The Champions League Qualifiers together with the Europa Cup early round events are a primary focus for the various 'betting intelligence' units within UEFA.
Apparently, the narrative reads that teams from the lower tier countries are more likely to bolster their balance sheets with the aid of a little under- or over-performance.
So, FK Pobeda's deliberate defeat to FC Pyunik last season and the shenanigans between Dinamo Tbilisi and Panionios are displayed as examples of co-ordinated fraud.
UEFA moves to punish such recalcitrants with bans and rampant finger-pointing.
Already in the early rounds of the Europa Cup this season, there have been some striking events, generally involving teams from the usual suspect nations - ########
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But do the authorities really expect the average fan to believe that it is only in these peripheral events that match outcome and betting market patterns arrive in conjunction?
And, straining the issue, why is it only these lesser events that are highlighted as being big on skulduggery?
Individuals corrupt football matches for very differing reasons, although in times of Recession/Depression, the greed-need continuum usually plots most corruptions accurately.
Teams like FK Pobeda do not have many occasions where they might enhance their finances with some creative sporting play, hence the targeting of the early rounds of European competition. Furthermore, their betting operations are not very sophisticated with bets being placed publicly with organisations that are unwilling to pay out money to insiders on illiquid markets.
The Early Warning system utilised by UEFA filters these events with ease, leaving the European governing body with a simple decision about whether to publicise the insider trading or whether to polish the brand with selected silence.
UEFA exerts another control over these events through the careful selection of match officials.
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So, the powers-that-be wish for us to think that not only is insider betting on matches a very rare occurrence, but also only poverty-stricken 2nd and 3rd World territories and lower league teams engage in such criminality.
Consequently, the likes of FK Pobeda, Forest Green, Bury, Accrington Stanley, Weymouth and Grays Athletic perform wonders for the integrity of the sport.
But what if this list was extended to cover insider trading by the bigger outfits?
With access to the private and underground markets, the Big Boys are able to disguise their positions and the increased liquidity allows much greater corruption to be perpetrated - a certainty on a £500 million book is more rewarding than one on a £2 million one, obviously.
And much more damaging to the image of the sport too...
We could select many of the G14(18) teams in order to expose their market creativity but, for this post, we'll highlight ################## both because they are not very slick at it and because ############## is not as squeaky clean as he likes to portray.
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Its just like the coke trade really.
Subsistence farmers in Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia experience US client state death squads, aerial spraying and manual eradication of the crop...
The distributive cartels in Mexico and the Caribbean are taken out by the drug enforcement paramilitaries and mercenaries...
Meanwhile, the great and good of the 21st Century Mongol State are able to deal and snort their powder with impunity.
But only if they are white...
Woe betide any Black man turning Charlie into Crack Cocaine.
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