Although the Indian team did not taste too
much success in 2010, off the field, the year witnessed several key
developments which have the potential to change things for the
better.
The national team ended the year on an apprehensive note, as it
reels due to a series of defeats in international friendlies in the
run up to the 2011 Asian Cup - its first world level tournament in
24 years.
Any hopes Indian coach Bob Houghton may have entertained of
leading his band of courageous boys into the second round of the
Asian showpiece event came crashing down to earth as the men in blue
were drawn in a tough group alongside continental powerhouses South
Korea, Australia and Bahrain.
While the Koreans have the record of being the Asian nation with
highest number of qualifications for the World Cup, having played in
seven consecutive World Cup finals from 1986, making a total of
eight World Cup finals in all, the Australians have also qualified
for the World Cup twice (in 2006 and 2010). Bahrain on the other
hand, narrowly missed out on qualification for the 2010 World Cup,
losing out to New Zealand in the play-offs.
With a view to give the national team the best possible
preparation, Houghton took his boys for an exposure trip to Portugal
where the players got opportunities to train in world class
facilities and play against the second and third division clubs in
the Iberian country. This was the third time over the past four
years that Houghton and his boys travelled to Portugal.
For the first time in recent years, the Indian team played
friendly matches against higher ranked Asian teams like Iraq, Saudi
Arabia and Thailand.
However, the results on the field were not too encouraging. The
team registered mixed performance overall in their Portugal sojurn,
but it were the big defeats against high quality international
opposition that were most disappointing.
Before embarking on their final preparatory camp in Dubai in the
first week of November, the national team played a several
international friendlies with mixed results. They played well
against a strong Thailand side, going down 0-1 in Bangkok and 1-2 at
home at the Ambedkar Stadium in New Delhi. Although India narrowly
missed out on a win both games, the Thais were undoubtedly
technically superior.
The south-east Asians played nice, passing football that was quite
easy on the eye. The Indians, on the other hand, preferred the
British long ball tactic, firing in hopeful crosses into the box.
The Indians won against Namibia (2-0) and Vietnam (3-1) but it
was clear that they needed to vastly improve their game if they
wanted to give even a semblance of a fight to their Asian Cup
rivals.
Star goalkeeper Subroto Paul was one of the bright spots,
emerging as the savior of the team on many occasions. Central
defender Gourmangi Singh was like rock in the defence but his
partner Anwar seemed unfit and showed a distinct lack of speed in
most of the games. Right back Surkumar Singh was good in patches
and failed to go forward as much as he should have in the matches
against Thailand.
In the midfield, Mehrajuddin, Climax Lawrence and Anthony Pereira
played well with the Kashmiri proving to be a dangerous customer due
to his power-packed attempts from long range.
But the forwards have shown a worrying lack of finishing skills,
with veteran striker and skipper Bhaichung Bhutia the most potent
threat in their ranks. Sunil Chhetri, Mohammed Rafi and Abhishek
Yadav have struggled in front of the goal. Chhetri, despite his
hattrick against Vietnam, has seemed distinctly off-colour while
Yadav has not been impressive with his aerial ability inspite of his
impressive height.
After reaching Dubai, the Indians were made painfully aware of
the vast gulf in standards when they suffered a series of reverses
against West Asian opponents.
They started off well enough, battling to a 0-2 loss in their
match against Saudi Arabia. But then they were humiliated 1-9 by
Kuwait and were thrashed 0-5 by UAE.
The series of poor performances have attracted a lot of criticism
from several quarters and several former Indian team coaches and
players have even asserted that Houghton's track record after taking
over the national squad has been no better than previous incumbents.
The 63-year-old Englishman is expected to resign if the national
team fails to impress in Doha. However, given the tough group,
taking even a single point will surely be seen as a successful
campaign.
Injuries to key players have played havoc with the team's chances
as Anthony Pereira, Arindam Bhattacharya and Samir Naik were left
out of the Asian Cup squad due to injury. Bhutia is also nursing a
calf injury and faces a race against time in his bid to return to
fitness before the event starts on January 7.
The ever increasing casualty list is being seen as one of the
reasons behind the untimely resignation of Pradip Chowdhary as the
team manager after a spat with Houghton. With the players fully
backing their coach and refusing to accept the return of Chowdhary,
Raul Carmo Fernandes was appointed as the manager for Doha 2011.
Fernandes has been working with the national team on various
operational fronts for the last couple of years and more
specifically in the last two months during the camp in Dubai
The spirited displays of the Indian U-23 team at the Asian Games
also deserve a special mention. The young guns impressive in their
Asian Games campaign as they qualified for the knock out stage from
a tough group which contained defending champions Qatar, Kuwait and
Hong Kong.
The way this young team fought tooth and nail against Kuwait in
their opening encounter, speaks a lot about their potential. A
defensive lapse and a goalkeeping error had cost the match for
India, but the performance of the organised Indian midfield prompted
even the rival coach to shower praise on them.
In the second match against Qatar, the Indian boys' inexperience
was clearly evident, as despite leading till the 82th minute, they
conceded a couple of goals in last 10 minutes to eventually go down
1-2.
In the do or die encounter against Singapore in the third and
last group league match, the boys in blue produced a scintillating
performance and whipped their hapless rivals 4-1 to ensure a berth
in the knock-out stage as one of the four best 3rd-placed teams. The
young Indians did well to reach the knock-out stages of the Asian
Games after a gap of 28 years.
But the Indian campaign came to an end when they were
comprehensively outplayed by Japan in the pre-quarterfinals. Japan
proved to be a team from a different universe altogether, as they
thrashed the Indian colts by a 5-0 margin. The match also brought
into sharp focus Indian players' lack of technical expertise and
experience.
The performance of the Indian youngsters showed that Indian
football's future is in bright hands. The fighting spirit showed by
the youngsters - trait they share with the senior Indians team - is
a great attribute and if they are groomed properly, Indian football
can reach greater heights.
The talent of Indian footballers were recognised overseas as
several players were called-up by foreign clubs for selection
trials. Chettri managed to realise his American dream as he was
signed up by Major League Soccer (MLS) franchise Kansas City
Wizards. But the diminutive striker has struggled to make the first
XI.
Subroto Paul and Gourmangi were also called up trial with foreign
clubs. Paul went for trials to newly promoted MLS team Vancouver
Whitecaps FC while Gourmangi had a two-week trial with top A-League
club Melbourne FC in Australia. However, both of them failed to
clinch a contract.
Off the field, there have been many positives for Indian
football, chief among which is the deal between the All India
Football Federation (AIFF) and IMG-Reliance which will see a
whopping Rs 700 crore being invested in the game over the next 15
years.
The agreement, the most lucrative deal in Indian sports
after the one between BCCI and Nimbus, has handed IMG Reliance
all commercial rights to football in the country, including
sponsorship, advertising, broadcasting, merchandising, film,
video and data, intellectual property, franchising and new
league rights.
IMG Reliance will also look after the branding and marketing
aspects related to the Indian team, domestic competitions and
participating teams.
They will also deal with scheduling, restructuring and
reformatting of domestic competitions apart from developing,
operating and administering a new professional football league
in the country.
Another bit of good news was that the AIFF managed to rope in a
sponsor for the Indian team jersey. Thanks to the three-year deal
which stated that India have to play at least six international
matches in a year, Bob Houghton's boys, as part of their
preparations for next month's Asian Cup, got opportunities to play
against some of the higher ranked teams in Asia.
The year also witnessed a change in guard at the helm of the
federation as Kushal Das succeeded Alberto Colaco as AIFF general
secretary. His appointment raised expectations and rekindled hope of
a better future of the game in the country.
Das, a former chief financial officer with International
Management Group (IMG) and the International Cricket Council
(ICC), is expected to bring in more professionalism into the
functioning of the AIFF.
In keeping with Houghton's vision of grooming youngsters for the
future, the federation also formed a I-League team of its own named
AIFF XI, a squad made up of U-19 footballers with the aim of testing
these youngsters and groom them for top international tournaments by
exposing them to the rigours of 26-match home and away league and
club them against some of the top sides in the country.
These boys will spearhead India's campaign at the qualifying
tournaments for the 2016 Olympics and the 2018 World Cup.
India which once ruled Asian football, has been in the doldrums
for the last couple of decades. It will take more than a mild push
to wake the 'sleeping giant of world football' as FIFA president
Sepp Blatter himself described it.
The Indian football scenario may not be too bright right now, but
at least it is taking steps in the right direction which will
hopefully reap rich dividends in the future.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Monday, November 29, 2010
Barca conjure up rout of Real
Barcelona conjured up a magical performance that rolled back the
years to Johan Cruyff's "Dream Team" of the 1990s to crush
arch-rivals Real Madrid 5-0 and move two points clear at the top
of La Liga on Monday.
In a festival atmosphere at their rain-lashed Nou Camp
stadium, the Barca players entertained their ecstatic fans with
a breathtaking display of free-flowing football that left Real's
array of expensive talent chasing the ball for long periods.
Watched by millions around the world, it was the Catalan
club's most emphatic victory in Spain's "Clasico" since Cruyff's
all-conquering side, featuring current coach Pep Guardiola,
thrashed Real 5-0 in the 1993-94 season.
It also put a severe dent in Real's resurgence under new
coach Jose Mourinho, a former assistant at Barca who had led his
side into the match undefeated in all competitions.
Xavi and Pedro struck early to put Barca 2-0 up before David
Villa scored in the 55th and 58th minutes to raise the noise
levels to a deafening pitch.
Substitute Jeffren added a fifth in stoppage time and Real
defender Sergio Ramos was sent off for a badly-timed challenge
on Lionel Messi at the death.
Barca have 34 points from 13 of 38 matches, with Real on 32
and Villarreal in third on 27.
"Today Barca were far superior and enjoyed playing in its
own style," Spain striker Villa said in a television interview.
"Madrid did not feel at ease and did not know how to, or
could not I think, dominate the midfield which is the strength
of our team," he added.
"We are two points clear, very happy, but we have to
continue working as we are only in November and we need to carry
on winning."
SLICK SURFACE
The eagerly-anticipated clash between the world's two
richest clubs was seen as a first genuine test of Real's
resurgence under Portuguese Mourinho.
Featuring 13 players from Spain's World Cup-winning squad,
eight from Barca and five from Real, it also pitted Barca's
Argentina forward Messi against the man he succeeded as World
Player of the Year, Real's Cristiano Ronaldo.
The champions dominated from the start on a slick playing
surface that favoured their swift passing game, with Real
sitting back and looking to strike on the counter.
Messi curled a shot against the post in the sixth minute and
after the home side went ahead four minutes later they never
looked back.
Xavi was played in by Spain team mate Andres Iniesta and he
lifted the ball neatly over Iker Casillas from close range.
The Spain midfielder was dictating the play and was
instrumental in Barca's second in the 18th.
He sprayed the ball wide to Villa and Casillas could only
palm his cross into the path of Pedro who gleefully sidefooted
home.
Messi totally outshone Ronaldo and carved open the visitors'
defence for both of Villa's goals as well as coming close to
scoring several times in the second half.
Villa beat Casillas with a powerful angled shot for his
first in the 55th and sped clear to add his second three minutes
later, netting with the outside of his boot as his internatioal
team mate rushed off his line.
Real barely threatened the goal of Victor Valdes and after
Jeffren had made it five their dejected players trudged off to
leave the Barca fans celebrating a fifth-straight "Clasico" win.
Mourinho, hired from Inter Milan to end Barca's two-year
reign as Spanish champions, has now failed to win a match at the
Nou Camp in six attempts, including three defeats and two draws
with Chelsea and Inter.
"We weren't expecting it but there is a good deal of the
season left and nothing has been decided," Real midfielder Xabi
Alonso told reporters.
years to Johan Cruyff's "Dream Team" of the 1990s to crush
arch-rivals Real Madrid 5-0 and move two points clear at the top
of La Liga on Monday.
In a festival atmosphere at their rain-lashed Nou Camp
stadium, the Barca players entertained their ecstatic fans with
a breathtaking display of free-flowing football that left Real's
array of expensive talent chasing the ball for long periods.
Watched by millions around the world, it was the Catalan
club's most emphatic victory in Spain's "Clasico" since Cruyff's
all-conquering side, featuring current coach Pep Guardiola,
thrashed Real 5-0 in the 1993-94 season.
It also put a severe dent in Real's resurgence under new
coach Jose Mourinho, a former assistant at Barca who had led his
side into the match undefeated in all competitions.
Xavi and Pedro struck early to put Barca 2-0 up before David
Villa scored in the 55th and 58th minutes to raise the noise
levels to a deafening pitch.
Substitute Jeffren added a fifth in stoppage time and Real
defender Sergio Ramos was sent off for a badly-timed challenge
on Lionel Messi at the death.
Barca have 34 points from 13 of 38 matches, with Real on 32
and Villarreal in third on 27.
"Today Barca were far superior and enjoyed playing in its
own style," Spain striker Villa said in a television interview.
"Madrid did not feel at ease and did not know how to, or
could not I think, dominate the midfield which is the strength
of our team," he added.
"We are two points clear, very happy, but we have to
continue working as we are only in November and we need to carry
on winning."
SLICK SURFACE
The eagerly-anticipated clash between the world's two
richest clubs was seen as a first genuine test of Real's
resurgence under Portuguese Mourinho.
Featuring 13 players from Spain's World Cup-winning squad,
eight from Barca and five from Real, it also pitted Barca's
Argentina forward Messi against the man he succeeded as World
Player of the Year, Real's Cristiano Ronaldo.
The champions dominated from the start on a slick playing
surface that favoured their swift passing game, with Real
sitting back and looking to strike on the counter.
Messi curled a shot against the post in the sixth minute and
after the home side went ahead four minutes later they never
looked back.
Xavi was played in by Spain team mate Andres Iniesta and he
lifted the ball neatly over Iker Casillas from close range.
The Spain midfielder was dictating the play and was
instrumental in Barca's second in the 18th.
He sprayed the ball wide to Villa and Casillas could only
palm his cross into the path of Pedro who gleefully sidefooted
home.
Messi totally outshone Ronaldo and carved open the visitors'
defence for both of Villa's goals as well as coming close to
scoring several times in the second half.
Villa beat Casillas with a powerful angled shot for his
first in the 55th and sped clear to add his second three minutes
later, netting with the outside of his boot as his internatioal
team mate rushed off his line.
Real barely threatened the goal of Victor Valdes and after
Jeffren had made it five their dejected players trudged off to
leave the Barca fans celebrating a fifth-straight "Clasico" win.
Mourinho, hired from Inter Milan to end Barca's two-year
reign as Spanish champions, has now failed to win a match at the
Nou Camp in six attempts, including three defeats and two draws
with Chelsea and Inter.
"We weren't expecting it but there is a good deal of the
season left and nothing has been decided," Real midfielder Xabi
Alonso told reporters.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
From Jamaica to New Delhi, CWG sail in troubled waters
Seven seas were traversed in an equal
number of years -- yet the waters remained troubled and the road
to final destination strewn with impendiments aplenty.
Welcome to the 19th Commonwealth Games -- the biggest multi-sport
event to be staged in India since the Asian Games 28 years ago.
On the road to being scripted, history set off at the CGF General
Assembly in Montego Bay, Jamaica, seven years ago when New Delhi
ensnared the rights to play host to the Games in the year 2010.
Two principal bids for the CWG were - Delhi and Hamilton. And
when Delhi bid won by a margin of 46 votes to 22, India became the
third developing country to host the games after Malaysia and
Jamaica which caused whoops of delight for the Indians, the
second largest population of the world.
That was then. Cut to Circa 2010.
A waiting New Delhi, having grappled with obstacles galore
in the build-up to the mega event, has the red carpet in ready
to roll out when foreign delegates and players come calling in
a week or so.
The Games will feature 71 nations.
The 12-day games, to open on October 3, are already the
obscenely expensive in sports history, with an infrastructure and
organising budget of two billion dollars. The Commonwealth Games
are the third largest multi-sporting event after the Olympics and
Asian games.
The sports included in the tournament are aquatics,
archery, athletics, badminton, boxing, cycling, gymnastic, hockey,
lawn bowls, netball, rugby sevens, shooting, squash, table tennis,
tennis, weightlifting and wrestling.
The official mascot for the October mega sports spectacle is
Shera, the name derived from a Hindi word-sher which means tiger.
The mascot rightly represents the modern Indian, proud of his
nation's ancient heritage and a fierce competitor but with honesty.
On the contrary, the official song of the 2010 Commonwealth Games
''Jiyo utho badho jeeto'' is composed and performed by Indian
musician A R Rahman. The song's title is based on the slogan of the
games, ''Come out and play''.
The opening and closing ceremonies, athletics, lawn bowls, and
weightlifting will take place at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, which
will have a seating capacity of 75,000 spectators after renovation
for the games. Archery, cycling, gymnastics, and wrestling will take
place at the Indira Gandhi Arena, the largest indoor sports arena
in India and the second-largest in Asia, which has a seating
capacity of 25,000 people.
All eyes are riveted on India now, after China successfully
hosted the 2008 Olympics with the world anticipating a spectacular
and flawless event.
However, India's dream to host the Commonwealth Games, which was
viewed by the Indians as a perfect platform to display their rising
power both as sporting and economic nation, faces the risk of being
shattered after dark clouds of uncertainty hovered on it following
the concerns on preparedness of the showcase event were aired.
With only 15 days left before the start of the tournament,
many sports facilities are far from being complete. Meanwhile, the
roads and flyovers are also in the process of construction, which is
hampering the expectations of staging the games on time with
national pride running the risk of being shattered to smithereens.
Slow progress in the completion of stadia and facilities has forced
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to step in to save the country
blushes.
Commonwealth Games Federation chief Michael Fennell has also
slammed the Games village for Delhi 2010 for not having
up-to-the-mark hygiene and sanitation. Security and health concerns
have frightened some of the 7,000 competitors expected in the
national capital, while the absence of big name attractions such as
sprinter Usain Bolt has resulted in sluggish ticket sales.
Meanwhile, an anti-corruption unit has found a host of problems
with construction projects, including the use of poor-quality
materials, allegations of fake building safety certificates and
financial kickbacks. Several sponsors have also pulled back their
investments fearing that their spending would go in vain, sensing
the failure of the games which could harm their brand name as well.
The heavy monsoon downpours here have not helped either in the
last minute preparations of the games and with the weather office
predicting more rains in September, things could go worse for India.
The recent rainfalls have brought to the fore several chinks in
the armour of the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium and other venues.
The panacea for all ills plaguing the games was as elusive as a
chimera.
The recent rise of India has made the world reckon them as
potential superpower in future, but their poor management and
handling of the games have raised serious questions over their
credibility.
The organisers of this year's Commonwealth Games invited
criticism from every nook and cranny. Some dismissed the October
Games as nothing but the ''colossal waste'' of money for a country
like India.
Organising Committee (OC) chief Suresh Kalmadi came in for sharp
criticism from his own party leaders. They lobbed corruption
charges against him and his coterie.
His key aides got the sack by the OC following the Sports
Ministry intervention.
Media went hammer and tongs over the incompletion of work which
forced Delhi Chief Minister to go off news channels and stop
flipping through newspapers.
The lengthening shadow of security concern made the organisers
knit their eyebrows.
Only time will tell whether the media was justified in spewing
fire against Kalmadi, Mrs Dikshit and agencies involved in the
games-related projects or whether the OC chieftain made all the
right moves by splurging over them.
Now, not much time is left for the Games to commence as it is a
matter of just a fortnight when the entire world be witnessing the
sporting spectacle.
Who will have the last laugh? The month of October is still
pregnant with the inquisition -- after all it is a frantic race
against time.
number of years -- yet the waters remained troubled and the road
to final destination strewn with impendiments aplenty.
Welcome to the 19th Commonwealth Games -- the biggest multi-sport
event to be staged in India since the Asian Games 28 years ago.
On the road to being scripted, history set off at the CGF General
Assembly in Montego Bay, Jamaica, seven years ago when New Delhi
ensnared the rights to play host to the Games in the year 2010.
Two principal bids for the CWG were - Delhi and Hamilton. And
when Delhi bid won by a margin of 46 votes to 22, India became the
third developing country to host the games after Malaysia and
Jamaica which caused whoops of delight for the Indians, the
second largest population of the world.
That was then. Cut to Circa 2010.
A waiting New Delhi, having grappled with obstacles galore
in the build-up to the mega event, has the red carpet in ready
to roll out when foreign delegates and players come calling in
a week or so.
The Games will feature 71 nations.
The 12-day games, to open on October 3, are already the
obscenely expensive in sports history, with an infrastructure and
organising budget of two billion dollars. The Commonwealth Games
are the third largest multi-sporting event after the Olympics and
Asian games.
The sports included in the tournament are aquatics,
archery, athletics, badminton, boxing, cycling, gymnastic, hockey,
lawn bowls, netball, rugby sevens, shooting, squash, table tennis,
tennis, weightlifting and wrestling.
The official mascot for the October mega sports spectacle is
Shera, the name derived from a Hindi word-sher which means tiger.
The mascot rightly represents the modern Indian, proud of his
nation's ancient heritage and a fierce competitor but with honesty.
On the contrary, the official song of the 2010 Commonwealth Games
''Jiyo utho badho jeeto'' is composed and performed by Indian
musician A R Rahman. The song's title is based on the slogan of the
games, ''Come out and play''.
The opening and closing ceremonies, athletics, lawn bowls, and
weightlifting will take place at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, which
will have a seating capacity of 75,000 spectators after renovation
for the games. Archery, cycling, gymnastics, and wrestling will take
place at the Indira Gandhi Arena, the largest indoor sports arena
in India and the second-largest in Asia, which has a seating
capacity of 25,000 people.
All eyes are riveted on India now, after China successfully
hosted the 2008 Olympics with the world anticipating a spectacular
and flawless event.
However, India's dream to host the Commonwealth Games, which was
viewed by the Indians as a perfect platform to display their rising
power both as sporting and economic nation, faces the risk of being
shattered after dark clouds of uncertainty hovered on it following
the concerns on preparedness of the showcase event were aired.
With only 15 days left before the start of the tournament,
many sports facilities are far from being complete. Meanwhile, the
roads and flyovers are also in the process of construction, which is
hampering the expectations of staging the games on time with
national pride running the risk of being shattered to smithereens.
Slow progress in the completion of stadia and facilities has forced
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to step in to save the country
blushes.
Commonwealth Games Federation chief Michael Fennell has also
slammed the Games village for Delhi 2010 for not having
up-to-the-mark hygiene and sanitation. Security and health concerns
have frightened some of the 7,000 competitors expected in the
national capital, while the absence of big name attractions such as
sprinter Usain Bolt has resulted in sluggish ticket sales.
Meanwhile, an anti-corruption unit has found a host of problems
with construction projects, including the use of poor-quality
materials, allegations of fake building safety certificates and
financial kickbacks. Several sponsors have also pulled back their
investments fearing that their spending would go in vain, sensing
the failure of the games which could harm their brand name as well.
The heavy monsoon downpours here have not helped either in the
last minute preparations of the games and with the weather office
predicting more rains in September, things could go worse for India.
The recent rainfalls have brought to the fore several chinks in
the armour of the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium and other venues.
The panacea for all ills plaguing the games was as elusive as a
chimera.
The recent rise of India has made the world reckon them as
potential superpower in future, but their poor management and
handling of the games have raised serious questions over their
credibility.
The organisers of this year's Commonwealth Games invited
criticism from every nook and cranny. Some dismissed the October
Games as nothing but the ''colossal waste'' of money for a country
like India.
Organising Committee (OC) chief Suresh Kalmadi came in for sharp
criticism from his own party leaders. They lobbed corruption
charges against him and his coterie.
His key aides got the sack by the OC following the Sports
Ministry intervention.
Media went hammer and tongs over the incompletion of work which
forced Delhi Chief Minister to go off news channels and stop
flipping through newspapers.
The lengthening shadow of security concern made the organisers
knit their eyebrows.
Only time will tell whether the media was justified in spewing
fire against Kalmadi, Mrs Dikshit and agencies involved in the
games-related projects or whether the OC chieftain made all the
right moves by splurging over them.
Now, not much time is left for the Games to commence as it is a
matter of just a fortnight when the entire world be witnessing the
sporting spectacle.
Who will have the last laugh? The month of October is still
pregnant with the inquisition -- after all it is a frantic race
against time.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
knock knock..who's thr..
hi I am Commonwealth Games..
Hey am London,,you knockd wrong door...Delhi to host you..
CWG: i knw..bt am afraid whthr Delhi will able to host me "this year"..only few days left n the construction wrk at stadiums is stil gng,,and ya now health is also became an issue i mean dengue, flu,,n etc etc is thr..ohh yuk....plz you help me out...plzzz take my responsiblitty...
London: OMG but Delhi got the hosting rights seven years back...what the heck man..ok listen i dnt knw but you have to go Delhi only as they are waiting for you and paid so much for you...i hope you will survive thr...God bless you..
CWG: hey listn don't shut the door,,plz listn to me..shit whr should i go now..ok God watevr u say..fine m, going to Delhi..but listn god..u'l have to save me thr...ok ya relax relax let me calm down...
"Ohh yaro ye India bula liya...."
hi I am Commonwealth Games..
Hey am London,,you knockd wrong door...Delhi to host you..
CWG: i knw..bt am afraid whthr Delhi will able to host me "this year"..only few days left n the construction wrk at stadiums is stil gng,,and ya now health is also became an issue i mean dengue, flu,,n etc etc is thr..ohh yuk....plz you help me out...plzzz take my responsiblitty...
London: OMG but Delhi got the hosting rights seven years back...what the heck man..ok listen i dnt knw but you have to go Delhi only as they are waiting for you and paid so much for you...i hope you will survive thr...God bless you..
CWG: hey listn don't shut the door,,plz listn to me..shit whr should i go now..ok God watevr u say..fine m, going to Delhi..but listn god..u'l have to save me thr...ok ya relax relax let me calm down...
"Ohh yaro ye India bula liya...."
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Fixing consigns 'seeing is believing' dictum to trashbin
Seeing is believing, so they say. Not any longer.
Can what is seen on any sporting field be taken at face value?
Can the tide of alleged moneymaking on field be stemmed?
The questions merit early answers but find their roots way back
a century.
The history of match fixing in organised sports dates back
to as far back as the early 1900s as many matches across sevaral
sports ever since have been played to a completely or partially
pre-determined result, violating the rules of the game, and more
often than not the law.
Since gambling pre-dates recorded history, it comes as little
surprise that evidence of match fixing is found throughout the
recorded pages of history.
Some major match-fixing incidents which rocked the sporting
world were:
In 1919, gamblers bribed several members of the Major League
Baseball team Chicago White Sox to throw the World Series. This
became known as the Black Sox Scandal and was recounted in book
and movie form as 'Eight Men Out'.
On August 24, 1989, former baseball player Pete Rose voluntarily
accepted a permanent ban from Major League Baseball for allegedly
betting on Cincinnati Reds games while managing the team. Rose
would later confirm the truth of the allegations in his 2004
autobiography, 'My Prison Without Bars'.
In 1994, a comprehensive point shaving scheme organised by
campus bookmaker Benny Silman and involving players from the
Arizona State University men's basketball team was uncovered
with the assistance of Las Vegas bookmakers, who grew suspicious
over repeated large wagers being made against Arizona State.
In February 1999, a Malaysian-based betting syndicate was
caught attempting to install a remote-controlled device to sabotage
the floodlights at English Premier League team Charlton Athletic's
ground with the aid of a corrupt security officer. If the match
had been abandoned after half-time, then the result and bets
would have stood. Subsequent investigations showed that the gang
had been responsible for previously unsuspected ''floodlight
failures'' at West Ham's ground in November 1997, and again a month
later at Crystal Palace's ground during a home match of Palace's
groundsharing tenant Wimbledon.
In 2000, the Delhi police intercepted a conversation between
a blacklisted bookie and the South African cricket captain Hansie
Cronje in which they learnt that Cronje accepted money to throw
matches. The South African government refused to allow any of its
players to face the Indian investigation unit, which opened up
a can of worms. A court of inquiry was set up and Cronje admitted
to throwing matches. He was immediately banned from all cricket.
He also named Saleem Malik (Pakistan), Mohammed Azharuddin and
Ajay Jadeja (India). Jadeja was banned for four years. They too
were banned from all cricket. As a kingpin, Cronje exposed the
dark side of betting.
However, with his untimely death in 2002, most of his sources
also have escaped law enforcement agencies. Two South African
cricketers, Herschelle Gibbs and Nicky Boje, are also wanted by
the Delhi police for their role in the match fixing saga.
A few years earlier in 1998, Australian players Mark Waugh
and Shane Warne were fined for revealing information about the
'weather' to a bookmaker.
The Italian Football Federation said in October 2000 it had
found eight players guilty of match-fixing. Three were from Serie
A side Atalanta and the other five played for Serie B side
Pistoiese.
The players were Giacomo Banchelli, Cristiano Doni and Sebastiano
Siviglia (all Atalanta) and Alfredo Aglietti, Massimiliano Allegri,
Daniele Amerini, Gianluca Lillo and Girolamo Bizzarri (all
Pistoiese). The charges related to an Italian Cup first round tie
between the two sides in Bergamo on August 20, 2000 which ended 1-1.
Atalanta scored at the end of the first half and Pistoiese
equalised three minutes from full time. Atalanta qualified for
the second round. Snai, which organises betting on Italian football,
said later it had registered suspiciously heavy betting on the
result and many of the bets were for a 1-0 halftime score and
a fulltime score of 1-1.
In June 2004 in South Africa, 33 people, including 19 referees,
club officials, a match commissioner and an official of the South
African Football Association, were arrested on match-fixing charges.
In the summer of 2004, Betfair provided evidence of race fixing
to City of London Police that led to the arrest of jockey Kieren
Fallon and 15 others on race fixing charges. On 7 December 2007
the judge in the case ordered the jury to find Fallon not guilty
on all charges.
In January 2005, the German Football Association (DFB) and
German prosecutors launched separate probes into charges that
referee Robert Hoyzer bet on and fixed several matches that he
worked, including a German Cup tie.
Hoyzer later admitted to the allegations; it has been reported
that he was involved with Croat gambling syndicates. He also
implicated other referees and players in the match fixing scheme.
The first arrests in the Hoyzer investigation were made on January
28 in Berlin, and Hoyzer himself was arrested on February 12 after
new evidence apparently emerged to suggest that he had been involved
in fixing more matches than he had admitted to. Hoyzer has been
banned for life from football by the DFB.
On March 10, a second referee, Dominik Marks, was arrested
after being implicated in the scheme by Hoyzer. Still later
(March 24), it was reported that Hoyzer had told investigators
that the gambling ring he was involved with had access
to UEFA's referee assignments for international matches and
Champions League and UEFA Cup fixtures several days before UEFA
publicly announced them. Ultimately, Hoyzer was sentenced to serve
two years and five months in prison.
In July 2005, Italian Serie B champions Genoa was arbitrarily
placed last in the division, and therefore condemned to relegation
to Serie C1, after it was revealed that they bribed their opponents
in the final match of the season, Venezia to throw the match. Genoa
won the match 3-2 and had apparently secured promotion to Serie A.
Brazilian football match-fixing scandal: In September 2005, a
Brazilian magazine revealed that two football referees, Edílson
Pereira de Carvalho (a member of FIFA's referee staff) and Paulo
José Danelon, had accepted bribes to fix matches. Soon afterwards,
sport authorities ordered the replaying of 11 matches in the
country's top competition, the Campeonato Brasileiro, that had been
worked by Edílson. Both referees have been banned for life from
football and face possible criminal charges. Brazilian supporters
have taken to shout ''Edílson'' at a referee who they consider to
have made a bad call against their team, in a reference to the
scandal.
In May 2006, perhaps the largest match fixing scandal in the
history of Italian Serie A football was uncovered by Italian Police,
implicating league champions Juventus, and powerhouses AC Milan,
Fiorentina, and Lazio.
Teams were suspected of rigging games by selecting favorable
referees, and even superstar Italian World Cup team goalkeeper
Gianluigi Buffon was charged with betting on football games.
Initially, Juventus were stripped of their titles in 2004-05 and
2005-06, all four clubs were barred from European club competition
in 2006-07, and all except Milan were forcibly relegated to Serie
B.
After all four clubs appealed, only Juventus remained relegated
while Milan were allowed to enter the third qualifying round of
the Champions League (they went on to win the tournament.) The
stripping of Juventus' titles stood.
2008 The Fix: Book by Declan Hill alleges that in the 2006
World Cup, the group game between Ghana and Italy, the round-of-16
game between Ghana and Brazil, and the Italy-Ukraine quarter-final
were all fixed by Asian gambling syndicates to whom the final
scores were known in advance. The German Football Federation
(DFB) and German Football League (DFL) looked into claims made
in a Der Spiegel interview with Hill that two Bundesliga matches
were fixed by William Bee Wah Lim a fugitive with a 2004 conviction
for match-fixing.
In November last year, German police arrested 17 people on
suspicion of fixing at least 200 soccer matches in nine countries.
Among the suspected games were those from the top leagues of
Austria, Bosnia, Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia, and Turkey, and
games from the second highest leagues of Belgium, Germany, and
Switzerland. Three contests from the Champions League were also
under investigation, and 12 from the Europa League.
The fourth Test of Pakistan's summer 2010 cricket tour of
England was alleged to have contained several incidents of
spot fixing, involving members of the Pakistan team deliberately
bowling no-balls at pre-agreed points during the match in order
to facilitate the potential defrauding of bookmakers.
Can what is seen on any sporting field be taken at face value?
Can the tide of alleged moneymaking on field be stemmed?
The questions merit early answers but find their roots way back
a century.
The history of match fixing in organised sports dates back
to as far back as the early 1900s as many matches across sevaral
sports ever since have been played to a completely or partially
pre-determined result, violating the rules of the game, and more
often than not the law.
Since gambling pre-dates recorded history, it comes as little
surprise that evidence of match fixing is found throughout the
recorded pages of history.
Some major match-fixing incidents which rocked the sporting
world were:
In 1919, gamblers bribed several members of the Major League
Baseball team Chicago White Sox to throw the World Series. This
became known as the Black Sox Scandal and was recounted in book
and movie form as 'Eight Men Out'.
On August 24, 1989, former baseball player Pete Rose voluntarily
accepted a permanent ban from Major League Baseball for allegedly
betting on Cincinnati Reds games while managing the team. Rose
would later confirm the truth of the allegations in his 2004
autobiography, 'My Prison Without Bars'.
In 1994, a comprehensive point shaving scheme organised by
campus bookmaker Benny Silman and involving players from the
Arizona State University men's basketball team was uncovered
with the assistance of Las Vegas bookmakers, who grew suspicious
over repeated large wagers being made against Arizona State.
In February 1999, a Malaysian-based betting syndicate was
caught attempting to install a remote-controlled device to sabotage
the floodlights at English Premier League team Charlton Athletic's
ground with the aid of a corrupt security officer. If the match
had been abandoned after half-time, then the result and bets
would have stood. Subsequent investigations showed that the gang
had been responsible for previously unsuspected ''floodlight
failures'' at West Ham's ground in November 1997, and again a month
later at Crystal Palace's ground during a home match of Palace's
groundsharing tenant Wimbledon.
In 2000, the Delhi police intercepted a conversation between
a blacklisted bookie and the South African cricket captain Hansie
Cronje in which they learnt that Cronje accepted money to throw
matches. The South African government refused to allow any of its
players to face the Indian investigation unit, which opened up
a can of worms. A court of inquiry was set up and Cronje admitted
to throwing matches. He was immediately banned from all cricket.
He also named Saleem Malik (Pakistan), Mohammed Azharuddin and
Ajay Jadeja (India). Jadeja was banned for four years. They too
were banned from all cricket. As a kingpin, Cronje exposed the
dark side of betting.
However, with his untimely death in 2002, most of his sources
also have escaped law enforcement agencies. Two South African
cricketers, Herschelle Gibbs and Nicky Boje, are also wanted by
the Delhi police for their role in the match fixing saga.
A few years earlier in 1998, Australian players Mark Waugh
and Shane Warne were fined for revealing information about the
'weather' to a bookmaker.
The Italian Football Federation said in October 2000 it had
found eight players guilty of match-fixing. Three were from Serie
A side Atalanta and the other five played for Serie B side
Pistoiese.
The players were Giacomo Banchelli, Cristiano Doni and Sebastiano
Siviglia (all Atalanta) and Alfredo Aglietti, Massimiliano Allegri,
Daniele Amerini, Gianluca Lillo and Girolamo Bizzarri (all
Pistoiese). The charges related to an Italian Cup first round tie
between the two sides in Bergamo on August 20, 2000 which ended 1-1.
Atalanta scored at the end of the first half and Pistoiese
equalised three minutes from full time. Atalanta qualified for
the second round. Snai, which organises betting on Italian football,
said later it had registered suspiciously heavy betting on the
result and many of the bets were for a 1-0 halftime score and
a fulltime score of 1-1.
In June 2004 in South Africa, 33 people, including 19 referees,
club officials, a match commissioner and an official of the South
African Football Association, were arrested on match-fixing charges.
In the summer of 2004, Betfair provided evidence of race fixing
to City of London Police that led to the arrest of jockey Kieren
Fallon and 15 others on race fixing charges. On 7 December 2007
the judge in the case ordered the jury to find Fallon not guilty
on all charges.
In January 2005, the German Football Association (DFB) and
German prosecutors launched separate probes into charges that
referee Robert Hoyzer bet on and fixed several matches that he
worked, including a German Cup tie.
Hoyzer later admitted to the allegations; it has been reported
that he was involved with Croat gambling syndicates. He also
implicated other referees and players in the match fixing scheme.
The first arrests in the Hoyzer investigation were made on January
28 in Berlin, and Hoyzer himself was arrested on February 12 after
new evidence apparently emerged to suggest that he had been involved
in fixing more matches than he had admitted to. Hoyzer has been
banned for life from football by the DFB.
On March 10, a second referee, Dominik Marks, was arrested
after being implicated in the scheme by Hoyzer. Still later
(March 24), it was reported that Hoyzer had told investigators
that the gambling ring he was involved with had access
to UEFA's referee assignments for international matches and
Champions League and UEFA Cup fixtures several days before UEFA
publicly announced them. Ultimately, Hoyzer was sentenced to serve
two years and five months in prison.
In July 2005, Italian Serie B champions Genoa was arbitrarily
placed last in the division, and therefore condemned to relegation
to Serie C1, after it was revealed that they bribed their opponents
in the final match of the season, Venezia to throw the match. Genoa
won the match 3-2 and had apparently secured promotion to Serie A.
Brazilian football match-fixing scandal: In September 2005, a
Brazilian magazine revealed that two football referees, Edílson
Pereira de Carvalho (a member of FIFA's referee staff) and Paulo
José Danelon, had accepted bribes to fix matches. Soon afterwards,
sport authorities ordered the replaying of 11 matches in the
country's top competition, the Campeonato Brasileiro, that had been
worked by Edílson. Both referees have been banned for life from
football and face possible criminal charges. Brazilian supporters
have taken to shout ''Edílson'' at a referee who they consider to
have made a bad call against their team, in a reference to the
scandal.
In May 2006, perhaps the largest match fixing scandal in the
history of Italian Serie A football was uncovered by Italian Police,
implicating league champions Juventus, and powerhouses AC Milan,
Fiorentina, and Lazio.
Teams were suspected of rigging games by selecting favorable
referees, and even superstar Italian World Cup team goalkeeper
Gianluigi Buffon was charged with betting on football games.
Initially, Juventus were stripped of their titles in 2004-05 and
2005-06, all four clubs were barred from European club competition
in 2006-07, and all except Milan were forcibly relegated to Serie
B.
After all four clubs appealed, only Juventus remained relegated
while Milan were allowed to enter the third qualifying round of
the Champions League (they went on to win the tournament.) The
stripping of Juventus' titles stood.
2008 The Fix: Book by Declan Hill alleges that in the 2006
World Cup, the group game between Ghana and Italy, the round-of-16
game between Ghana and Brazil, and the Italy-Ukraine quarter-final
were all fixed by Asian gambling syndicates to whom the final
scores were known in advance. The German Football Federation
(DFB) and German Football League (DFL) looked into claims made
in a Der Spiegel interview with Hill that two Bundesliga matches
were fixed by William Bee Wah Lim a fugitive with a 2004 conviction
for match-fixing.
In November last year, German police arrested 17 people on
suspicion of fixing at least 200 soccer matches in nine countries.
Among the suspected games were those from the top leagues of
Austria, Bosnia, Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia, and Turkey, and
games from the second highest leagues of Belgium, Germany, and
Switzerland. Three contests from the Champions League were also
under investigation, and 12 from the Europa League.
The fourth Test of Pakistan's summer 2010 cricket tour of
England was alleged to have contained several incidents of
spot fixing, involving members of the Pakistan team deliberately
bowling no-balls at pre-agreed points during the match in order
to facilitate the potential defrauding of bookmakers.
Fixing consigns 'seeing is believing' dictum to trashbin
Seeing is believing, so they say. Not any longer.
Can what is seen on any sporting field be taken at face value?
Can the tide of alleged moneymaking on field be stemmed?
The questions merit early answers but find their roots way back
a century.
The history of match fixing in organised sports dates back
to as far back as the early 1900s as many matches across sevaral
sports ever since have been played to a completely or partially
pre-determined result, violating the rules of the game, and more
often than not the law.
Since gambling pre-dates recorded history, it comes as little
surprise that evidence of match fixing is found throughout the
recorded pages of history.
Some major match-fixing incidents which rocked the sporting
world were:
In 1919, gamblers bribed several members of the Major League
Baseball team Chicago White Sox to throw the World Series. This
became known as the Black Sox Scandal and was recounted in book
and movie form as 'Eight Men Out'.
On August 24, 1989, former baseball player Pete Rose voluntarily
accepted a permanent ban from Major League Baseball for allegedly
betting on Cincinnati Reds games while managing the team. Rose
would later confirm the truth of the allegations in his 2004
autobiography, 'My Prison Without Bars'.
In 1994, a comprehensive point shaving scheme organised by
campus bookmaker Benny Silman and involving players from the
Arizona State University men's basketball team was uncovered
with the assistance of Las Vegas bookmakers, who grew suspicious
over repeated large wagers being made against Arizona State.
In February 1999, a Malaysian-based betting syndicate was
caught attempting to install a remote-controlled device to sabotage
the floodlights at English Premier League team Charlton Athletic's
ground with the aid of a corrupt security officer. If the match
had been abandoned after half-time, then the result and bets
would have stood. Subsequent investigations showed that the gang
had been responsible for previously unsuspected ''floodlight
failures'' at West Ham's ground in November 1997, and again a month
later at Crystal Palace's ground during a home match of Palace's
groundsharing tenant Wimbledon.
In 2000, the Delhi police intercepted a conversation between
a blacklisted bookie and the South African cricket captain Hansie
Cronje in which they learnt that Cronje accepted money to throw
matches. The South African government refused to allow any of its
players to face the Indian investigation unit, which opened up
a can of worms. A court of inquiry was set up and Cronje admitted
to throwing matches. He was immediately banned from all cricket.
He also named Saleem Malik (Pakistan), Mohammed Azharuddin and
Ajay Jadeja (India). Jadeja was banned for four years. They too
were banned from all cricket. As a kingpin, Cronje exposed the
dark side of betting.
However, with his untimely death in 2002, most of his sources
also have escaped law enforcement agencies. Two South African
cricketers, Herschelle Gibbs and Nicky Boje, are also wanted by
the Delhi police for their role in the match fixing saga.
A few years earlier in 1998, Australian players Mark Waugh
and Shane Warne were fined for revealing information about the
'weather' to a bookmaker.
The Italian Football Federation said in October 2000 it had
found eight players guilty of match-fixing. Three were from Serie
A side Atalanta and the other five played for Serie B side
Pistoiese.
The players were Giacomo Banchelli, Cristiano Doni and Sebastiano
Siviglia (all Atalanta) and Alfredo Aglietti, Massimiliano Allegri,
Daniele Amerini, Gianluca Lillo and Girolamo Bizzarri (all
Pistoiese). The charges related to an Italian Cup first round tie
between the two sides in Bergamo on August 20, 2000 which ended 1-1.
Atalanta scored at the end of the first half and Pistoiese
equalised three minutes from full time. Atalanta qualified for
the second round. Snai, which organises betting on Italian football,
said later it had registered suspiciously heavy betting on the
result and many of the bets were for a 1-0 halftime score and
a fulltime score of 1-1.
In June 2004 in South Africa, 33 people, including 19 referees,
club officials, a match commissioner and an official of the South
African Football Association, were arrested on match-fixing charges.
In the summer of 2004, Betfair provided evidence of race fixing
to City of London Police that led to the arrest of jockey Kieren
Fallon and 15 others on race fixing charges. On 7 December 2007
the judge in the case ordered the jury to find Fallon not guilty
on all charges.
In January 2005, the German Football Association (DFB) and
German prosecutors launched separate probes into charges that
referee Robert Hoyzer bet on and fixed several matches that he
worked, including a German Cup tie.
Hoyzer later admitted to the allegations; it has been reported
that he was involved with Croat gambling syndicates. He also
implicated other referees and players in the match fixing scheme.
The first arrests in the Hoyzer investigation were made on January
28 in Berlin, and Hoyzer himself was arrested on February 12 after
new evidence apparently emerged to suggest that he had been involved
in fixing more matches than he had admitted to. Hoyzer has been
banned for life from football by the DFB.
On March 10, a second referee, Dominik Marks, was arrested
after being implicated in the scheme by Hoyzer. Still later
(March 24), it was reported that Hoyzer had told investigators
that the gambling ring he was involved with had access
to UEFA's referee assignments for international matches and
Champions League and UEFA Cup fixtures several days before UEFA
publicly announced them. Ultimately, Hoyzer was sentenced to serve
two years and five months in prison.
In July 2005, Italian Serie B champions Genoa was arbitrarily
placed last in the division, and therefore condemned to relegation
to Serie C1, after it was revealed that they bribed their opponents
in the final match of the season, Venezia to throw the match. Genoa
won the match 3-2 and had apparently secured promotion to Serie A.
Brazilian football match-fixing scandal: In September 2005, a
Brazilian magazine revealed that two football referees, Edílson
Pereira de Carvalho (a member of FIFA's referee staff) and Paulo
José Danelon, had accepted bribes to fix matches. Soon afterwards,
sport authorities ordered the replaying of 11 matches in the
country's top competition, the Campeonato Brasileiro, that had been
worked by Edílson. Both referees have been banned for life from
football and face possible criminal charges. Brazilian supporters
have taken to shout ''Edílson'' at a referee who they consider to
have made a bad call against their team, in a reference to the
scandal.
In May 2006, perhaps the largest match fixing scandal in the
history of Italian Serie A football was uncovered by Italian Police,
implicating league champions Juventus, and powerhouses AC Milan,
Fiorentina, and Lazio.
Teams were suspected of rigging games by selecting favorable
referees, and even superstar Italian World Cup team goalkeeper
Gianluigi Buffon was charged with betting on football games.
Initially, Juventus were stripped of their titles in 2004-05 and
2005-06, all four clubs were barred from European club competition
in 2006-07, and all except Milan were forcibly relegated to Serie
B.
After all four clubs appealed, only Juventus remained relegated
while Milan were allowed to enter the third qualifying round of
the Champions League (they went on to win the tournament.) The
stripping of Juventus' titles stood.
2008 The Fix: Book by Declan Hill alleges that in the 2006
World Cup, the group game between Ghana and Italy, the round-of-16
game between Ghana and Brazil, and the Italy-Ukraine quarter-final
were all fixed by Asian gambling syndicates to whom the final
scores were known in advance. The German Football Federation
(DFB) and German Football League (DFL) looked into claims made
in a Der Spiegel interview with Hill that two Bundesliga matches
were fixed by William Bee Wah Lim a fugitive with a 2004 conviction
for match-fixing.
In November last year, German police arrested 17 people on
suspicion of fixing at least 200 soccer matches in nine countries.
Among the suspected games were those from the top leagues of
Austria, Bosnia, Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia, and Turkey, and
games from the second highest leagues of Belgium, Germany, and
Switzerland. Three contests from the Champions League were also
under investigation, and 12 from the Europa League.
The fourth Test of Pakistan's summer 2010 cricket tour of
England was alleged to have contained several incidents of
spot fixing, involving members of the Pakistan team deliberately
bowling no-balls at pre-agreed points during the match in order
to facilitate the potential defrauding of bookmakers.
Can what is seen on any sporting field be taken at face value?
Can the tide of alleged moneymaking on field be stemmed?
The questions merit early answers but find their roots way back
a century.
The history of match fixing in organised sports dates back
to as far back as the early 1900s as many matches across sevaral
sports ever since have been played to a completely or partially
pre-determined result, violating the rules of the game, and more
often than not the law.
Since gambling pre-dates recorded history, it comes as little
surprise that evidence of match fixing is found throughout the
recorded pages of history.
Some major match-fixing incidents which rocked the sporting
world were:
In 1919, gamblers bribed several members of the Major League
Baseball team Chicago White Sox to throw the World Series. This
became known as the Black Sox Scandal and was recounted in book
and movie form as 'Eight Men Out'.
On August 24, 1989, former baseball player Pete Rose voluntarily
accepted a permanent ban from Major League Baseball for allegedly
betting on Cincinnati Reds games while managing the team. Rose
would later confirm the truth of the allegations in his 2004
autobiography, 'My Prison Without Bars'.
In 1994, a comprehensive point shaving scheme organised by
campus bookmaker Benny Silman and involving players from the
Arizona State University men's basketball team was uncovered
with the assistance of Las Vegas bookmakers, who grew suspicious
over repeated large wagers being made against Arizona State.
In February 1999, a Malaysian-based betting syndicate was
caught attempting to install a remote-controlled device to sabotage
the floodlights at English Premier League team Charlton Athletic's
ground with the aid of a corrupt security officer. If the match
had been abandoned after half-time, then the result and bets
would have stood. Subsequent investigations showed that the gang
had been responsible for previously unsuspected ''floodlight
failures'' at West Ham's ground in November 1997, and again a month
later at Crystal Palace's ground during a home match of Palace's
groundsharing tenant Wimbledon.
In 2000, the Delhi police intercepted a conversation between
a blacklisted bookie and the South African cricket captain Hansie
Cronje in which they learnt that Cronje accepted money to throw
matches. The South African government refused to allow any of its
players to face the Indian investigation unit, which opened up
a can of worms. A court of inquiry was set up and Cronje admitted
to throwing matches. He was immediately banned from all cricket.
He also named Saleem Malik (Pakistan), Mohammed Azharuddin and
Ajay Jadeja (India). Jadeja was banned for four years. They too
were banned from all cricket. As a kingpin, Cronje exposed the
dark side of betting.
However, with his untimely death in 2002, most of his sources
also have escaped law enforcement agencies. Two South African
cricketers, Herschelle Gibbs and Nicky Boje, are also wanted by
the Delhi police for their role in the match fixing saga.
A few years earlier in 1998, Australian players Mark Waugh
and Shane Warne were fined for revealing information about the
'weather' to a bookmaker.
The Italian Football Federation said in October 2000 it had
found eight players guilty of match-fixing. Three were from Serie
A side Atalanta and the other five played for Serie B side
Pistoiese.
The players were Giacomo Banchelli, Cristiano Doni and Sebastiano
Siviglia (all Atalanta) and Alfredo Aglietti, Massimiliano Allegri,
Daniele Amerini, Gianluca Lillo and Girolamo Bizzarri (all
Pistoiese). The charges related to an Italian Cup first round tie
between the two sides in Bergamo on August 20, 2000 which ended 1-1.
Atalanta scored at the end of the first half and Pistoiese
equalised three minutes from full time. Atalanta qualified for
the second round. Snai, which organises betting on Italian football,
said later it had registered suspiciously heavy betting on the
result and many of the bets were for a 1-0 halftime score and
a fulltime score of 1-1.
In June 2004 in South Africa, 33 people, including 19 referees,
club officials, a match commissioner and an official of the South
African Football Association, were arrested on match-fixing charges.
In the summer of 2004, Betfair provided evidence of race fixing
to City of London Police that led to the arrest of jockey Kieren
Fallon and 15 others on race fixing charges. On 7 December 2007
the judge in the case ordered the jury to find Fallon not guilty
on all charges.
In January 2005, the German Football Association (DFB) and
German prosecutors launched separate probes into charges that
referee Robert Hoyzer bet on and fixed several matches that he
worked, including a German Cup tie.
Hoyzer later admitted to the allegations; it has been reported
that he was involved with Croat gambling syndicates. He also
implicated other referees and players in the match fixing scheme.
The first arrests in the Hoyzer investigation were made on January
28 in Berlin, and Hoyzer himself was arrested on February 12 after
new evidence apparently emerged to suggest that he had been involved
in fixing more matches than he had admitted to. Hoyzer has been
banned for life from football by the DFB.
On March 10, a second referee, Dominik Marks, was arrested
after being implicated in the scheme by Hoyzer. Still later
(March 24), it was reported that Hoyzer had told investigators
that the gambling ring he was involved with had access
to UEFA's referee assignments for international matches and
Champions League and UEFA Cup fixtures several days before UEFA
publicly announced them. Ultimately, Hoyzer was sentenced to serve
two years and five months in prison.
In July 2005, Italian Serie B champions Genoa was arbitrarily
placed last in the division, and therefore condemned to relegation
to Serie C1, after it was revealed that they bribed their opponents
in the final match of the season, Venezia to throw the match. Genoa
won the match 3-2 and had apparently secured promotion to Serie A.
Brazilian football match-fixing scandal: In September 2005, a
Brazilian magazine revealed that two football referees, Edílson
Pereira de Carvalho (a member of FIFA's referee staff) and Paulo
José Danelon, had accepted bribes to fix matches. Soon afterwards,
sport authorities ordered the replaying of 11 matches in the
country's top competition, the Campeonato Brasileiro, that had been
worked by Edílson. Both referees have been banned for life from
football and face possible criminal charges. Brazilian supporters
have taken to shout ''Edílson'' at a referee who they consider to
have made a bad call against their team, in a reference to the
scandal.
In May 2006, perhaps the largest match fixing scandal in the
history of Italian Serie A football was uncovered by Italian Police,
implicating league champions Juventus, and powerhouses AC Milan,
Fiorentina, and Lazio.
Teams were suspected of rigging games by selecting favorable
referees, and even superstar Italian World Cup team goalkeeper
Gianluigi Buffon was charged with betting on football games.
Initially, Juventus were stripped of their titles in 2004-05 and
2005-06, all four clubs were barred from European club competition
in 2006-07, and all except Milan were forcibly relegated to Serie
B.
After all four clubs appealed, only Juventus remained relegated
while Milan were allowed to enter the third qualifying round of
the Champions League (they went on to win the tournament.) The
stripping of Juventus' titles stood.
2008 The Fix: Book by Declan Hill alleges that in the 2006
World Cup, the group game between Ghana and Italy, the round-of-16
game between Ghana and Brazil, and the Italy-Ukraine quarter-final
were all fixed by Asian gambling syndicates to whom the final
scores were known in advance. The German Football Federation
(DFB) and German Football League (DFL) looked into claims made
in a Der Spiegel interview with Hill that two Bundesliga matches
were fixed by William Bee Wah Lim a fugitive with a 2004 conviction
for match-fixing.
In November last year, German police arrested 17 people on
suspicion of fixing at least 200 soccer matches in nine countries.
Among the suspected games were those from the top leagues of
Austria, Bosnia, Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia, and Turkey, and
games from the second highest leagues of Belgium, Germany, and
Switzerland. Three contests from the Champions League were also
under investigation, and 12 from the Europa League.
The fourth Test of Pakistan's summer 2010 cricket tour of
England was alleged to have contained several incidents of
spot fixing, involving members of the Pakistan team deliberately
bowling no-balls at pre-agreed points during the match in order
to facilitate the potential defrauding of bookmakers.
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