If

If referees in the Premier League earn a couple of grand per week while officiating on matches with global betting volumes of £5 billion,
If referees for all Premier League games are selected by just one individual;
If referees work with agents to promote the agents' clients on the field of play,
If referees are at the root of most matchfixing crises:

If bookmakers accept insider trading merely treating it as competitive advantage in the marketplace,

If bookmakers trade such knowledge at dark pool poker tables of corruption;

If bookmakers own football clubs and, on occasions, coerce players to perform appropriately,

If bookmakers create spot markets to corrupt the minutiae of in-play actions:

If agents are largely non-regulated and are the primary lubrication of criminalities in the sport,

If agents work together in a fragmented cartel to pool ownership of players to solicit matchfixing;

If agents are engaging in third party ownership and the trafficking of children from developing countries,

If agents pay backhanders to managers to pick certain players for mutual benefit:

If institutional bodies decide on winners and losers according to private agendas of power and marketing,

If institutional bodies incorporate systemic corruptions at top levels of the game;

If institutional bodies established to monitor insider trading and matchfixing are infrastructurally compromised,

If there are no global, EU or governmental actions to confront these corruptions:

If clubs, owners, managers, referees, agents, administrators and players bet on the outcomes of games,

If clubs exert power over lesser clubs in the same leagues with agreed outcomes being the norm;

If clubs focus more on unearthing lucrative marketing deals than on winning trophies,

If clubs built on debt can only survive by matchfixing their games:

If coercion, threats, menaces, violence and murders are the primary modes of controlling non-acquiescent individuals,

If transnational organised crime and global mafiosi are actively involved at all levels of corruption;

If suitcases of cash and offshore illicit money flows are the norm in financial transactions,

If there are administrators who facilitate these corruptions based on laissez faire capitalism:

If the Fit-and-Proper-Person Test results in clubs being owned by entirely unfit and entirely improper individuals,

If owners take over clubs to asset strip and to monetise the debris via inversion capitalism;

If money laundering, fraud, utilisation of offshore financial centres and beneficial ownership is the norm,

If clubs are held offshore for tax and/or regulatory avoidance to the benefit of the owners:

If spurious and fake arguments are repeatedly made against the use of video technology in the sport,
If there are no laws against insider trading and no Commitment of Traders' reports;

If there is widespread use of performance enhancing substances and their related masking agents,

If the market capitalisation of major clubs is dwarfed by global betting turnover on any of their matches:

If fans and the public are kept in the dark about all these machinations due to a blackout by the mainstream media,

If there is nowhere for whistleblowers to go with information about corruptions;

If the reward for being a criminalised player is a lifelong role as a media analyst or commentator,

If huge fortunes are being made while meritocracy is always trumped by the performativity of corrupt practices:

Then FOOTBALL IS FIXED as is everything within it,

And - what is more - 'tis merely high stakes poker, my son.

© Football is Fixed 2006-2015

Follow us on Twitter @FootballisFixed

Who Really Won The Cricket World Cup?

A corrupt boss.
Limited use of video technology.
Massive betting turnover.
Who really won the Cricket World Cup 2015? 



Today Australia deservedly won the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup 2015 but the finale was undermined by having the trophy handed over to the victorious Aussies by ICC chairman N. Srinivasan, a man whose core competencies would seem to orbit around corruption and matchfixing.

Srinivasan was permanently removed as president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) by the Indian Supreme Court on March 25th 2014 following investigations into several scams including betting on IPL matches where his son-in-law (Gurunath Meiyappan) is serving a jail sentence for passing inside information to bookmakers on Chennai Super Kings matches.
The 170-page report also stated that Srinivasan's company, India Cements, was liable for Meiyappan's actions. 
The resignation was ordered to facilitate investigations into the betting scam with the Supreme Court finding it "nauseating" that Srinivasan was continuing in office.
 
Srinivasan is also being investigated as a major investor in the massive corruption surrounding Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Yet, unbelievably, on June 26th 2014, Srinivasan was made chairman of the ICC!
___________________________________________________________________________________

In 2008, cricket introduced the Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS) to undermine the activities of rogue umpires linked to major underground criminal consortia like the Dawood Company.
Initially UDRS was mandatory for ALL international matches but, under pressure from BCCI, it became optional and was only implemented if both teams agreed.
The BCCI used the same argument as that found in the equally corrupt global football betting markets - the technology is not 100% accurate. But, then again, neither are umpires and research has shown that UDRS has markedly reduced the number of incorrect decisions.

From this point on, the improvements in integrity generated by UDRS have become increasingly sidelined as corruption has regained control of world cricket.

Firstly, India have refused to utilise UDRS in ANY Test Match, One Day International (ODI) or T20 International.

Then it was decided that UDRS would NEVER be used in T20 matches despite 80% of fans wanting for it to be introduced.

Then, in 2012, the range of potential LBW dismissals on review was reduced markedly by effectively making the stumps thinner and shorter than they are in reality, giving more powers back to the umpire.

Then, it was decided that for ICC World Cup 2015, each side would have only one review per innings (whether successful or not) - previously a successful review was carried forward. Once again more power was returned to umpires.
___________________________________________________________________________________

The ICC World Cup 2015 Semi Final between New Zealand and South Africa saw the biggest ever turnover on a sporting event at Betfair - £79,879,596 was traded on the event with the average bet size being £697 (a lot of professional money then!).
It is surely of interest that ODI and T20 matches have the least recourse to UDRS and yet the largest betting turnover!

Now, with a chairman who was removed from administrative cricket position in his own country due to matchfixing and corruption charges orchestrating the World Cup, very limited use of video technology and markedly increased betting turnover (particularly in the underground markets of Mumbai/Dubai), one might have thought that the umpiring appointments would be spread around in a last hope for integrity?

Not so.
For the last 7 matches from Quarter Finals onwards, 24 of the 28 appointments went to just 8 officials, with umpires from England and Australia making up 20 of the appointments while India and the West Indies had NONE!
Worse still, Kumar Dharmasena and Richard Kettleborough were on-field umpires for Australia's victories in both Semi Final and Final!


The global betting turnover on each of these two matches is measured in tens of billions of pounds.

We cannot claim for certain that matchfixing occurred in either game but we can say for certain that considerable structural design has been created to ENABLE corruption to be more likely to occur.

That wasn't the original purpose of UDRS and it is a lesson football must learn if it is ever to even consider addressing matchfixing and corruption in its own house via the use of video technology.
___________________________________________________________________________________

What a pity that the ICC sought to undermine the pure sporting beauty that modern ODI cricket provides.

The best team won the World Cup.
The best four teams reached the Semi Finals.

But the real winners are a bunch of Mumbaikar residing in the United Arab Emirates...
... and those who were persuaded to do their bidding.

© Football is Fixed 2006-2015

Follow us on Twitter @FootballisFixed

"Making A Long Nose On The Sly"

We mocked a #matchfixing operation. They mocked us back. We saw through their mockery and re-mocked. A job is lost. http://t.co/mMADWWIzoR
— FOOTBALL is FIXED (@footballisfixed) March 19, 2015

Our sociology is labyrinthine.

On October 29th 2008, there was a fixed Premier League match between Fulham and Wigan Athletic at Craven Cottage.
On the following day, we disclosed details of this matchfixing event together with forensics of the corrupt operatives.
We received threats and menaces.
These threats were traced to the Soho offices of a leading British football agent and were sent by one of the thirteen aliases employed by this individual.

Fast forward to 2015.
We published two blog posts (on January 19th and February 10th) detailing the current forms of matchfixing orchestrated in the Premier League by our Soho-based agent and his cohorts.
Our psychological assessments of our opponents are complex.
So we expected tubthumpery...
... but not absurdity!

In response to these 2 posts, the resultant refereeing appointments and the inversion of historical biases were so manipulated that such a collection of episodes would happen by chance only once in every 800 billion instances.
But, by happenstance, they occurred immediately after the second of our articles investigating this insider trading operation.
How on earth did a 800 billion-to-one statistic come to pass at such a time? 

On March 7th, we blogged again about this orchestrated corruption.

From our perspective, the most remarkable feature of this insider idiocy is that we have been given our outcome by a walkover - in an attempt to display the 'omnipotence' of their power, the operation has yielded a data-driven solution that proves their malfeasance via statistical outlier realities without any need for us to venture near the boundaries of libel.

800,000,000,000 to 1.

On 18th March, Keren Barratt (the individual who was solely in charge of pgMOB referee appointments) was removed from his post without warning and without publicised reason.
He was no longer in his happy place.

We published 'The Sting' on March 19th - http://footballisfixed.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/the-sole-individual-who-selects-select.html

One question is left hanging in the air...

If being part of a conspiratorial structure is sufficient for one individual to be removed from their position in the English game, can we look forward to punitive action being taken against the other two perpetrators of this farcical display of psychopathic disorder?

"Not by wrath does one kill but by laughter. Come, let us kill the spirit of gravity!"

© Football is Fixed 2006-2015

Follow us on Twitter @FootballisFixed 
  

The Sting

The Sole Individual Who Appoints Referees For Premier League Games Is Removed From His Job...
___________________________________________________________________________________

Yesterday Keren Barratt was removed from his job as sole selector of Premier League referees.

In his years under Mike "Kipper" Riley, he was invisible.
Prior to yesterday Google Search yields JUST ONE mainstream media mention of the man who chooses referees for all English Premier League games. 
This would appear to be excessive secrecy for an individual in charge of appointing referees for nearly £1 trillion worth of betting turnover per annum.

Barratt was removed early and with a suddenness that means that his new role hasn't even been created yet! 
Depending on who you believe, he had 2 or 14 months left on his contract.

No reasons have been given for his removal.

We published the blog post below on March 7th 2015.

http://trichotomoustriptychities.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/mocking-zeitgeist.html

This post followed on from two earlier posts that may be located below.

http://trichotomoustriptychities.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/how-to-spot-matchfixing_19.html

http://trichotomoustriptychities.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/once-dead-good-and-bad-are-covered-by.html

The statistical likelihood of the 'inversion in bias' together with the probability of selection for the games is 1 in 804,888,018,800 or, in plain English, one in 800 Billion.
As there are 20 windows akin to the one outlined in the 'Mocking The Zeitgeist' post per season, the inversion/selection structure outlined would occur by chance once every 40 Billion Years.

The universe is 13.8 Billion Years Old :)

And it happened in the fortnight following our two posts.

We would like to confirm, in this place, that this should be regarded as a truly remarkable statistical fluke and nothing more sinister.

Consequently, we wish Keren Barratt well in his new Orwellian post that has yet to be created at the pgMOB.
___________________________________________________________________________________

Barratt's replacement is PC Howard Webb :)
  

Walks off, stage left humming Junior Murvin's 'Police and Thieves"...
___________________________________________________________________________________

Football is Fixed

Football is Fixed Performed A Virtual Reactive Sting Operation Across The Zeitgeist Of Corruption.
The Sting Was Landed.

 5th Estate Data-Driven Investigative Journalism At Its Best, With An Essence Of Lulz... 
... Where Else Do You Get The Barratt/Colquhoun/Moss Sting And Poyet/Bevan Expose In Four Days? 
... and the expose of AC Parma, the deconstruction of IFAB, analyses of illicit money flows and the role of crime syndicates, analyses of 5th Estate realities and security just in the past few months...

Football is Fixed


© Football is Fixed 2006-2015

Follow us on Twitter @FootballisFixed 

The Guardian Of The State Of Play - Referee Fetishism

Sid Lowe: "Matchfixing is the ultimate crime in football. If it is not a competition, it is nothing."

Suppression of truths makes a parody of journalism.

Newspapers have a tenuous relationship with football fans as demonstrared by Liverpool fans boycotting The Sun and Celtic Bhoys and Ghirls confronting the pro-Sevco bias in Scottish media.

When mainstream media (msm) provide news which is merely public relations or attempt to reframe realities to private agendas, we are in a situation where free media becomes distorted to totalitarian templates.

So it is with the refusal by British msm to face up to matchfixing, corrupted players and referees on these isles.

Since a number of former referees have slated the terrible standard of officiating in the Premier League this season, there has been a concerted effort by certain outlets to paint a different picture.

Online today, the Guardian has SIX different articles portraying referees as victims.

We have Chelsea exhibiting a poor respect-to-referee ratio (a robust mathematical construct!), Ibrahimovic swearing at a ref, a Cypriot referee having his car torched, Aurier apologising after a ref rant online, an eventual acknowledgement by the paper that Chris Brunt took on Anthony Taylor in a tunnel and Greg Dyke telling us that player pressure on officials is "pretty scary".
Following on from Barney Ronay's recent forays into "let's stop talking about referees" and "the excellence of our officials", this is more than bizarre 'journalism'.
It is referee fetishism!

This demand for respect would have more credence if the general perception was that the Professional Game Match Officials Board (pgMOB) referees were doing their job even remotely to a professional standard.
They are not.

This attempted whitewash spreads over to television with numerous pundits twisting themselves into Houdini-like contortions to explain the latest travesty of justice on the field of play.

And these millionaires and their acquiescent lackeys are unaware of the bubble in which they exist.

Talk to fans at Celtic, Arsenal, Manchester City and United, Liverpool, Everton and Chelsea etc etc...
... or talk to chief executives, market makers and owners, and a different reality emerges - one of an utter lack of confidence in officials and a suspicion that poor refereeing is linked to betting market activities.

Last night I went to see some proper football - the Evo-Stik Northern Premier League between Buxton (nicknamed The Bucks) and Ramsbottom (nicknamed Tup's Arse). It was the most exciting game that I have seen this season. End-to-end football, no controversy, no bookings, hardly any fouls due to the quality officiating by a refereeing team from South Yorkshire.


The ref was a different standard of quality compared to Jon Moss and others at the pgMOB completely undermining the legitimacy of pgMOB only utilising 15 core officials.

But, rich bastards beware...
... without marked improvement in the officiating in the Premier League, the financial bubble will burst sooner rather than later.

NB: And later in the day, in a truly Orwellian twist, Keren Barratt - the man in sole charge of selection of Premier League referees - is removed from his post two months early for reasons that our lawyers have advised us not to discuss.
Keren Barratt - the man whose name had only ever appeared once in the msm - is replaced by PC Howard Webb.
ScudamoreWorld - a mockery of reality!

http://trichotomoustriptychities.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/mocking-zeitgeist.html 

© Football is Fixed 2006-2015

Follow us on Twitter @FootballisFixed 

Poyet Out!

Gus Poyet: "I am one of the few in football who is honest" - says man who employed our services and then refused to honour deal. #Sunderland
— FOOTBALL is FIXED (@footballisfixed) March 15, 2015

We tweeted the above in the aftermath of Sunderland's 0-4 defeat to Aston Villa on Saturday - a result that leaves Poyet on the brink.
However, don't expect him to resign as a Guardian individual close to the club writes "... the suspicion is the Uruguayan would rather welcome the sack and its attendant pay-off."
___________________________________________________________________________________

Vicente Rodriguez on Gus Poyet: "He is the worst person I've come across in football. For me, he is a selfish person, very egocentric... I have seen things here [Brighton & Hove Albion] that I have never seen in my career."
___________________________________________________________________________________

This whole unpleasant narrative began at the 2013 Championship Play-Off Semi Final 2nd Leg between Brighton & Hove Albion and Crystal Palace, The tie was in the balance after a 0-0 draw in London when certain individuals within the Seagull's hierarchy decided that it would be a good idea to spread excrement around the Palace dressing room for their arrival at the ground - an arrival that was deliberately delayed by erroneous routing of coach according to Palace manager Ian Holloway.
Poyet sent a furious email to staff at the club after Brighton were beaten 0-2 and was then suspended for an alleged breach of contract. He decided to take action against the club over wrongful dismissal after he was eventually sacked by Tony Bloom, the Brighton owner.

On July 22nd 2013, we contacted Richard Bevan at the League Managers Association (LMA) to offer to help Poyet in his action against Brighton as, having known Bloom for nearly two decades, we questioned his suitability (as an ex-bookmaker and current professional gambler) to be in charge of a football club.
Bevan responded on the 25th and we sent through an outline of what we might offer on the following day.

Interestingly, Bevan denies receiving this email although we know his office opened the communication and Gus Poyet referred directly to contents within (and Bevan's reaction to such content) when I eventually spoke with him on August 15th.
So we instantly have to surmise that Mr Bevan entertains economy with truths!

After speaking at length with Poyet, we sent through a detailed dossier including all of our evidences about Mr Bloom and his modus operandi. We discussed gambling, financial issues, money flow information, strategic options, a listing of potential contacts and an assessment of Bloom's psychological flaws.
In that time was of the essence, the files were delivered on word of mouth agreement (a fact that I regret as I trusted Poyet and Bevan despite my lawyer's insistence that I was making a mistake in such trust).

Early in November, Poyet and Brighton & Hove Albion reached an out-of-court settlement. This was the primary strategy that we suggested to Poyet as we knew that Tony Bloom, in a window of attempting to launder his reputation, would not wish for certain details to become public.

On November 11th, I wrote to Poyet: "I was delighted to hear that you have reached a suitable settlement with Tony Bloom and Brighton & Hove Albion. I know that my input has helped you considerably on this matter... I would think that a token gesture payment for my time and efforts would be reasonable as agreed."
 
Poyet responded: "At the end everything was sorted, somehow, really difficult people to deal with (sic). Please send me an address where I can send you a "token". Regards and thank you very much."

In the following month we provided Poyet with assessments of his new job at Sunderland and addressed fitness issues, sabermetrics, corruption in the Premier League and general analytics.

But no "token" ever arrived.

On January 3rd 2014, we decided to burn our bridges and move on - "... very disappointed in your behaviour. In that you have not sent the "token" you promised, you are not a man of your word."

We terminated our communications with Richard Bevan at LMA on February 12th 2014: "By the way, your comment about not receiving the email of July 26th is an economy of truth on your behalf.
We know that the email was received and opened and Poyet referred to your reaction to the email in a phone conversation. So you bend realities and Poyet isn't true to his word."
___________________________________________________________________________________

On August 20th 2014, Malky Mackay and Iain Moody were reported to the FA and accused of being racist, sexist and homophobic in a shocking series of texts between the two during their time at Cardiff City.
Richard Bevan and the LMA responded to this news by claiming that the offensive texts were merely "friendly banter" causing a huge uproar in the game.
Leading anti-racism campaigner Jason Roberts tweeted: “LMA actually wrote this. They are actually being serious! Somebody drafted that … WOW!”

                                                           Don't Mess With Tan

Vincent Tan and Cardiff City called on Richard Bevan to resign over the "friendly banter" comment, stating that his position had become "untenable".
The club statement read: "That the LMA has sought to criticise the club for the timing of the report to the FA is preposterous, because the offensive communications have been in the knowledge and possession of LMA for many months... It was made clear to them [Malky Mackay and Iain Moody], and their LMA appointed lawyers, that the nature of the communications meant the club was under a duty to report their findings to the FA... The LMA was therefore complicit in the attempt to conceal these messages... We consider that Richard Bevan's position is untenable and we call for his resignation."

Of course, Bevan didn't resign and the story was quickly buried by an acquiescent mainstream media as Bevan, Mackay and Moody have rather influential friends in the inner loop of British football.

In that we are talking about racism here, it is worth mentioning that Gus Poyet expressed a desire to go to court to defend Luis Suarez in his racism case with Patrice Evra, leading Sir Alex Ferguson to comment:
"I'm surprised by Gus Poyet's remarks. It's inappropriate at a time when people throughout the world are condemning racism.
"I can understand why he wants to support someone from his country but I think he should think more about it. His criticism of Evra is a bit silly."
___________________________________________________________________________________

One of the primary reasons for the festering nature of the game in these isles is that virtually all positions of power are occupied by those who are quite evidently not fit for purpose, not a fit and proper person or of highly questionable integrity.

Bevan should be dealing with Iain Duncan Smith rather than representing league managers.
Bloom should be forced to come clean about how professional gambling and club ownership are inappropriate bedfellows.
Poyet should be kicked out of English football for good...
... and he should also be forced by the authorities to explain the incredibly suspicious fitness profiles exhibited by Sunderland in season 2013/14 with the eventually relegated Norwich City being particularly impacted upon.
___________________________________________________________________________________

Over half of the 45,746 Wearsiders who attended Saturday's 0-4 debacle at the Stadium of Light left at half-time.
Club owner Ellis Short and other board members want Poyet out with sporting director Lee Congerton having called previously for Poyet to be removed.

NB: Three hours after this post was published, Mr Poyet was relieved of his duties.

© Football is Fixed 2006-2015

Follow us on Twitter @FootballisFixed  

Matchfixing Analytics

Jean Baudrillard on the transeconomics of speculation: "A game and nothing but a game, with floating and arbitrary rules: a game of catastrophe."

Sports Analytics took off in 2014 with numerous entities being established or consolidated...
... unfortunately, none of these bodies are looking at the key data.
Consequently, they offer no information-alpha but merely self-fulfilling mechanisms in a shared non-differentiated idiocy of mission.

This is about to change with the launch of a new business of which we are a part. 
Matchfixing Analytics will address corruption and matchfixing in football utilising bespoke analytics and forensics together with enhanced modelling and unique holistics.

All markets are functions of economic and psychological mechanisms but this formal construct is entirely delegitimised by the corrosive roles of corruption and insider trading, particularly in lightly regulated sectors like football.
The resultant hologram of hyperreality is pure Neo-Bayesian with chaotic statistical disorder.

Matchfixing Analytics will offer clients a robust edge in the corrupted marketplace of global football as clients want new insights, holistic modelling and clever data (not Big Data).
___________________________________________________________________________________

Jean Baudrillard: "The revolution of our time is the uncertainty revolution. We are not ready to accept this. Paradoxically, however, we attempt to escape from uncertainty by relying even more on information and communication systems, so merely aggravating the uncertainty itself."

Big Data is the big buzz but only performs in two areas in relation to markets and integrity - High Frequency Trading (HFT) where swift analysis yields arbitrage edge and surveillance/ sousveillance/ hacking where one wants maximal information to mine.
Aside from these areas, Big Data is Big Noise.

The first intrusion of Big Data into sport came with Billy Beane III and his use of sabermetrics in the valuation of baseball players. Unfortunately, sabermetrics in this basic form only applies to sports that are able to be broken down into discrete time segments eg cricket, NFL and baseball but fails miserably when utilised in games with interactive flow like football or in sports that are corrupt.
Unfortunately, this lesson is yet to be learnt and Arsenal paid £2.165m for US-based StatDNA while Manchester City established MCFC Analytics, both of which collect massive (and largely irrelevant) data which attempt to quantify the flux of football while ignoring the considerable inputs that undermine the match outcome and the integrity of the sport (although it should be stated that the Arsenal operation is markedly more professional than the Mancunian one!).
Roy Hodgson's England also utilised amateurish analytics prior to producing the nation's worst ever World Cup performance and only group stage exit in Brazil 2014.
Matchfixing Analytics will incorporate corruption forensics into match analytic processes protecting clubs against inproprietaries taken against their interests.

Matchfixing has reached a stage of development where there are frequently two or more insider attempts at manipulating the outcome of a match. The hyperreality might only become clear once the match is in progress. It is of consequence to participants and all associated with the event for the state of real-time corruptions to be assessed via analyses of the actions and psychologies of potentially corrupt officials and players and the related impacts on the markets of the criminalities at play.
Matchfixing Analytics will address such inputs at speed to benefit of clubs (as well as the efficiency of the markets).

A parallel might be drawn with the likes of Sportradar, a company that claims to provide syndicated sports content, betting related data and fraud detection.
In reality, Sportradar share macro data around market makers (and tipsters) that offers no competitive edge due to its generality and lack of specificity. Everybody is plugging the same data into the same software, thinking they are creating unique insight when, in fact, off-the-shelf solutions are self-fulfilling and simply reinforce the mechanisms at play.
Matchfixing Analytics will operate 3 layers deeper than competitors in market information, access, evaluation and the detection of market abuses and matchfixing.

The vast majority of institutional bodies in world football have their own private and hidden agendas. Frequently, such agendas impact upon the integrity of the game.
Institutional corruption analyses are critical for clubs to punch above their weight and for miscreants to be outed.
Matchfixing Analytics will transform the perceptions of corruptions of power lobbies at FIFA, UEFA, national associations and leagues, the betting monitoring bodies, IFAB and bodies representing match officials.

As football has morphed into a first tier global market with regard to the sheer volume traded, it has become increasingly necessary for all interested parties to be aware of the implications of the market structure.
We model market holistics.
Matchfixing Analytics will incorporate intermarket analyses, global market alliances, dark pool and underground market activities, proxy trading, the inputs of criminalised enterprises and syndicates, strategies to disguise volume and instantaneous global information flow into a holographic whole of market transparency.

Iain Martin of the Financial Times has promoted Peter Moores' Law with regard to Big Data (named after the hapless England cricket coach). This law states: "If you collect enough information about what is happening then everything might somehow be alright."
Application of Big Data by England in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 resulted in dire performances and a defeat to Bangladesh that ensured elimination at the group stage.
Big Data could not highlight malicious input from rogue individuals.

Big Data also played a nefarious role in the 2007/08 Great Recession.
"Awash with data, Value at Risk metrics and toxic products stamped with comforting ratings, most [executives] did not see the large iceberg ahead. But what is curious is that, after this disaster, the Big Data ship simply steamed ahead unimpeded."
Matchfixing Analytics will extract the key information from Big Data and transform the risk strategies of clients.
___________________________________________________________________________________

Big Data (like statistics and mathematics) are only valid in restricted areas of marketplaces which are dominated by corruption. Such corruption might be modelled similarly to cosmological research - we have expanding universes of corruption in a multiversal whole, where quantum leaps in reality occur undermining any mathematical or economic robustness; a state of evolutionary flux.

Key Data not Big Data is the Core to Real-Time Modelling of Matchfixing, Markets and Corruption.

Thomas Piketty: "The discipline of economics has yet to get over its childish passion for mathematics... income, capital, economic growth rate, the rate of return on capital are abstract concepts and are theoretical constructs rather than mathematical certainties."

Matchfixing Analytics will be launched in April.

If you wish to avoid the avenue of apprehension or the doorway to disaster then consider a consultancy of anti-corruption.

© Football is Fixed 2006-2015

Follow us on Twitter @FootballisFixed  

The IFAB Four

"In effect, the English Premier League and the Scottish Premier League, via their respective control of the Football Association and the Scottish FA, are able to block all and any changes to the Laws of the Game with the support of just one other IFAB member." 

Yesterday, nicely buried away on a busy sporting Saturday, the International Football Association Board (IFAB) ruled out video technology in football until season 2018/19 at the earliest.
This is despite a very successful trial run by the Dutch FA (KNVB) at 24 Eredivisie matches last season and the support of Germany, the USA and certain elements at the FA in England.

The outcome simply means that we are guaranteed 3 and a half more years of rampant corruption without redress or regulation and we will argue that this decision is the death knell for the integrity (and success) of the game.
___________________________________________________________________________________

IFAB

IFAB is an anachronism. Composed of 4 members from the FA's of England, Scotland, the North of Ireland and Wales plus a further four individuals selected from the other 205 associations, the body behaves like an old City of London club. To discuss and decide upon proposed alterations to the Laws of the Game requires 75% agreement which, in effect, means that the United Kingdom controls the rules of global football.
Furthermore, since 2003, Angel Maria Villar Llona, the Spanish FIFA vice-President and Chairman of the Referees' Committee, has been involved in IFAB meetings. It is surely of relevance to the whole discussion that Javier Tebas, the Spanish La Liga president, believes that some bodies wish to hide the reality of matchfixing. Speaking last October, Tebas said: "... there are also some important institutions that want to hide the problem. Our integrity department in La Liga, for example, last weekend detected match-fixing activity in the third division. We detected the problem and communicated it to the responsible authority, but they chose to hide it, probably because they don't want to recognise that this problem exists, even in the lower division."

It is surely worthy of note that certain representatives (or a majority thereof) can block any change at any time to any private agenda.

Dutch Experiment and Institutional Response

The Dutch trial involved a video referee addressing match decisions at 24 top flight games in 2013/14. The results were hugely encouraging resulting in gross chameleon Sepp Blatter changing his mind to be in favour of video technology on the eve of the 2014 World Cup Finals.
A colleague in Holland has stated that the referral system could be implemented within 15 seconds and would have removed all controversy from the matches trialled. The match outcome was real.
Other sports also successfully implement video technology without the fabric of the competitive event being blown apart - tennis, rugby league, rugby union, horseracing, athletics, cricket etc.
So why not football?
Which members of IFAB voted against the proposal?
Who stands to lose and gain from the delay?

Well, this last question is a suitable starting point.
The entities that gain from lack of video technology are, in no particular order of merit - UEFA, FIFA, the Premier League, corrupt referees, corrupt bookmakers, insider gamblers, underground criminalised betting markets, global mafiosi groups, corrupt football agents, dodgy committee men...
... while the losers are the fans, the integrity of the game, those within the sport outside the corrupt inner loops and, interestingly, the broadcasters who overpay for tv rights (see below).

UEFA president, Michel Platini, performed a U-turn on video technology due to the European body utilising grey corruption via match officials to offset the criminalities of matchfixing operations targeting UEFA events, the power base of the allegedly disbanded G14 group, the successful marketing of tournament spectacles and the critical nature of television money.
The latter two points also apply to FIFA although the inaction at the global body is more closely linked to the interests of those involved in matchfixing.

The Specifics of the Integrity Issue in English Premier League

The Premier League (EPL) and Professional Game Match Officials Board (PGMOB) do not want video technology in English football. Furthermore, they do not support the elements of the FA that are calling for the implementation.The EPL have been undermining the role of the national association since inception and reached a nadir when buffoon Sir Dave Richards performed as Scudamore's rottweiler destabiliser at the FA.

PGMOB referees earn around two grand a week for officiating on matches that can have global betting turnover of £5bn. The core group of PGMOB comprises just 15 individuals who officiate at nearly 95% of EPL matches (including all the high betting volume tv events) and are frequently present as 4th officials at other games. This structure is primed for corruption.
Additionally, one individual who hides in the shadows selects referees for all EPL games. One man!

Former leading refs Graham Poll and Keith Hackett have lacerated the current standard of PGMOB refs with the latter wanting Mike Riley removed from leadership of body and 5 officials stood down.
Hackett stated: "If [a manager] is at the bottom of the league then his job is at risk. At this moment in time he [Riley] is more than bottom. I am seeing a regression. The performances of the referees are not acceptable. He must carry the responsibility."

And the reaction to criticism of referees is Stalinist. Most managers (with honourable exceptions of Jose Mourinho and Steve Bruce) have learnt that it is preferable not to articulate concerns over refereeing integrity as the body politic merely dumps more negative controversy on managers who step out of the Stalin line.
Chelsea would have won the EPL last season if it had not been for the ludicrous spectacles at Villa Park and at home to Sunderland. The abuses have continued on into 2014/15 with even the most anti-Mourinho clone perceiving the injustices perpetrated against the London team.

The Stalinism continues with media silence, no interviews, hush money paid at end of referee's careers, no public ratings from internal assessments and generally no punishment for miscreants.
Additionally, since the beginning of season 2013/14, all match officials have been miked up to a secretive network which we will term the EPL Match Centre. All kick offs are coincident and referees are aided (or abetted) by other officials with access to tv replays. This results in numerous match decisions being delayed while a decision is made.

Three points.
Firstly, this is illegal under the Laws of the Game.
Secondly, to what template are the decisions being made if made under such secrecy?
Thirdly, the outcome is disastrous for the brand. The EPL is descending into fraudulent farce.

In a desperate attempt to keep fans on message, the mainstream media entirely ignores matchfixing in England despite journalists getting some of their leaks/stories from individuals who are orchestrating the matchfixing.
The tv pundits are worse!
Lee Dixon, Mark Lawrensen and Robbie Savage work for bookmakers, Danny Murphy is close to a matchfixing agent, Michael Owen used to be bookie for the England team (linked to Goldchip private bookmakers), Steve McManaman was a business associate of money laundering fraudster Carson Yeung and David James is, well, David James.

Impact of IFAB Decision on EPL Broadcasting Deals

The EPL tv deal for 2016/19 realised £5.1bn for British rights but as lawyer Daniel Geey points out the global broadcasting rights could be worth another £8bn.

These figures represent a financial market bubble - Sky is paying £11m per match in this window.
The price is being ratcheted up via the antisocial auction strategies of Sky Sports and BT Sports as they outbid one another to mutual oblivion. The inevitable increase in subscription prices will undermine the business model - in a 4 week window in January, BT Sport offered just one EPL game (Hull v Newcastle). This is absolutely not value for money particularly in a time of austerity.

Bubbles are dangerous when they form in an instant - so Manchester United received less (£60.8m) for winning EPL in 2012/13 than Cardiff City got for being relegated the following season (£62.1m).
Bubbles are even more dangerous when future rights' issues are being bid on the back of an already inflated bubble - a double bubble means double trouble.

As the performance of EPL teams in Champions League and Europa League shows, the bloated brand is bigger than the fundamental value by some marked distance.

Furthermore, the matchfixing in the EPL is the elephant in the room. When we speak to managers, chief execs, agents, administrators, the discussion always centres around matchfixing. The reality is bound to break at some point and then the value of the brand plummets as the IPL cricket monstrosity discovered.
And this is before one even considers the impact of the eventual European Super League for the G14+.

Conclusion

Who voted against video technology at IFAB meeting?
Why?

An interesting impact of the Dutch experiment last season was that the volatility of outcome would have diminished markedly if the video ref had been able to overrule the match referee. Think about that. The price set by the global marketplace on a game is more accurate once integrity is reintroduced via taking power away from the referee. We are preparing a research paper on this point as it is significant.

Meanwhile Jérôme Valcke, FIFA's secretary general, blurts "Is there a risk the referee will not be as strong as he is today?"

You know what, mate, nobody cares about a referee's sense of personal power.
What we demand is integrity in the sport we love.

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