The Fixing of Glasgow Rangers v Zenit St Petersburg - A Flashback

The post below was originally published on the Football is Fixed blog on October 5th 2008.

The questions remain - whereabouts did the money end up in both Glasgow and Munchen?
And, in the former case, was tax paid to the HMR&C?

Another criminal hyperreality hidden away in the corridors of power.

For security, isolationism and avoidance of libel, certain parts of this post are masked from view.
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"The Guardian economics editor, Larry Elliott, has written that the Prime Minister 'resembles a tragic hero in a Hardy novel: an essentially good man brought down by one error of judgement'. What is this one error of judgement? The bank-rolling of two murderous colonial adventures? No. The unprecedented growth of the British arms industry and the sale of weapons to the poorest countries? No. The replacement of manufacturing and public service by an arcane cult serving the ultra-rich? No. The Prime Minister's 'folly' is 'postponing the election last year'." - John Pilger.

When truth is replaced by silence," said the Soviet dissident Yevgeny Yevtushenko, "the silence is a lie."

The Guardian is similarly silent when confronted with the global menace of underground football betting markets and matches rigged by teams, players or match officials.
So, while everybody else was discussing the dreadful standard of refereeing in the Premiership last weekend, the leading left-of-centre (sic) comic gave us "We Should Treat Our Referees Like Gods" by Steven Wells, a man who is evidently celebrating life in another solar system.
Journalistic abdication at its lowest ebb...

If you were diligent and observant, you may have spotted a brief glimpse of the most major footballing story of the week in The Guardian - it was online for a few hours before the hyperreal news took over.
So, while The Guardian focused on the critical newsworthy significance of a grown man swearing at journalists in a press conference, the Real news was absent.
Silence.
Apart from repeated coverage of the swearing - firstly, the breaking news, then, the transcript, followed by the video and the whole hyperreal farce being nicely terminated by a piece discussing the "awful lot of fuss there's been about Joe Kinnear's cussing".
How far up their own backsides do these people wish to venture?

Anyway.
Real news.
It is alleged that Zenit St Petersburg bought last year's UEFA Cup via bribery, affecting both the Semi Final against Bayern Munchen and the Final in Manchester against Rangers.
While resisting the urge to utter "shame" in the latter case, this is not really the done thing.
Damn Russki's buying matches - that's Communism for you.

This story isn't just some gossipy bit of nonsense - its the Real McCoy.
Leading Spanish judge, Baltasar Garzón, famous for investigating Pinochet and Argentinian war criminals, Henry Kissinger and American war criminals in Guantanamo, has had 20 members of the leading and global Russian underworld gang, Tambovskaya-Malyshevskaya, arrested in Spain. They have been held since June.

Garzón has phone intercepts where Gennadios Petrov, the gang leader, discussed the buying of the Semi Final 2nd Leg against FC Bayern.
Petrov is known to have links with Zenit and El Pais stated: "... that the organisation of Petrov had interests in Zenit, is manifestly clear."
Meanwhile, ABC said that Petrov boasted of spending €20-40 million buying match outcomes in the latter stages of last year's UEFA Cup. A further part of the tape reveals that "50 million" had been paid to the Bavarian side to lose the Second Leg of the Semi Final in Leningrad.

Garzón has asked German prosecutors to help with an investigation. FC Bayern are evidently shocked that this Reality has come to light - the media responses have been reactive and revealing.
Eventually, a Bavarian spokesperson settled on the statement that FC Bayern have "no knowledge of such suspicions", followed by a rather defensive conclusion that they would respond more fully once they had seen the degree of the leak.
Excellent.
Build your defence around the gaming of the potential case against you.

Meanwhile, Zenit deny dishonesty and are threatening all sorts of shenanigans in response. They would be wise to wait for the release of the conversations on the Operation Troica tapes before adding buffoonery to their alleged criminality.

UEFA plan to investigate.
UEFA spokesperson, William Gaillard, stated with resolve: "We are going to look at this closely."
What?
As closely as you looked into Dynamo Tbilisi and Panionios, or the final Albanian Euro 2008 Qualifiers, or Liverpool v Besiktas in the Champions League or etc etc etc etc etc.
The same fate awaits all such investigations - bureaucratic burial at headquarters.
Bad for the brand, you see...

Early Warning GmbH are the 'police force' that UEFA utilise to investigate suspicious betting patterns.
They might as well as have used a latter day Inspector Clouseau.
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In the Semi Final First Leg, there was a clear agenda against Zenit - the match was refereed by leading UEFA light, Ľuboš Micheľ.
He gave Bayern a penalty which they proceeded to miss, he booked Zenit players with uncanny targeting, in that three of the four bookings resulted in key players missing from the Second Leg, including Andrei Arshavin. The suspensions meant that the Russian side went into the second match with only two fit and eligible defenders.
FC Bayern received no bookings, despite 13 fouls.
Indeed, Bayern would have won had not Lucio scored an improbable own goal to level things up.

In the First Leg, Bayern were rated at 76 by our Trading Team (100 = maximum; 0 = minimum).
In the Second Leg, Bayern fell to a slightly unbelievable 33.
4-0 Zenit triumphed.
Henning Øvrebø officiated and there was nothing in his performance to suggest that he was involved with the alleged corruption. Indeed, he booked Pogrebnyak leading to the star striker missing the Final.
If Bayern were receiving kickbacks, it certainly did not show up in their summer transfer activity. ###########################################
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So, what about the Final itself, that glorious day when half of Glasgow vomited profusely in Manchester, in order to demonstrate their evolutionary zeal?

Well, once again, there was nothing in the performance of the match referee Frojdfeldt to imply involvement in illicit activities.
This would leave the bribery of opponents as the only feasible route to ensure victory.

One of the features of the Final was the unusual linkage between the participants, represented to public perceptions by former Rangers manager, the incompetent Dick Advocaat, being manager of the victorious Russians.
Usually, when we start sousveillance for motives, we seek out financial need rather than straight greed - it is a higher threshold of need that creates the incentives to bend Realities for personal gratification.
It is a known fact that Rangers chairperson, Sir Murray, had, and still has, credit-crunchitis as his property empire crumbles away.
Surely a Loyal Team with Loyal Supporters would not act with such treachery?

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These betting patterns and the named accounts are rather revealing are they not??

So far, so believable, if still slightly fuzzy.

There are some questions that are raised by the mainstream media's lack of willingness to publicise this massive story and by UEFA's inability to eradicate the menaces of gambling and match fixing.

Firstly, if Zenit did buy the Final AND Rangers had nothing to do with the illegalities, why aren't the British press jumping up and down, and generally raising a racket?
It was a European Final.
'Gers were potentially robbed of glory.
This most certainly isn't on the level of the Panionios game!
You also might think that a rabidly anti-Russian press in Britain might just have run with this story...

Secondly, in the words of one of our readers, "The Guardian don't really like let on about fixed matches, do they?"
That's what being pally with the bookies does for your journalistic integrity...

Thirdly, where exactly are Early Warning looking for match fixing? Because, in our humble opinion, it cannot be in the right locations.
Large numbers of matches are fixed at all phases of the three flagship UEFA tournaments.
Worse still, the professionals who are rigging the matches are gaming the policing!!!
Early Warning live up to their name - they provide UEFA with early warnings of unusual betting patterns in the early market stages. #########################
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All senior trading professionals make the vast majority of their earnings out of fixed matches - primary agents do the fixing, while secondary ones #############
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Unless proper and rigorous barriers are put in place, matches will continue to be rigged both for glory and betting purposes.
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As it currently stands, we know of certain market operators who trade one way in the early phases of the market in order to engender the required response from Early Warning, before coming in with late liquidity in the opposite direction. UEFA are none the wiser.

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Of course, by Monday morning, this story will never have happened.
It is an invalid Reality. It cannot be reported.

If UEFA want to resolve the issue of integrity in football, they are going to have to team up with FIFA and go after these private markets.

There you go, Early Warning, investigate it...

© Football is Fixed 2006-2012

What An Incredible Fluke LVI!

The PGMOB Select Group of referees for Premier League games features the ludicrously small number of just 18 officials.

This is a structure seemingly primed for corruption.

But the hyperreality is worse still.

Stuart Attwell has been demoted due to the poor standard of his officiating.
Peter Walton was forced to retire early following disclosures about his alleged biases - he is no longer in the country.
Martin Atkinson has been overlooked since he gave the ghost goal to Chelsea in the FA Cup Semi Final (presumably 18 Chelsea matches without refereeing any defeats has finally been noticed).
Although, hilariously, Atkinson has been given the Europa Cup Semi Final at Bilbao this evening!
Howard Webb, Mark Clattenburg together with Atkinson are away in Turkey training for Euro 2012 from next Monday.

This leaves just 13 referees for the key matches next week with Webb and Clattenburg being forced to squeeze in a match before flying out.

Serie A has 32 top flight referees, the Bundesliga has 22 and La Liga 19.

The result of such a select Select Group is that rookie referee Mike Jones, for instance, is going to be a busy man.
His diary?

Thu: Athletic Bilbao v Sp Lisbon (AAR)
Sat: WBA v Aston Villa (4th Official)
Sun: Spurs v Blackburn (Referee)
Mon: Man City v Man Utd (4th Official)

As the standard of officiating in the Premier League is truly dire, what on earth are the justifications for having such a miniscule number of match referees?

The Premier League integrity is Graphene thin...

What a weird fluke!

What An Incredible Fluke LV!

Lord Redknapp of The Sandbanks or Woy The Hedge or Stuart Pearce?

A colleague has had an entertaining conversation with a senior HMR&C official and was informed that the police found copious amounts of ###### ############ ######## when the mansion of a certain individual was raided.

But.

Someone made a dog's breakfast of the paperwork on the case resulting in the pitiful Rosie 47 Spectacle.

You have to develop some level of respect for Lord Redknapp - no matter how heavy, how powerful, how underworld, how mafiosi, how taxing his associates and enemies, the man with the wobbly face holds his own.

As for the next England manager...
... makes no difference as there are enough criminalised players in the side to ensure that the English bookies will never have to pay out on anything so irritating as an English success.

But hey...
... somebody messing up on the paperwork.

What a weird fluke!

What An Incredible Fluke LIV!

So.
Paul Clark of Duff Phelps, the Rangers administrators, is strongly critical of the decision to impose a transfer embargo on the club and he is absolutely beside himself that his old work colleague Craig Whyte has been fined and banned for life from Scottish football.

Firstly, Whyte should be imprisoned.

Meanwhile Ally McCoist makes assertions regarding the SFA Judicial Tribunal: "Who are these people? I want to know who these people are.”
All three members of this panel have subsequently received threats and are under high level police protection.

Interestingly, so are we.

Is this what British football has descended into?
Death threats, menaces, insider gambling, third party ownership, fixed matches, police protection - we could, if we so desired, entirely demolish the careers and reputations of some very senior individuals in both Scottish and English football...
... but we strategically elect not to do so.

Moreover, previous owners need to explain spectacles like the Zenit St Petersburg Fixed Final.

And Dick Advocaat, the man who began the financial shenanigans and who also benefited in a range of ways from the ZSP farce, should act as the threshold date-wise beyond which all unfairly won Scottish Premier League titles since 1998 are returned to the rightful owners, Celtic FC.

But.
Whyte and Clark being former project colleagues...
... and Clark putting the interests of his friend criminally high on his hidden agenda.

What a weird fluke!

© Football is Fixed 2006-2012

What An Incredible Fluke LIII!

There were 13 players from the Primary Tier G14(18) power lobby teams one booking away from missing the Champions League Final.

Between them they accumulated 16 fouls and three players will miss the game in Munchen.

Chelsea had 5 players one booking away from missing the showcase.
These players committed 4 fouls.
The result being that all four miss the Final.

Put another way...
... The G14(18) teams committed 47 fouls and received 9 bookings in total, while Chelsea committed 10 fouls and were given 6 bookings and a sending off and a penalty against them.

Luiz Gustavo alone committed 9 fouls!!

Three points.

Firstly, not one Real Madrid or Barcelona player who was in danger of being banned even fouled during the 210 minutes of football.

Secondly, Roman Abramovich needs to extend his already considerable array of vory and krysha to be treated equitably by UEFA.

And, thirdly, as the Spanish season is now effectively over, the odds on a Spain Euro 2012 triumph should shorten after tonight.

Not one non-G14(18) team has won the Final since the Champions League was formed...
... we see no reasons for that sequence to be broken this season.

What a weird fluke!

What An Incredible Fluke LII!

There are very strong rumours emanating from some key underground Asian market makers that John Terry was allegedly the footballing equivalent of a non-trier in horseracing last evening.

The betting turnover on the match globally was the most voluminous we have ever seen...

But surely the Club Captain, Former England Captain and Alleged Celebrity Racist would not be involved with his associates betting against his own team...
... surely!

But.
If he was.

What a weird fluke!

What An Incredible Fluke L!

The solutions to the major end-of-season Champions League events are always truly holistic.

First we had Mourinho sending through Art of War strategies to help Chelsea against Barcelona.

Second we had both Barcelona and Bayern Munchen utilising their G14(18) power webs to energise the excellent refereeing performance from Cuneyt Cakir - Chelsea committed 10 fouls (just two more than Barca) had 6 bookings, a sending off, a penalty against them and the result that four of the punished players are banned from the final...
... in Munchen.
For comparison, Tuesday's three matches in Serie A and Premier League produced 82 fouls and 9 bookings!

Thirdly we finally realise what a fantastic decision it was by West Bromwich Albion to replace Roberto di Matteo with an Omerta Outfit.

And, fourthly, having disgraced themselves, the victims and football in general by their behaviours during the minute silence for the people murdered at Hillsborough by South Yorkshire police, we are now able to look forward to that same level of evolved rationale for a match in Germany against either Mourinho or, worse still, Germans.

Still 82 fouls and 9 bookings...
... or 10 fouls and 6 bookings and 1 sending off.

What a weird fluke!

What An Incredible Fluke XXXVIII!

The Guardian could not have timed their spurious ill-founded and disinformational campaign in support of the referees any more poorly - three articles in one week is not balanced journalism...

Martin Atkinson with a ghost goal and a non-sending off in the biggest English match of the day.
Mark Halsey with two entirely incorrect decisions regarding penalties in the biggest Premier League game.
Euan Norris with two assymetric decisions that decided a Scottish Cup semi final.
And Chris Foy starting the weekend off with a Favour for Fergie by booking Tevez for diving rather than giving the penalty.

Quality.

With Atkinson's historical favouring of Chelsea, the PGMOB bias to Man Utd, Mr Norris and his tilt to Rangers and Foy's 14 wins, 4 draws and 1 loss on Man Utd games, the mistakes were par for the course!!!

As The Guardian told us Roy Hodgson had said, the English referees are "probably the best in Europe" - at what exactly?

Hodgson's West Brom gained a victory at the weekend with pet ref Jon Moss in control - perhaps that is good officiating in Hodgson's myopia.

Meanwhile Willie McKay's Doncaster Rovers were relegated from the Championship. Doncaster manager Dean Saunders blamed all four goals his side conceded on poor decisions and questioned whether referee Mick Russell should be allowed to officiate again.

Arsene Wenger believes it is time football embraces the assistance video replays would provide for referees, as has been done in cricket, tennis and rugby league.
"We need to assess the global situation and I think all of the football authorities need to sit together and see how we can improve it," Wenger said.
"It's time for us to help the referees and all be united and have a less conservative approach. And opt for video because video will help the referees.
It will not question their authority, it will give them more credit, more authority and less mistakes.
"(Video replays) would not stop the game. Sometimes it will give an even more flow to the game.
"We have to accept that we have the most conservative approach compared to any other sport. It can be a strength. But on the refereeing side, I think it's a weakness."

Can't see the bookmakers and the other power-brokers in the game allowing that...

Still four big televised games on Grand National Weekend altered by seemingly random decision-making - "hoping and guessing" as Mark Hughes said...

What a weird fluke!

What An Incredible Fluke XXVIII!

Hail Hail!!
Against all the early season odds, Glasgow Celtic were crowned Scottish Premier League Champions on Saturday.
A true Easter Uprising!

Without going for the Schadenfreude/Fr Ted Crilly/Bjørge Lillelien angle on hyperrealities, the Hun Boys took one hell of a beating.

But in the land of Dallasgate, there were dark forces working against the Celtic triumph as ever.

Take leading Scottish referee Willie Collum (the one who walks out for the second half actually in the midst of the Rangers team).

Since becoming a SPL official, Collum has shown a marked bias in favour of Rangers.
Looking at the key match-changing sendings off and penalties that Collum has handed out, Rangers have a 15-1 tilt in their favour while Celtic have a 2-3 tilt against.
These decisions included a remarkable penalty in one Auld Firm game that could only have been seen through Collum's extra pair of eyes in the rear of his head.
Oh! And then there was the fixed Scottish League Cup Final between Celtic and Kilmarnock.

Why is this sort of stuff not spotted and acted upon?

Collum, as we are repeatedly told in apparent justification of his bias, is a religion teacher at a Roman Catholic school.
Poor kids.

God certainly appears to move in mysterious ways in favour of the goat-bothering brotherhood north of the border.

And while we're at it...
... where did all the money go that Rangers FC received for throwing the 2007/08 UEFA/Europa Cup Final against Zenit St Petersburg?

And why aren't Celtic being given the 7 corrupted titles won by Rangers since Advocaat started the financial shenanigans?
Milan got it and they were as guilty as Juve...
... so why not Celtic?

But, Celtic managing to win the title in one of the most criminalised leagues in Europe...

What a weird fluke!