betfair; the current liquidity of the Man Utd/ Newcastle event at the betting exchange is just £2,500.

* ARSENAL v WEST BROMWICH ALBION - The early money in Asia has been against Arsenal on the Asian Handicaps ie against Arsenal winning by 2 or more goals. This dynamic has been consistent since market opening.
* ASTON VILLA v MANCHESTER CITY - Little Far East activity as the layers await the ################################
* BOLTON WANDERERS v STOKE CITY - There has been some small support for the hosts at -0.5 on the Handicaps.
* CHELSEA v PORTSMOUTH - ###########################. Instantaneous money selling Chelsea on the Handicap markets produced ###########################. Some clever money has nibbled at Chelsea in the last 48 hours.
* EVERTON v BLACKBURN ROVERS - Major gamble on Blackburn globally although, once again, some conspicuous cash has landed on Everton of late.
* HULL CITY v FULHAM - A dead market.
* MANCHESTER UNITED v NEWCASTLE UNITED - Some interesting insider money both ways. But the general momentum has been against Man Utd across the planet. ##############.
* MIDDLESBROUGH v TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR - Mug money lands on Spurs every time they make another high profile signing.
* SUNDERLAND v LIVERPOOL - #########################################################################################################################################
* WEST HAM UNITED v WIGAN ATHLETIC - Dead in the water until certain people disclose their hands.

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It is not only referees in football matches that fix market outcomes.
Quoting from The Economist (about the banning of short-selling of 17 financial firms until August 12th - the glorious 12th?): "Bear markets often involve bare-knuckle fights, but it is still a shock when the referee starts punching below the belt... The Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) moves deserve scrutiny. Investment banks must have a dizzying influence on the regulator to win special protection from short-selling, particularly as they act as prime brokers for almost all short-sellers. There is, as yet, no evidence that market abuse has driven down financial share prices - and plenty that their trashed balance sheets and credibility have".

Such things are of minimal consequence to Hank Paulson and Goldman Sachs.
The financial markets are being gamed by insiders with access to highly privileged information and control over the levers of regulatory governmental power.
Lo and behold!
The football betting markets are being gamed by insiders with access to highly privileged information and control over the levers of regulatory governmental power.

But, at least there is a trade in this nonsense.
This trade must be obvious to all.
We'll share it with you anyway.
The FTSE is hovering around 5350 (we accept your thanks for the freebie advices suggesting to sell at 6700, 6400, 6000 and 5500, by the way), while Wall St is around 11,300.
These are manipulated prices. If short-sellers were being accommodated in the financial shares under Paulson's protection, these prices would be markedly lower.
However, the psychological impacts of this market manipulation will not be lost on short-sellers when they are once again allowed to trade on the allegedly (and laughably) free markets. Major shorting will be markedly reduced for fear of yet more market abuses from the regulators.
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In the medium term, ####################################################################################################################################################################################################################

Of course, at least the powers-that-be have a choice.
They might select Recession or Inflation.
The former is preferable for the planet.
But the latter is preferable for the financial elite in the very short term.
The financial elite are only currently thinking in the very short term.
The major downside in this ruse is the fact that, by choosing Inflation, the elite are merely exacerbating the negative impact that the Recession will eventually have.
The choice isn't Recession or Inflation, but, rather, Recession or Inflation-Followed-By-An-Even-Deeper-Recession.
That would be, Recession or Depression.

You know now, innit.

Unfortunately, the blocked out parts of the posts and all posts labelled # are available in full to subscribers only.

© Football Is Fixed/Dietrological