It’s a story that’s never far away from the headlines, but recently the question of football match-fixing in terms of irregular betting activities has been hauled back into the spotlight and the public’s conscience again.
As revelations on a series of organised game-rigging scams involving English league professional footballers allegedly put into practice last year has surfaced, the good name of a game that’s more often than not struggled with its perceived image faces being dragged down a familiar road once more, despite the best efforts of ongoing clean-up campaigns instigated by the football’s governing bodies and individual clubs.
At the heart of the most recent claims revealed last week by a leading broadsheet - who apparently were tipped off by game insiders - is the seemingly innocuous looking 3rd May fixture on the last day of the 2007/08 season, played out between Accrington Stanley and Bury. According to sources, in the days leading up to the League Two encounter, CCTV evidence for the prosecution is said to depict six players wagering substantial sums of money in local betting shops on this specific game; with the accused Accrington Stanley players in the dock ‘predicting’ that their own team would be defeated by Bury. Accrington Stanley ran out eventual 2 - 0 losers on the day.
As is the existing law governing the modern game, no player is permitted to bet on a match in which they or their team are involved or can influence in any way.
In the belief that the traditional means of placing a bet via an exchange of cash in a high street betting establishment is more anonymous than using either alternative of the telephone betting service or arranging of online betting accounts, the defendants thought their unscrupulous methods of effectively throwing a game would pay dividends in the long run, whilst unbeknownst to them their actions were being closely monitored by security equipment in the premises as routine procedure.
The Football Association have since successfully brought charges against those suspected - although the charges have not hitherto stuck on grounds of difficulties actually proving the offence - who in five of the six cases placed bets totalling 4,000 pounds prior to the game; however the betting industry have reason to believe that bets of around 800,000 GBP were taken on that particular, otherwise unremarkable league match, essentially around 10 times the usual amount wagered on such an habitual event.
Stella Stevens is journalist in the Betting industry. Visit Free Betting Online for more.
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