No major firm of bookmakers anywhere in the Far East is willing to price up the Asian Handicap on tomorrow's England versus Belarus FIFA World Cup South Africa 2010 Qualifier.
Now, why would that be the case now?
Our primary Hong Kong broker will enlighten you.
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Our broker makes the following comparison.
The England versus Belarus match is equivalent, analytically, to Italy versus Cyprus - neither side has anything to play for other than pride and FIFA Rankings.
The underground markets opened at -2.0 for each match (ie the markets believe that England and Italy are two goals superior with home advantage).
Italy, another territory famed for insider trading although nowhere near as corrupted as England, yet, is seen as a safer market by Asia as there is far less of this insider corruption.
The markets on the Italy game are open, intriguing and dynamic, while those for the England match remain firmly shut less than thirty six hours before the match.
Other similar matches are fully operative on the Asian markets eg Azerbaijan v Russia, Kazakhstan v Croatia, Turkey v Armenia, so what is it structurally that makes the England match so different?
Belarus are known to enjoy a little flutter on the horses, so to speak, and any match involving the MinskMen is likely to be a lively betting affair.
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And Belarus could only have so much of an input to Wednesday.
Effectively, Belarus have two options if they fancy some shenanigans - #######
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So any market position entered into by the MinskMen is, by necessity, highly speculative.
England, on the other hand, in total control of the market, are able to make the match anything they wish it to be - particularly now Wayne Rooney is out.
Our broker suggests that the Gang of ############# and their associates in the private markets, and on the fringes thereof, are omnipotent with regard to the Manipulation at the Mall.
And that, boys and girls, is why the Asians are refusing to price up your 'competitive' match.
As soon as the Gang of ############# show their hand, the markets will poker up.
And while we are on the subject of fixed England matches, the most interesting outcome from the Ukraine match at the weekend was the performance of Perform/Kentara - the free market antisocials who put their own interests above those of everybody, and I mean everybody, else in pursuit of profit.
Allegedly 500,000 of the bewildered signed up to watch the match although with some of these, eg the armed forces, it was compulsory (war = football, again). Perform/Kentara are refusing to release detailed figures for two reasons.
Firstly, only a quarter of a million actually put their hands in their pockets to be fleeced by Ferdinand. This is considerably less than the one million 'limit' established by the firms.
Secondly, detailed figures would help fans game the auction in any future bidding process. And this is private information.
Perform/Kentara abused the template at the weekend.
Initially, fans were informed that the cost would be £4.99 rising to £11.99 on the day of the match. What they didn't inform you was that there was a graduation to this process - for instance, on Thursday the price had inflated to £7.99.
Why are fans, however bewildered, allowed to be psychologically abused by such a bidding process?
And, more importantly, as it effects those of us who choose not to be bewildered, although Perform/Kentara are claiming that there were no technical issues, there were.
Indeed, we know of a couple of trading operations who are considering suing for loss of earnings after the British internet framework creaked as the switch on occurred.
Furthermore, the bewildered complained of slow streaming speeds - this particularly affected those betting on the match as thirty seconds or more of action would have elapsed in some weird tertiary state of hyperreality.
"Hello, Betfair? I'd like £500 on Ukraine to win."
"You'll have to wait until the penalty has been taken, sir."
"What penalty?"
"The penalty that you are about to witness, sir."
"Wooohhhhhhhhh! How do you do that? Do you control time or Rio?"
Perform/Kentara insisted that the highlights package that they sold onto the BBC not be advertised until after the Ukraine match was finished in a further fit of rampant antisocial behaviour.
So the BBC could only promote their soiled product after 7pm.
That they chose to release this incredibly exciting news, so I'm told, during the equally fallacious Strictly Cum Dancing, is an utter and total triumph of the Fake.
Breathless BBC voice: "After watching these fake dancers dance badly, why not watch our fake footballers corrupt badly?"
In some future fake Engerland event, the internet-only coverage is going to bring the entire network down. Saturday was a warning. If Perform/Kentara or their ilk are going to profit through a Railroading Strategy in future, they should prime their legal department for a considerable backlash.
But just one final question?
Why is a private firm allowed to compromise the infrastructure of the internet in search of profit?
When the Russians do this it is termed a 'denial of service' attack...
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