Dark days for men in black
MIKE J WILSON
WITH the World Cup less than three weeks away, the last year has been an annus horribilis for football's men in black. First, FIFA-accredited Brazilian referee Edison Pereora de Carvalho admitted taking between £2,400 and £3,600 a time for attempting to fix matches on behalf of gamblers placing bets of up to £48,000 on illegal internet sites, while, in Germany, the integrity of the World Cup was rocked by the trial and subsequent conviction of German referee Robert Hoyzer, who was banned for life and jailed for 29 months after admitting match-fixing allegations involving Croatian betting syndicates.
With the two countries in the last World Cup final favourites to contend this next one, having their officials caught in the honey trap has tainted both, while a scandal in the next host country, South Africa, saw 33 people - including 19 referees and an official of the South African Football Association - arrested on match-fixing charges.
Others at the German showpiece whose associations are grappling with match- fixing controversy include Poland, Argentina, Portugal and the Ukraine, with Italian football now blown asunder with recent revelations concerning back-to-back Serie A champions Juventus.
Indeed, there are only two of the eight World Cup groups that do not have at least one country with "form", while football's roll of dishonour extends to two-dozen additional nations not in Germany, with Greece, Belgium and even Ireland implicated.
Then, in February this year, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) awarded the African Cup of Nations final between Egypt and Ivory Coast to the controversial 43-year-old Tunisian Mourad Daami, a man banned for a year in 2000 for trying to influence the decision of another referee at the 2000 African Champions' League final.
Even that seemingly scrupulous man in black, Italian icon Pierluigi Collina, was forced into early retirement, his endorsement deal with General Motors causing a conflict of interest with top Italian club AC Milan, whose owner, ex-Italian president Silvio Berlusconi, was first out of the blocks last week to claim the Serie A title Juventus could lose if found guilty by the official investigation.
Add to that the summary sacking of Norwegian assistant referee Ole Hermann Borgan after being photographed wearing a Barcelona shirt ahead of the Catalan club's Champions' League final last week, and the withdrawal of World Cup accreditation from Italian whistler Massimo De Santis in a move understood to be connected to the mounting Juventus scandal, and FIFA has shown its officials a yellow card.
Last September, FIFA set up a new task force to tackle the big issues faced by football today, including corruption and betting; reporting directly to the FIFA executive committee, that august group has already met and reported, among the names on its betting sub-committee, FA Premier League chief executive Peter Scudamore and the aforementioned Brazilian referee Edison Pereira de Carvalho.
A FIFA spokesman explained away the Brazilian's presence as "a mistake", and, among 11 key recommendations, made the requirement for all players and officials taking part in the World Cup to sign an affidavit undertaking not to place bets on the tournament, as well as "preventative measures [early warning system], disciplinary activities for players officials and clubs [and] encouragement for potential witnesses".
FIFA's controversial president, Sepp Blatter, who hardly gave World Cup whistlers confidence in their working environment next month when he openly criticised Champions League man-in-the-middle Norwegian Terje Hauge, is equally ambiguous when it comes to corruption and betting.
"Match-fixing isn't new," he said recently, trumpeting: "We cleared up a case of corruption in south-east Asia."
Having previously ruled out any role in FIFA's burgeoning sponsorship portfolio for bookmaking companies - he had said: "Before the last World Cup, the FIFA executive committee resolved not to enter sponsorship agreements with betting companies" - Blatter sought to justify the appointment of German state-owned outfit ODDSET as a World Cup sponsor, commenting: "We had many offers from English private companies. If the German organising committee takes on a state-run operation as a supplier to the World Cup I don't see it as inconsistent."
FIFA's foot-in-mouth chief also admitted: "You can't prevent gambling, and you can't stop players or referees betting via third parties. I like a bet occasionally, but if I don't have time to buy a ticket I send my assistant. You should only introduce bans you can realistically enforce, and that's not possible with a gambling ban. You can't ban betting."
Former Scottish referee Willie Young, 15 and nine years respectively on the Scottish and FIFA lists, who officiated at 71 matches in 27 different countries around the world, says: "In all my time, I never sensed even the most indirect approach to corrupt me, and I firmly believe that Scottish, English and indeed northern European referees generally are at the leading edge of integrity."
Young accepts that recent months' headlines from Brazil, Germany and Italy will have undermined confidence in referees, but says: "There is no particular thread to these incidents, some of which have been the result of inexperience and/or naivety, but there is no doubt that the vast amount of money in the modern game significantly raises pressure on match officials."
With regard to the forthcoming World Cup, Young, one of a long tradition of Scottish solicitors who have taken their sense of justice into the beautiful game, says: "FIFA politics results in less experienced referees from all confederations being placed in the World Cup cauldron, resulting in some of the most experienced and competent UEFA officials missing out, but, especially in light of the German and Brazilian scandals, FIFA simply can't afford any problems this summer.
"FIFA will have gone to extraordinary lengths in selecting the World Cup officials, including, no doubt, detailed background checks and I believe we can be as assured as it is possible to be that the integrity of referees and refereeing will be upheld," he says. But he adds: "Although the use of three-man refereeing teams for the first time will raise the standard of officiating in Germany, one could also argue that it might increase the prospect of something untoward happening."
Betting and football have never been comfortable bedfellows, with scandals dating even further back than the 1964 Sheffield Wednesday scandal, but the big differences today are the global nature of internet betting and the emergence of the betting exchanges with the opportunity to lay odds to lose.
Russ Phillips, of the Association of British Bookmakers, says: "Historically, bookmakers have laid bets and invited punters to back to win, but the betting exchanges have changed the betting landscape with far-reaching consequences for integrity. Now anyone can go onto a betting exchange and 'lay to lose'. So, anyone with inside information or an ability to influence an outcome can lay on an exchange in the sure knowledge that they will scoop up the stakes from backing punters who are not in on the secret. The opportunity this presents to cheats is very real."
Phillips adds: "Bookmakers have worked closely with football authorities to share information about cheating and we will continue to work closely with them during the World Cup."
Campaigning journalist David Conn has spent much of his professional life trying to get under the notoriously thick skin of football, his books, The Football Business: Fair Game in the 90s and The Beautiful Game? Searching for the Soul of Football, posing some of the most prickly questions in the world. He says: "We have heard this season from Sven Goran-Eriksson and Mike Newell, the Luton Town manager, that corruption in football is rife, but corruption is not isolated to football and like all corrupt practices, it is notoriously difficult to police."
Conn says: "There is some documentary evidence and endless anecdotal stories pointing to football being systemically corrupt, in Italy, in France, in Germany, in South America, and, if we are being honest, here in England, but the governing bodies usually want to maintain the priceless status quo rather than clean their stables out, which is a mucky, difficult job."
He adds: "Officials, agents, second and third-tier players, even journalists are all potentially corruptible, especially when some of football's stardust is sprinkled on them, whilst shady betting syndicates can make huge amounts of money from fixing matches, so I believe it is probably going on and going on big time, but then so too is corruption in the financial services sector, the construction industry, even politics, and what is needed is for governments to start regulating football with the same intensity as they do other industries."
Conn draws an interesting parallel with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) observing: "The IOC responded to international criticism and clearly a new regime has tried to establish better, more transparent governance. FIFA has made some reforms, but there is a long way to go yet if they are to make good on Sepp Blatter's promise to clean up football."
Former German star and World Cup winner Karl-Heinz Rummenigge was quoted as saying recently in Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport that FIFA ought to reopen the case of the 2002 World Cup match between South Korea and Italy, in view of some bizarre decisions made by Ecuadorian referee Byron Moreno in South Korea's 2-1 victory.
"It's all very easy with hindsight," was Blatter's view, but sports betting expert Derek McGovern says: "Some serious questions still need to be asked about that, but given recent happenings, this year's World Cup could well be subject to some questionable betting activity.
"Referees have been targeted in Italy, Germany and Brazil to name but a few countries, and I categorically state that if it hasn't already happened in England, I'd offer odds of 1/10 of it happening in the next five years. We've had the warnings of floodlight failures, the possible poisoning of the Spurs team at the end of the season, and how much easier to target an official, maybe one with money problems or a skeleton in his cupboard."
But Rupert Adams of bookmakers William Hill isn't so sure, saying: "The World Cup is where legends are born, heroes are created and no player in Germany this summer is likely to be tempted in what is such a high-profile tournament."
He explains: "That said, with an additional turnover at William Hill of £100m and industry-wide the first £1bn World Cup betting spend, there is a lot at stake and we will, with our colleagues and the ABB, be monitoring things closely and putting our action plan into effect should anything untoward arise."
Adams added: "The biggest exposure we have at present at William Hill is a bet of £5,000 on USA to win the World Cup at 100/1 with the biggest single bet so far £65,000 on England to win at 6/1."
So, if you think you know the winner of the XVIII World Cup in Germany, don't put your shirt, or your house on it.
This article: http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com...m?id=753832006
Last updated: 20-May-06 00:50 BST
MIKE J WILSON
WITH the World Cup less than three weeks away, the last year has been an annus horribilis for football's men in black. First, FIFA-accredited Brazilian referee Edison Pereora de Carvalho admitted taking between £2,400 and £3,600 a time for attempting to fix matches on behalf of gamblers placing bets of up to £48,000 on illegal internet sites, while, in Germany, the integrity of the World Cup was rocked by the trial and subsequent conviction of German referee Robert Hoyzer, who was banned for life and jailed for 29 months after admitting match-fixing allegations involving Croatian betting syndicates.
With the two countries in the last World Cup final favourites to contend this next one, having their officials caught in the honey trap has tainted both, while a scandal in the next host country, South Africa, saw 33 people - including 19 referees and an official of the South African Football Association - arrested on match-fixing charges.
Others at the German showpiece whose associations are grappling with match- fixing controversy include Poland, Argentina, Portugal and the Ukraine, with Italian football now blown asunder with recent revelations concerning back-to-back Serie A champions Juventus.
Indeed, there are only two of the eight World Cup groups that do not have at least one country with "form", while football's roll of dishonour extends to two-dozen additional nations not in Germany, with Greece, Belgium and even Ireland implicated.
Then, in February this year, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) awarded the African Cup of Nations final between Egypt and Ivory Coast to the controversial 43-year-old Tunisian Mourad Daami, a man banned for a year in 2000 for trying to influence the decision of another referee at the 2000 African Champions' League final.
Even that seemingly scrupulous man in black, Italian icon Pierluigi Collina, was forced into early retirement, his endorsement deal with General Motors causing a conflict of interest with top Italian club AC Milan, whose owner, ex-Italian president Silvio Berlusconi, was first out of the blocks last week to claim the Serie A title Juventus could lose if found guilty by the official investigation.
Add to that the summary sacking of Norwegian assistant referee Ole Hermann Borgan after being photographed wearing a Barcelona shirt ahead of the Catalan club's Champions' League final last week, and the withdrawal of World Cup accreditation from Italian whistler Massimo De Santis in a move understood to be connected to the mounting Juventus scandal, and FIFA has shown its officials a yellow card.
Last September, FIFA set up a new task force to tackle the big issues faced by football today, including corruption and betting; reporting directly to the FIFA executive committee, that august group has already met and reported, among the names on its betting sub-committee, FA Premier League chief executive Peter Scudamore and the aforementioned Brazilian referee Edison Pereira de Carvalho.
A FIFA spokesman explained away the Brazilian's presence as "a mistake", and, among 11 key recommendations, made the requirement for all players and officials taking part in the World Cup to sign an affidavit undertaking not to place bets on the tournament, as well as "preventative measures [early warning system], disciplinary activities for players officials and clubs [and] encouragement for potential witnesses".
FIFA's controversial president, Sepp Blatter, who hardly gave World Cup whistlers confidence in their working environment next month when he openly criticised Champions League man-in-the-middle Norwegian Terje Hauge, is equally ambiguous when it comes to corruption and betting.
"Match-fixing isn't new," he said recently, trumpeting: "We cleared up a case of corruption in south-east Asia."
Having previously ruled out any role in FIFA's burgeoning sponsorship portfolio for bookmaking companies - he had said: "Before the last World Cup, the FIFA executive committee resolved not to enter sponsorship agreements with betting companies" - Blatter sought to justify the appointment of German state-owned outfit ODDSET as a World Cup sponsor, commenting: "We had many offers from English private companies. If the German organising committee takes on a state-run operation as a supplier to the World Cup I don't see it as inconsistent."
FIFA's foot-in-mouth chief also admitted: "You can't prevent gambling, and you can't stop players or referees betting via third parties. I like a bet occasionally, but if I don't have time to buy a ticket I send my assistant. You should only introduce bans you can realistically enforce, and that's not possible with a gambling ban. You can't ban betting."
Former Scottish referee Willie Young, 15 and nine years respectively on the Scottish and FIFA lists, who officiated at 71 matches in 27 different countries around the world, says: "In all my time, I never sensed even the most indirect approach to corrupt me, and I firmly believe that Scottish, English and indeed northern European referees generally are at the leading edge of integrity."
Young accepts that recent months' headlines from Brazil, Germany and Italy will have undermined confidence in referees, but says: "There is no particular thread to these incidents, some of which have been the result of inexperience and/or naivety, but there is no doubt that the vast amount of money in the modern game significantly raises pressure on match officials."
With regard to the forthcoming World Cup, Young, one of a long tradition of Scottish solicitors who have taken their sense of justice into the beautiful game, says: "FIFA politics results in less experienced referees from all confederations being placed in the World Cup cauldron, resulting in some of the most experienced and competent UEFA officials missing out, but, especially in light of the German and Brazilian scandals, FIFA simply can't afford any problems this summer.
"FIFA will have gone to extraordinary lengths in selecting the World Cup officials, including, no doubt, detailed background checks and I believe we can be as assured as it is possible to be that the integrity of referees and refereeing will be upheld," he says. But he adds: "Although the use of three-man refereeing teams for the first time will raise the standard of officiating in Germany, one could also argue that it might increase the prospect of something untoward happening."
Betting and football have never been comfortable bedfellows, with scandals dating even further back than the 1964 Sheffield Wednesday scandal, but the big differences today are the global nature of internet betting and the emergence of the betting exchanges with the opportunity to lay odds to lose.
Russ Phillips, of the Association of British Bookmakers, says: "Historically, bookmakers have laid bets and invited punters to back to win, but the betting exchanges have changed the betting landscape with far-reaching consequences for integrity. Now anyone can go onto a betting exchange and 'lay to lose'. So, anyone with inside information or an ability to influence an outcome can lay on an exchange in the sure knowledge that they will scoop up the stakes from backing punters who are not in on the secret. The opportunity this presents to cheats is very real."
Phillips adds: "Bookmakers have worked closely with football authorities to share information about cheating and we will continue to work closely with them during the World Cup."
Campaigning journalist David Conn has spent much of his professional life trying to get under the notoriously thick skin of football, his books, The Football Business: Fair Game in the 90s and The Beautiful Game? Searching for the Soul of Football, posing some of the most prickly questions in the world. He says: "We have heard this season from Sven Goran-Eriksson and Mike Newell, the Luton Town manager, that corruption in football is rife, but corruption is not isolated to football and like all corrupt practices, it is notoriously difficult to police."
Conn says: "There is some documentary evidence and endless anecdotal stories pointing to football being systemically corrupt, in Italy, in France, in Germany, in South America, and, if we are being honest, here in England, but the governing bodies usually want to maintain the priceless status quo rather than clean their stables out, which is a mucky, difficult job."
He adds: "Officials, agents, second and third-tier players, even journalists are all potentially corruptible, especially when some of football's stardust is sprinkled on them, whilst shady betting syndicates can make huge amounts of money from fixing matches, so I believe it is probably going on and going on big time, but then so too is corruption in the financial services sector, the construction industry, even politics, and what is needed is for governments to start regulating football with the same intensity as they do other industries."
Conn draws an interesting parallel with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) observing: "The IOC responded to international criticism and clearly a new regime has tried to establish better, more transparent governance. FIFA has made some reforms, but there is a long way to go yet if they are to make good on Sepp Blatter's promise to clean up football."
Former German star and World Cup winner Karl-Heinz Rummenigge was quoted as saying recently in Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport that FIFA ought to reopen the case of the 2002 World Cup match between South Korea and Italy, in view of some bizarre decisions made by Ecuadorian referee Byron Moreno in South Korea's 2-1 victory.
"It's all very easy with hindsight," was Blatter's view, but sports betting expert Derek McGovern says: "Some serious questions still need to be asked about that, but given recent happenings, this year's World Cup could well be subject to some questionable betting activity.
"Referees have been targeted in Italy, Germany and Brazil to name but a few countries, and I categorically state that if it hasn't already happened in England, I'd offer odds of 1/10 of it happening in the next five years. We've had the warnings of floodlight failures, the possible poisoning of the Spurs team at the end of the season, and how much easier to target an official, maybe one with money problems or a skeleton in his cupboard."
But Rupert Adams of bookmakers William Hill isn't so sure, saying: "The World Cup is where legends are born, heroes are created and no player in Germany this summer is likely to be tempted in what is such a high-profile tournament."
He explains: "That said, with an additional turnover at William Hill of £100m and industry-wide the first £1bn World Cup betting spend, there is a lot at stake and we will, with our colleagues and the ABB, be monitoring things closely and putting our action plan into effect should anything untoward arise."
Adams added: "The biggest exposure we have at present at William Hill is a bet of £5,000 on USA to win the World Cup at 100/1 with the biggest single bet so far £65,000 on England to win at 6/1."
So, if you think you know the winner of the XVIII World Cup in Germany, don't put your shirt, or your house on it.
This article: http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com...m?id=753832006
Last updated: 20-May-06 00:50 BST