It is worthy of remembrance that Football Is Fixed was launched on November 11th 2006.
We have been exposing corruption in world football, with particular focus on the Premier League, for over seven years.
We have published over 1250 posts in that time (the vast majority now archived).
The first post 'Manipulated Markets' is reproduced in part below...
... we wouldn't alter one single word.
"English Football is currently reeling from the impacts of the Stevens
inquiry into the bung culture, the standard and ethics of referees and
the revelation that Victor Chandler International allegedly took bets
from some Premiership Managers and Players. The words “tip” and
“iceberg” spring to mind.
I have traded professionally on global
football betting markets for the past 15 years. In my experience, all
the brokers, market makers and bookmakers that I have traded with take
bets from insiders in the game. It is regarded as buying information.
Undoubtedly, some of this exchange of information borders on the
corrupt. The recent betting scandal in Germany and the uproar in Italy’s
Serie A show that this isn’t merely a British problem.
Asian
Market Makers regularly accept bets of greater than £1million without
blinking (Gianluigi Buffon – the Juventus goalkeeper – was found with
betting slips for several million euros in his possession during the
Moggiopoli scandal). Inevitably, the liquidity of the Asian markets
persuades some football people to enhance their earning capacities. To
my knowledge, such individuals include players, managers, referees,
bookmakers, agents and the criminal fringe. It isn’t just the Italian
mafia centres of Napoli, Palermo and Reggio di Calabria that are
actively involved in football markets!
To date, all attempts to
clean up the game have been peripheral. In Germany, some selective
sweeping under the carpet and wrist slapping went on in response to the
referee Robert Hoyzer admitting that he took money to alter football
match outcomes. But, I believe that there are other match officials in
the Bundesliga who were merely demoted or, indeed, allowed to continue
to officiate. In Italy, in the aftermath of calciocaos, two referees
were suspended but the other six who were under investigation are still
involved in Serie A.
Although there are many corrupt players, it
is the match officials who are the key component of this crisis. Some
have links to individual clubs, some to bookmakers and some to the
underworld. There are also many honest people in the game who are just
trying to do their jobs. However, until football cleans up its act,
corruption will persist. Falling attendances in Italy and England are
partially related to deficiencies in the sport on offer. Although the
prawn sandwich brigade remain oblivious to anything, the true fans know
when they are being short changed. The recent assertion by Graeme
Souness that British football is “the most honest in Europe” is simply
laughable."
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We selected the name 'Football Is Fixed' in an act of strategic duality
whereby the fact that football was/is fixed could be offset by it
eventually being mended - so football would indeed become fixed!
Foolish hope.
We outlined in a recent post six areas that have to be addressed if
football is to elevate itself above a version of horseracing with a ball
and goalposts (http://footballisfixed.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/how-to-solve-match-fixing-once-and-for.html).
The probability of even one area being addressed with integrity is remote!
But, even if we were to live in a world where betting markets could be
regulated to prevent match fixing, the rules to be put in place would be
Swiss-cheesed with loopholes to enable the same corruptions to happen
again.
Over time, these loopholes would expand into newly available structures to enable future match fixing...
... just like capitalism after the Depression.
So, further attempts to rescue the game are now seen as futile.
To commemorate this momentous state of affairs, we are renaming our Twitter feed FIXBALL IS FECKED.
In the future, blog posts will become less frequent but still hard hitting.
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Our time ahead is to be taken up with the FIFAss - a closed-ended hedge fund which is
being launched later this month and is already fully subscribed, a mobile phone App offering betting
advices, information and support to be released in time for the World Cup, plus club consultancies outside of
Britain as the English game is, in the words of Sir Bob Russell MP,
"rotten to the core"...
... listen up - not one bad apple but rotten to the core!
In example, our primary Asian broker has provided us with details of the 17 largest bets placed on Premier League games this season...
... 16 have won, one referee has been involved in 8 of the games and another in 6!
WE COULD, IF WE SO WISHED, ENTIRELY DEMOLISH ENGLISH FOOTBALL - WE HAVE BETTING PATTERNS, RECORDED MEETINGS AND PHONE
CONVERSATIONS, TESTIMONIES, POLICE RECORDS OF THREATS RECEIVED, FULSOME DETAILS OF SPECIFIC INSIDER TRADING
AND MATCH RIGGING AND STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT PATTERNS THAT REVEAL THE
CORRUPTIONS UNDERPINNING ENGLISH FOOTBALL AT THE HIGHEST LEVELS.
THE DATA, INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE LODGED WITH OUR LAWYERS ARE DAMNING.
IF WE THOUGHT THAT IT WOULD MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE TO THE FUTURE INTEGRITY OF THE ENGLISH GAME, WE WOULD PUBLISH THIS INFORMATION.
BUT IT WOULDN'T.
WHAT IS THE POINT IN FULLY DISCLOSING AND ITEMISING THE MATCH
FIXING BY OWNERS, AGENTS, REFEREES AND PLAYERS WHEN THE ORCHESTRATORS OF THE
INFRASTRUCTURES THAT ALLOW MATCH FIXING ARE IN THE CORRIDORS OF POWER AT
FIFA, UEFA, INTERPOL, THE PREMIER LEAGUE, THE FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION, THE
FOOTBALL LEAGUE AND A WHOLE ARRAY OF GLOBAL BOOKMAKERS?
INSTEAD THE FULL PROOF REMAINS AS OUR COLLECTIVE SECURITY.
© Football is Fixed 2006-2013
