Is Time Travel Logically Possible?

Is time travel logically possible?

90% of the cosmology below is solid, 5% is "out-there" science and 5% is "out-there out-there" science.
So not impossible...
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                                                        Schwertberger's Multiverse

We are all time-travellers but don't know it.
Start by combining Linde's Eternal Inflation with Everett/Deutsch and the Multiverse - revealing a Swiss cheese honeycomb of bubble Universes making an infinitesimal Multiverse,
The Big Bang was not the "beginning".
Mersini-Houghton: "The moment you have a physical mechanism showing how the Universe was formed, you end up with a whole series of predictions of how that Universe may look at a later time."
Cosmologists now focus on realities prior to the Big Bang in a continuum of Big Bang, Big Crunch, Singularity, Big Bang, Big Crunch, Singularity... that might run to infinity in either "direction".
Incidentally, there will also be other Universes that slide to an "infinitesimally non-undulating spread of nothingness" - a bit like Yorkshire.

Deutsch is an Eternalist, with their slogan: "all points in time are equally "real"" (Kuipers) - a space realm containing every possible "now".
In relation to Eternalism stands the Cosmism of Fyodorov and Tsiolkovsky, and the Physics of Immortality of Tipler.

In the sense that Lewis meant it, there are a minimum of three options:
i) either "time" stretches infinitesimally in either "direction"?
ii) or there is the Mother of All Big Bangs and then on and on ad finitum?
iii) or it not only stretches infinitesimally in a continuum but that continuum is curved and joins up with itself in a loop?
Lewis would see i) and iii) as examples of ​Infinite Linear Chains...
...Universes that have lasted forever
​But are they linear?
Is spacetime compatible with the "existence" of cause and effect?

In the 13.7 billion year history of our Universe, we were initially blown up by Inflation and nowadays all the galaxies are connected by a vast Cosmic Web.
With Eternal Inflation and the Multiverse, does a vast web of Universes cascade "outwards" joined by an Eternal Web?

And Tegmark theorises that there are four levels to this Multiverse...
...an Omniverse if you will - Multiverses in a Continuum.

Interference can exist at a quantum level between local Parallel Universes that are similar in form.
Hawking claims that there is a threshold on the micro-macro spectrum beyond which such interference cannot occur.
But there is nothing in Quantum Theory that suggests that we cannot interfere with our "other" selves elsewhere in the Multiverse.
Multiversal ripples between Parallel Universes.
And this would be time travel in the Everett/Deutsche sense - travelling between different parallel realities.
There are obvious links here with both Gödel's "any two points in history can be joined together" theory and the Quantum Theory of Entanglement which links the fates of two or more particles even if far apart.

So.
Instead of travelling back in time (in the Lewis sense) to aid Robespierre and Toussaint L'Ouverture, "create" a Parallel Universe where it is just so.
And, allegedly, there are more Universes in the Multiverse than there are atoms in our particular Universe.

So...
Time travel is most certainly logically possible in a range of ways.
In particular, we are all potentially time travellers between different Parallel Universes.

Haldane: "The Universe may not only be queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose."

Here on our little planet in our nearly flat, nearly fractal Universe, a gem in the Cosmic Web within the Eternal Cosmic Web, linked to the four levels of the Multiverse and the Omniverse...

What form might these interferences take?
Consciousness?
Omniversal Consciouness?
Horwich's coincidences?

And what is this time that we are attempting to travel anyway?

Julian Barbour suggests PlatonIa - "where all possible configurations of matter exist - there is no passage of time, merely a set of unconnected instants... Time doesn't exist. Time can't end."
Leibniz said time and space are relational and Universes are set apart by the nature of their spacetime.
Bousso/Ravelli would tell us that time is in our mind and not a basic physical entity.
Deutsch: "Objectively there is no present...Other times are just special cases of other Universes."
Time isn't a constant.
Time is invalid in random states.
Time prevents General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics combining.
There might be fractals of time across all different event horizons.
What about the Buddhist/Sophist "time as illusion"?
And how might tachyons "see" time?

Perhaps time. like mathematics, is only "true" across small slices of the Multiversal continuum and beyond there is spacetime and other complex contortions of reality in the Block Universe...?

Stuff happens...

© Football is Fixed 2006-2013

What Are Howard Webb And Martin Atkinson Really About?

Pig-Gate 
First there was the racism and the pig's head and the sacking of Tony Pulis at Stoke City.

Shit-Gate
Then there was the excrement and infantile child ego states and cowardice and the suspending of Gus Poyet at Brighton & Hove Albion.

Shit-Pig-Gate
Now there are two Premier League referees who are police constables in "real-life" with some awkward questions to answer in the integrity department.

  (The remainder of this post is not for public consumption)

© Football is Fixed 2006-2013

Fixed Calcio

In case you haven't witnessed the collection of decisions made by Mauro Bergonzi and his collaborators/assistants in the 2-1 victory over Siena that saw Milan qualify for the 2013/14 Champions League at the expense of Fiorentina...

A Fake Penalty to Equalise.
An Offside Goal to Win.
Siena 10 Fouls, 4 Bookings, 1 Sending Off (Totally Unjustified).
Milan 26 Fouls, 0 Bookings, 1 Sending Off (Balanced up Within 60 Seconds by Siena Sending Off).
Siena Manager Sent Off for Protesting About Penalty.

© Football is Fixed 2006-2013
 

Sir Alex Ferguson Signs Off With A Suspicious Event

Who made nearly half a million pounds betting against United when they were 3-0 up and 5-2 up?  

Why such confidence?

                                    Number Thirteen, Unlucky For Some But Not For All

Perhaps Anders Lindegaard might like to explain how 5 out of six shots on target ended up as goals.

His lack of effort and suspect body language on all goals is revealing...
... but goals 2 and 5 suggest something underhand. 
In fact, goal number 5 is taking the piss.

                                    Number Thirteen, Unlucky For Some But Not For All

His mentor, Roy Carroll, would be proud.

© Football is Fixed 2006-2013 

When The Shit Hits The Fans - The Implosion Of Brighton And Hove Albion

SHITGATE!

Brighton might be gay and Brighton might be green but they'll never be a part of the Premier League scene.

There are two reasons for this.
Firstly the club has a dysfunctional hierarchy...
... and, secondly, the Premier League (EPL) don't want them there.

Key person operations are always on shaky ground.
If the key person drops dead or loses the plot or begins acting as a deconstructive destabiliser to their own mini imperial entity, then there are no checks, no decelerations to the dysfunctionalities that ensue.

The roots of the disorder that entirely undermined the attempt to beat arch-rivals Crystal Palace in the Championship Play Off Semi Final emanated from the top, the owner Tony Bloom.
Utilising the meritocratic gains of running bookmakers and betting professionally via global consortia of insider traders and pretending that the riches come from a property portfolio is the sort of Bosch one expects from Hotpoint Automatic laundering.
Unable to delegate, the top down orchestration of Brighton FC by Bloom cuts across the professional inputs of those at lower tiers of the hierarchy.

                                      Tony Bloom Struggling To Hold His Trophy Aloft

So, in a match where everybody needed to be on message...

a) Why, when away goals are of no consequence, did Brighton disclose so many of their offensive strategies in the first 30 minutes of the 1st Leg? Once Palace had withstood that onslaught, they never lost control of the tie.

b) Why were Palace fans given prime behind-the-goal location at the Amex? Numerous researchers have shown the advantage to the home side in placing away fans in the corners or along the side of the pitch.

c) Why did the Brighton hierarchy allow for excrement to be smothered around the Palace dressing room at the Amex? Ian Holloway turned this pitiful anal retardery to his advantage in the pre-match team talk as he did the deliberate delaying of the Palace team bus.

d) Why did Brighton not take account of the one-dimensional nature of the Palace away tactics once Glen Murray was injured? Observations of videos at both Palace and Blackpool would have revealed how Holloway uses his speedy wingers on such occasions.

e) Why were home fans presented with clackers that created a surreal reality rather than a suitable replacement for the inability of Brighton fans to sing a song in a co-ordinated manner? It reminds of when Halifax Town used taped chanting to make it sound like two men and an inbred were a crowd on a mission.

Some of these strategic errors may be laid at the door of manager Gus Poyet...
... but not the location of the fans, the Napoleonic ownership, the crackers clackers or the shit hitting the fans.
Poyet was especially livid about this latter indiscretion.

For the owner, Tony Bloom, to choose to suspend Poyet, Mauricio Taricco (his assistant) and 1st team coach Charlie Oatway over an unstated alleged breach of contract when the problems cascade down from Bloom himself is a sleight of hand.
To suspend via email is a clear indication of weakness.
Bloom is a flawed genius.
Whether at the poker table or in the betting markets or in his ownership of his home town football club (passed down by family), his psychological inability to play the percentages at key periods of strategy is the nervous tick that repeatedly snatches failure from the clutches of success.

£100 million on the table for promotion package should not solicit a strategy involving piles of poo. Really.

But even if Bloom had got his strategy spot on, the EPL were not welcoming.
Rogue owners from both near and far are allowed competitive football in the Championship but not the EPL - Bloom is placed in the same camp as the owners of Birmingham, Nottingham Forest, Leicester, Reading, QPR etc etc etc when viewed from the masonic world of Richard Scudamore.

Hairpiece Clattenburg was always going to be in control of the 2nd Leg!

© Football is Fixed 2006-2013

Sister Assata: This Is What American History Looks Like - Alice Walker

I don’t know why, given where we are with dronefare, but I didn’t expect the man making the announcement about Assata Shakur being the first woman “terrorist” to appear on the FBI’s most wanted list to be black. That was a blow. I was reminded of the world of “trackers” we sometimes get glimpses of in history books and old movies on TV. In Australia the tracker who hunts down other aboriginals who have, because of the rape and murder, genocide and enslavement of the indigenous (aboriginal) people, run away into the outback. He shows up again in cowboy and Indian films: jogging along in the hot sun, way ahead of the white men on horseback, bending on his knees to get a better look at a bruised leaf or a bent twig, while they curse and spit and complain about how long he’s taking to come up with a clue. And then there were the “trackers” who helped the pattyrollers during our four hundred years of enslavement. When pattyrollers (or patrols) caught run-away slaves in those days they frequently beat them to death. I’ve often thought of the black men whose expertise at tracking fugitives helped bring these terrors, humiliations and deaths about. When I was younger I would have been in a rage against them; not understanding the reality of invisible coercion, and mind and spirit control, that I do now. Today, only a few years older than Assata Shakur, and marveling at the unenviable state of humanity’s character worldwide, I find I can only pray for all of us. That we should be sinking even below the abysmal standard early “trackers” have set for us: that the US government can now offer two million dollars for the capture of a very small, not young, black woman who was brutally abused, even shot, over three decades ago, as if we don’t need that money to buy people food, clothes, medicine, and decent places to live. 

What is most distressing about the times we live in, in my view, is our ever accelerating tolerance for cruelty. Prisoners held indefinitely in orange suits, hooded, chained and on their knees. Like the hunger strikers of Guantanamo, I would certainly prefer death to this. People shot and bombed from planes they never see until it is too late to get up from the table or place the baby under the bed. Poor people terrorized daily, driven insane really, from fear. People on the streets with no food and no place to sleep. People under bridges everywhere you go, holding out their desperate signs: a recent one held by a very young man, perhaps a veteran, under my local bridge: I Want To Live. But nothing seems as cruel to me as this: that our big, muscular, macho country would go after so tiny a woman as Assata who is given sanctuary in a country smaller than many of our states.

The first time I met Assata Shakur we talked for a long time. We were in Havana, where I had gone with a delegation to offer humanitarian aid during Cuba’s “special period” of hunger and despair, and I’d wanted to hear her side of the story from her. She described the incident with the New Jersey Highway Patrol, and assured me she was shot up so badly that even if she’d wanted to, she would not have been able to fire a gun. Though shot in the back (with her arms raised), she managed to live through two years of solitary confinement, in a men’s prison, chained to her bed. Then, in what must surely have been a miraculous coming together of people of courageous compassion, she was helped to escape and to find refuge in Cuba. One of the people who helped Assata escape, a white radical named Marilyn Buck, was kept in prison for thirty years and released only one month before her death from uterine cancer. She was a poet, and I have been reading her book, Inside/Out, Selected Poems, which a friend gave me just last week. There is also a remarkable video of her, shot in prison, that I highly recommend.

This is what solidarity can look like.

The second time I saw Assata, years later, I was in Havana for the Havana Book Fair. Cuba has a very high literacy rate, thanks to the Cuban revolution, and my novel, Meridian, had recently been translated and published there. However, this time we did not talk about the past. We talked about meditation. Seeing her interest, and that of Ricardo Alarcon, president of the Cuban National Assembly, and others, I decided to offer a class. There under a large tree off a quiet street in Havana, I demonstrated my own practice of meditation to some of the most attentive students I have ever encountered. The mantra: Breathing in: “In,” breathing out: “Peace.”

I believe Assata Shakur to be a good and decent, a kind and compassionate person. True revolutionaries often are. Physically she is beautiful, and her spirit is also. She appears to hold the respect, love and friendship of all the people who surround her. Like Marilyn Buck they have risked much for her freedom, and appear to believe her version of the story as I do. 

That she did not wish to live as an imprisoned creature and a slave is understood.

What to do? Since we are not, in fact, helpless. Nor are we ever alone.

I call on the Ancestors
by whose blood
and DNA
we exist
to accompany us
as always
through this lengthening
sorrow. 
And to bear witness
within us
to all that we are
aware.  

Happy Anniversary To Roy Hodgson

Roy Hodgson officially assumed duty as the new English national team manager on May 14th last year despite only having won one trophy in 23 years - the Danish Superliga title with FC Copenhagen.

To celebrate this bizarre choice, we reprint an earlier article that questions the integrity of Our Great Leader.
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A Drama in Four Acts based around a football match between Fulham and Wigan Athletic

CHARACTERS

ROY HODGSON, currently manager of the England National Football Team. At the time of the play, he was manager of Fulham FC. Represented by Base Soccer Agents. 

ANDY JOHNSON, currently a striker at Queens Park Rangers FC. At the time of the action, he was a forward at Fulham FC. A client of Base Soccer Agents.

BOBBY ZAMORA, now employed at Queens Park Rangers FC. When the play is set, he was a striker at Fulham FC. A client of Base Soccer Agents.

BASE SOCCER AGENTS, representing Paul Konchesky of Fulham and Emerson Boyce of Wigan Athletic from the match in addition to the three individuals above.

JOHN COLQUHOUN, Fulham FC club agent at the time of the play and responsible for numerous signings involved in the match. Co-owner of Key Sports Management.

CHRIS KIRKLAND, currently goalkeeper at Sheffield Wednesday. Represented by John Colquhoun/ Key Sports Management and Wigan Athletic goalkeeper at the time the play is set.

WASSERMAN MEDIA GROUP, representing Fulham/Wigan Athletic players from the match - Danny Murphy, Emile Heskey and Simon Davies.

STELLAR FOOTBALL LTD, agents representing Lee Cattermole (Wigan at time of the action) and Aaron Hughes of Fulham FC.

ENGLAND FOOTBALL SQUAD FOR EURO 2012, 23 members featuring 6 players from Stellar Football Ltd, 2 from Key Sports Management, 4 individuals from Wasserman Media Group and 2 from Base Soccer Agents. Managed by Roy Hodgson (from Base Soccer Agents).

MICHEL PLATINI, President of UEFA, a man who has identified match-fixing as the biggest danger to the future of football. 

ROB WAINWRIGHT, Director of Europol.

The action takes place at Craven Cottage, London on or around Wednesday 29th October 2008 and features an English Premier League football match between Fulham and Wigan Athletic, and at Wembley in May and June 2012.



ACT ONE

Craven Cottage in late October 2008.

Andy Johnson has been signed by Roy Hodgson/ John Colquhoun for £10 million but hasn't scored a goal in over 6 months since joining Fulham.

Together with fellow striker Bobby Zamora, also signed by Roy Hodgson/ John Colquhoun, the two forwards had only scored one goal between them in 15 matches in the 2008/09 season.

Questions were being asked in the media about the poor returns for the financial outlay.

Roy Hodgson and at least 10 of the players on the pitch at the start of the match were represented by either Base Soccer Agents, Wasserman Media Partners, Key Sports Management or Stellar Football Ltd.

In the hour leading up to the kick off, we registered suspicious insider betting patterns on the match between Fulham and Wigan Athletic.
The outcome was in the market prior to the match.


ACT TWO

Craven Cottage on the evening of Wednesday 29th October 2008.

Seven Months Since His Last Goal But Andy Johnson Knew That He Was Going To Score Against Wigan Athletic. How?

Fulham won the match 2-0.

Andy Johnson scored both goals.

Fulham only had two shots on target.

Comments on the performance of Wigan goalkeeper Chris Kirkland by an analyst: "Made no attempt with first goal scored from 1 metre - foolishly committed himself before displaying revealing body language in his remonstrations with the assistant referee. Looks like a startled rabbit caught in the headlights. Stood claiming for a goalkick while an attack continued with a goal only prevented by the intervention of Figueroa. Looks wired. Mis-timed run from goal to address through ball; defender has to clear putting Fulham on the attack. In the Second Half, poor clearances, seemingly deliberate uncertainty whenever the ball was in the area, a clearance straight to the opposition, before once again committing himself to allow the second goal, after failing to give a call to his defenders. Appeared to make his body area as small as possible for the second goal."

After Johnson scored his first goal, he lifted his shirt to reveal a '100 League Goals' vest-top, as, despite not having registered since March, this was his 100th career goal.

Being a midweek match, the affair ended only 40 minutes before the BBC Match of the Day programme featuring all of the midweek games.

After the highlights of the Fulham match, Johnson was interviewed.

When asked about the vest-top, he gushed words to the effect that: "Some lads at the club told me to get it done this week when they knew I was going to score tonight."

On returning to the studio, Alan Hansen had a look of horror on his face.
For fully two minutes, he and Gary Lineker attempted to explain how a forward was prescient enough to be so certain of scoring in the match that a '100 League Goals' top was created when he hadn't scored a goal in nearly 7 months.


ACT THREE

Wembley on 16th May 2012.


The England squad for the Euro 2012 Finals in Poland/ Ukraine announced by the new England manager, Roy Hodgson.

Alongside the obvious key selections, there are a number of surprising/ very surprising players in the squad: Jack Butland (Stellar Football Ltd), Martin Kelly (Stellar Football Ltd), Phil Jones (Key Sports Management), Jordan Henderson (Wasserman Media Group - although he seemingly oscillates between WMG and Key Sports), Phil Jagielka (Stellar Football Ltd), Ashley Young (Base Soccer Agents), Scott Parker (Wasserman Media Group), Theo Walcott (Key Sports Management), Joleon Lescott (Wasserman Media Group).

In total, 14 players out of the 23 member squad are represented by just four firms of football agents and Steven Gerrard (Wassermann Media Group) and Jordan Henderson are respectively the England team and Under-21 captains. John Colquhoun/ Key Sports Management only have four English players of any note on their books - Walcott and Jones are in the full squad while Ryan Bertrand and Josh McEachran are in the Under-21's.

English players in the EPL are represented by over 30 firms of agents (ignoring the family linkage ones).
It is statistically highly unlikely that the England Euro 2012 squad was so unbalanced by accident.

Roy Hodgson: "I have chosen players... on what I have seen in the Premier League over the last couple of years."


ACT FOUR

The Epilogue.

We would like to put forward a number of questions regarding the above.

• Is it conceivable that Roy Hodgson/ John Colquhoun knew nothing about the fixing of the match between Fulham and Wigan in the 2008/09 season (Colquhoun bets professionally on football matches)? 
• They need not have gained financially by betting on the event to be outside the law - Antonio Conte (the Juventus manager) was banned for 10 months (later reduced to four) for simply being aware of two fixed matches when he was manager of Siena in Serie B. Conte was accused of not passing on knowledge of the match fixing in these games. Burkino Faso manager Paul Put is banned for life from Belgian football for match-fixing in 2007 at Lierse.
• Is it conceivable that Roy Hodgson chose his Euro 2012 squad on a meritocratic basis when ALL the questionable selections AND over 60% of the squad AND the captain were represented by Base, Wasserman, Key Sports or Stellar?
• Does Roy Hodgson receive any 'rewards' for the inflation in player value created through these obtuse selections? Birmingham City turned down a Southampton bid of £6 million for Jack Butland earlier in the season - prior to his inclusion in the Euro 2012 squad, he was valued at £200,000.

• Do Key Sports Management, Wasserman Media Group, Stellar Football Ltd and the Base Soccer Agents operate as a form of inner circle or fragmented cartel? 
• If so, shouldn't the Premier League be taking a forensic interest in events where such agencies have potentially match-controlling influences like the match above...
• ... or, say, the Merseyside derby - Carragher, Johnson, Kelly, Gerrard, Henderson, Shelvey, Wisdom, Howard, Baines, Hibbert, Jagielka, Distin, Osman and Naismith are all represented by Base, Wasserman or Stellar. No potential confusions of focus for these 14 players then! And players are with an agent for life while, in general, playing for numerous clubs.

• So, who gains most from these structures? Who has the most value-added? What on earth does it mean for the future of the beautiful game in England? What about the players who are out of the cartel?

If the selection of players for the England national team is not a meritocratic process then many talented players are unable to break through and gain proper recognition and remuneration due to potentially cartelised behaviour.

Non-meritocratic structures mean England continue to fail in tournaments so that some individuals might enhance their bank balances. 

If games are fixed then fans, bettors, television companies, peripheral bookmakers and relegated teams are suffering from fraudulent events and might seek recompense in a court of law.

If bookmakers don't expose the insider trading and choose to trade this knowledge elsewhere for financial gain, what is left of integrity at the top of the English game? 

And if Roy Hodgson/ John Colquhoun had any inkling that the Fulham/ Wigan Athletic match (or indeed any other match) was fixed, should they not be banned for non-disclosure? 

Rob Wainwright: "Given the scale of corruption involved, it would be naive and complacent to think that the criminal conspiracy does not affect the English game."

Michel Platini: "If tomorrow, we go watch a game already knowing the outcome, football is dead."


© Football is Fixed 2006-2013

Ancient Pasty-Faced Flabby Goth Chats Shit

Yesterday, serial failure and intellectual incompetent, Lord Nigel Lawson, was given odious amounts of mainstream media time to spout on about his little Englander view of the world.

                                 Why Would Anybody Buy A UKIP Policy From This Man?

Two points...

1) The Guardian: "[Lawson] decided that the best way to keep the cost of living in check was for the pound to shadow the German mark, believing that this would import Teutonic anti-inflationary zeal into the UK. It was a policy disaster. Interest rates were cut to prevent sterling from rising and this led to an orgy of mortgage borrowing. House prices rose sharply and so did inflation, from a trough of just over 2% in 1986 to almost 10% in 1990."

So the goth can't do macroeconomics and caused a recession.

2) The goth also denies human-influenced climate change...
... so he is a fool to boot.
Even the oil companies recognise their role in changing the equilibrium state of the planet.

The Economist: "The Arctic also has oil and gas... Exploration licences are now being issued across the region... Oil companies do not like to talk about it, but this points to another positive feedback from the [Arctic] melt. Climate change caused by burning fossil fuels will allow more Arctic hydrocarbons to be extracted and burned."

And the feedback effects are far greater than the computer models predicted due to the Albedo Effect caused by white reflective ice being replaced by blue/green absorbing sea/land.

Destroy the planet once, destroy the planet twice, all for privatised profits of a psychopathic elite.

Lord Lawson of Blaby is married to a woman 39 years his junior and who is ten years younger than his daughter Nigella...
... the true mark of a man of inappropriate power and influence.

Exactly why was Blabby of Blaby given this amount of airtime?

© Football is Fixed 2006-2013

Annual Scottish Football Awards For Season 2012/13 (The Official Version Not Released To Media)

Manager of the Year Nominations - Neil Lennon for winning title and Scottish Cup to come; for reaching Champions League 2nd Phase and beating Barcelona on the way; for behaving with dignity through the threats and the institutional malaise that is Scottish football OR Allan Johnston. the former Rangers player who has managed Queen of the South to the title in third tier of Scottish football; for playing in the same colours as The Club Formerly Known As Rangers; for having a club name that gives a nice warm glow to those who believe in the Union Jack; for finishing 25 points clear of Alloa Athletic; for having a mascot called Doogie the Doonhamer.
And the winner is ................ Allan Johnston

Doogie The Doonhamer Celebrating The Inevitable Manager Of The Year Award For Allan Johnston

Criminalised Freemason Of The Year Nominations - Due to the nature of secret non-meritocratic societies with arbitrary homo-erotic rules on the square, the nominations for this award are not to be made public as otherwise it would become public knowledge that Scotland is smothered in freemasonry at the top. Like England.
And the winner is .................. Lord Nimmo Smith - the man who claimed that corruption by The Club Formerly Known As Rangers was "an honest mistake" and all titles should be retained. The Old Etonian, Oxbridge Knob is a Hun. But an honest one and that is why he thoroughly deserves this award.

Lord Nimmo Smith Celebrating The Retention Of The Titles By Wearing A Sash His Father Wore

Criminalised Scallywag Of The Year Nominations - We are inundated with nominations for this peculiarly Scottish award - Neil Doncaster, Charles Green, Brian Kennedy, John Colquhoun, Willie McKay but the winner by several lengths is ...................... Sir David Murray for his criminalised control of The Club Formerly Known As Rangers. For his metal dealing and his remarkable ability to move monies around the world with selective sleights of hand.

Scottish Generalisation Of The Year - Only one nomination this year.
And the winner is .................. Scouser Michael Higdon, The Motherwell striker who was arrested for alleged assault just hours after collecting the thoroughly deserved award as Scottish PFA Player of the Year for scoring a few goals against a few teams, but primarily for not being a Celt.
But still, a scouser being arrested for assault hours after winning the top prize...

Michael Higdon Training For His Defence Against The Charge Of Assault In A Court Of The Land

If there is a more dysfunctional collection of football leagues anywhere on the planet, we'd like to hear of it...
... Scotland - worldwide renown for whisky, tartan and the most institutionalised sectarian football.

But finally something that Scottish football can be proud of...



© Football is Fixed 2006-2013

When Is A Competitive Football Match Not A Competitive Football Match?

When you have an entirely corrupted sport with vast differentials between success or failure, Champions League qualification or not, league survival or relegation, it is unsurprising that the end of season brings all the cockroaches out into the open.

All four of the main leagues in Europe experience this end of season poker play/ power play - the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A and the Bundesliga.

Fans pay their hard-earned, austerity-sliced money to go and watch their heroes enact fixed events for private benefit.
Of course, some of these fans (think Manchester United or Real Madrid ones) are so religiously obsessed with the power of their teams that any criminalities and lack of integrity is seen as valid if it furthers the branded success of their entity.

                                                 Spanish Football Is Shameless

We focused on the fixed match, the maletín (the little suitcase), between Levante and Deportivo La Coruna in the last post and we should add some further flesh to that story.

Sid Lowe: "But Al Primer Toque, the nightly show on Onda Cero radio, reported that the sequence appears to have been Levante players contacting the striker Carlos Aranda at Granada and telling him that they had an offer from Depor... to throw the game and did Granada want to make a counter offer for Levante to try and win it, thus aiding their survival bid? They would, in other words, auction their effort."

Now the benefits to Deportivo or Granada are evident - survival and financial well-being in La Liga as relegation, in the former case, might lead to extinction and, in the latter case, might lead to the Pozzo family moving their financial support elsewhere.
But the benefits to Levante are purely commercial to the rogue players - what about fans, sponsors, bettors, television companies and other media?

But there is more to these collective criminalities than just points and suitcases of money.

Last weekend, the matches between Mallorca/Levante and Deportivo/Atletico were highly suspicious events involving bizarre refereeing and a very dubious goalkeeping performance...
... and two entirely fake results.

The most likely players to be criminalised are:
i) Those reaching the end of their careers with no loyalty to anything other than their bank balance.
ii) Goalkeepers as they can have the biggest impact on outcomes.
iii) Players doing the dirty work of mafia agents.
iv) Players who are to be transferred in the next transfer window.

The three players accused of being non-triers by Javi Barkero in the Levante/Deportivo game were goalie Munúa (35), Ballesteros (37) and Juanfran (36) - the former two were dropped from the next Levante event.

Referees, meanwhile, do as they are told by their bosses and then apply the rules of the game accordingly...
... and selectively.

So for Depor v Atletico, Ayza Gamez received 1/10 from Marca for missing two La Coruna penalties and perfectly good Atletico goal...
... while Marca gave Gonzalez Gonzalez 3/10 after he denied Mallorca the clearest of penalties and disallowed a goal for the Balearic islanders to ensure that, despite dominating the match against Levante, the outcome was level.

                                         Dudu Aouate Advertising His Credentials

Mallorca also have an issue with a rogue Israeli goalkeeper Dudu Aouate who is the most "problematical" goalie in the four main European leagues in the department entitled integrity (Aouate is 35 years old).

These results together with a gift of a penalty for Real Zaragoza (at 0-0 v Rayo Vallecano) by Texeira Vitienes (Marca 2/10) and two sendings off and a penalty against Osasuna, mean that the little suitcases will be criss-crossing Spain over the next few weeks.

Of course, powerful clubs don't bother with suitcases of money but rather go for indirect ownership or other mutually beneficial structures - think Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid, Manchester United and Bet365/Stoke City or Juventus and Siena.

And many large agents direct match outcomes to the benefits of their clients (and, of course, their 20% slice of the action).

But all of these structures destroy the sport of football.
Prizes go to the powerful or the poker players while the ethical are relegated.

And so it goes on...

© Football is Fixed 2006-2013
 

The Frogs And The Turks - Match-Fixing Spanish Style

Deportivo Chairman Augusto César Lendoiro - Does The Former Partido Popular Politician Really Look Like The Sort Of Man Who Might Fix Football Matches?

Last month's match between Levante and Deportivo La Coruna in Spain's La Liga was fixed.
Deportivo (the Turks) won 4-0.

Levante (the Frogs) had little to play for while Deportivo's win enabled them to move out of the relegation positions for the first time this season.

As you will see below, there was little attempt at challenging the opening three goals in the first half hour.



The match-fixing was illuminated when Levante midfielder Javi Barkero accused his team-mates of not trying in the first half during the half-time interval.

Barkero has now changed his mind: "I have asked for forgiveness from everyone and especially my four colleagues whom I have wrongly accused."

Well, if nothing fishy was going on then perhaps Barkero and his chums might like to elaborate on the insider trading on the match- it wasn't only professionals who were shorting Levante.

New La Liga president, Javier Tebas, knows the score though...
Referring to clubs accepting payments to lose games from teams threatened with relegation, he said: "We have to take a step further in denouncing something that is happening, in isolation, but it is taking place. This must be ended and the clubs are in agreement with me."

Including Levante and Deportivo?

© Football is Fixed 2006-2013

"Irony's Annual Night Off"

Su Andi: "White man. You really fuck up my day."

                           "Washing out the dirty taste of racism with a little ginger ale."

England is a racist country...
... but sensibilities make the institutions and the media sensitive about being so.

The PFA chairman, Clarke Carlisle (agent: John Colquhoun), oversaw the process that resulted in the hiring of Reginald D. Hunter for the annual awards ceremony for failure - the last three years has seen the PFA Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year go to London-based players whose teams have won nothing.

Football, like England, has a problem with racism so, initially, the choice of Hunter had to be perceived as a good idea - scheduling a strong intelligent anti-racist black comedian who confronts subjects such as class, Socialism, poverty, slavery etc was imaginative for a sport reeling from repeated episodes of crass racism - institutional, representative and interpersonal.

Just in the recent past we have seen Luis Suarez and Patrice Evra, Mark Clattenburg and every black player on the Chelsea team, John Terry and Anton Ferdinand, John Terry and Roy Hodgson, Roy Hodgson and apartheid South Africa, the racist chanting about burning the Ferdinand brothers at the Montenegro game and the FA's denial of it, Roy Hodgson and Rio Ferdinand...
... and Hunter is performing at a shindig that has witnessed only one black winner since Thierry Henry back in 2003/04 - no Didier Drogba, no Yaya Toure, no Patrice Evra, no Vincent Kompany!!
And, anyway, Ryan Giggs isn't really black is he?

Managers, assistant managers, coaches, physiotherapists, referees, assistant referees, commentators, journalists, agents, bookmakers, administrators, owners, shareholders, bosses, chairmen, chief executive officers, MPs, judges, freemasons, landowners, monarchy - all share one thing...
... not many blacks.

Apartheid South Africa Greensleeves Stylee...

But then hindsight racism occurred.

The man talked about racism.
Live.
On British telly.

So having Reginald D. Hunter doing postmodern humour about our sensitivities, including racism, was seen as too challenging?
Why shouldn't a black man/woman tell jokes about racism when they suffer it every hour of every day?
The word "nigger" stirs up too much stuff, does it?

He's gently mocking you but there's nothing worse than an uppity nigger in the eyes of the racist.



                  
Henry Lloyd Moon: " RDH's humor is based on IRONY, something footballers - with their broad palette of experience, lack of emotional cosseting and off-the-scale IQs should obviously pick up on in a trice. Sadly, no. And what's this idea that anything you pay for and consume - and let's face it, most people have seen the guy on telly - should warrant a refund if the purchaser is unhappy? Surely the industry hardest hit by lawsuits would be football, where very few people can be seen to justify their pay packets to the satisfaction of all.
Where RDH went wrong was in not making jokes about gays. Then the footballers would have been all at sea, lurching between the bully-boy walk-the-plankers and the new-age promoters of political correctness. The fact that Carlisle even imagines that this behind-closed-doors event should be an issue of national outrage fit to make headlines just shows how skewed is his sense of self-importance."

It is outrageous that Hunter's contract prevented him from talking about racism at the event.
It is equally outrageous that there is talk of lawsuits.
Carlisle, as a black man, should feel ashamed and resign.

Oh!
And if you really want to challenge your racist sensibilities then I would suggest booking Dave Chappelle for the show next year...
... or just place an outsized choc-ice on stage.
That should do the trick.

© Football is Fixed 2006-2013