Under-20 Bolivia-Argentina match under investigation by European police
European police investigation into a huge football match-fixing and betting ring has reopened questions about an under-20 friendly between Argentina and Bolivia two years ago. The game, played in Córdoba in December 2010, was mentioned in the European investigators' inquiry.
It raised eyebrows at the time after the Hungarian referee let play continue for an extra 13 minutes before blowing the final whistle. The referee, Lengyel Kolos, declined to speak to reporters about the match this week.
However, former Argentine under-20s coach Walter Perazzo said the lengthy injury time, which allowed Argentina to convert a late penalty into a 1-0 victory, had prompted questions on the home team's bench.
“We were surprised that the match was extended” he was quoted by Reuters. “At the time, a lot of us wondered if the referee was maybe used to a different style of football.”
Perazzo, who now coaches a second-division team in Argentina, said that he saw no other questionable decisions during the match. “The penalty was a penalty; the strange thing was the 13 minutes.”
Marco Sandy, the Bolivian under-20s coach, declined to comment on the European investigation unveiled in The Hague. In an interview soon after the match, Sandy said the team had experienced “strange situations” with the same referee in other games. When asked whether he thought the match might have been subject to fixing, Sandy said at the time: ”It would be a good thing if they investigated it, because (this is) bad for the sport.“
Match reports after the game questioned several calls made by Kolos and his two linesmen, including the referee's decision to disallow a second-half Argentina goal and order a penalty against Bolivia in the final moments of injury time.
Police had to accompany Kolos off the pitch at the end of the game as angry Bolivian players hounded him.
Bolivia's football federation welcomed news of the European probe.
”Bolivia wasn't involved in this kind of match-fixing; on the contrary, it was the victim...in that game in 2010, it was obvious that there was a clear intention to hand victory to Argentina,“ the Bolivian federation's general manager, Alberto Lozada, was quoted as telling local media in the Andean country.
Argentine officials dismissed links between the 2010 match and the investigation.
”This issue doesn't exist for the Argentine Football Association...I've got nothing else to say,“ said Ernesto Cherquis Bialo, spokesman for the Argentine Football Association. A source at the association, who asked not to be identified, said the issue ”didn't even get mentioned in the last meetings of the executive committee”.
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16 comments Feed
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hand of god and all that,
once corupt, always corupt.
and a bad day for football.
//////////
still
we beat brazil 2-1.
Sounds familiar.... Oh right, the “issue” of the Falkland Islands and their population doesn't exist either. There are no islands. There are no people. Everyone lies - except the Argies.
Who knows which country is next.
I am sure that's the most important match being investigated and never happen in England..suuuure
“The head of Europol has urged football authorities in Britain not to be “naïve” or “complacent” enough to believe the problem of match-fixing does not extend to games in this country as a Liverpool match was last night alleged to have involved an attempted fix”
www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/under-suspicion-liverpool-match-against-debrecen--targeted-by-fixers-8480650.html
I think it would be difficult for match fixers to persuade premier league players simply because they are already paid so much. The cost benefit analysis doesn't add up. Referees may be more susceptible but they don't exactly live in poverty either.
Fixing lower league matches would also be difficult to profit from because bookmakers would quickly notice large bets on a game that would usually have been ignored. They carefully monitor betting patterns.
This seems to be most prevalent among teams on the periphery of Europe when they are playing a major club
www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/match-fixing-champions-league-game-1585390
www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21319807
Match fixing is rife in some sports - cricket is a perfect example where the initial investigation showed it as being endemic in Pakistan and then spread to some other countries.
Personally, I think the fact that you can bet on pretty much anything without sufficient regulation just feeds this problem.
I prefer good sports, that educated people watch.
That said I prefer rugby and cricket. Polo and basketball are great to watch live too
The key indicator of economic poverty is typically having SkyTV, poor people always have SkyTV and you can typically tell the level of someone's educational poverty because it is proportional to the size of their TV screen. People in a state of educational poverty normally watch poorball and talent shows on loop, and so they buy a huge TV.
Interestingly the business model for SkyTV is to essentially get as many people on benefits to pay as much of their benefits as they can on watching TV that includes 50 minutes of adverts for every 10 minutes of programming. It would likely be cheaper if the government negotiated some kind of bulk purchase for everyone on benefits, which is all of their subscribers and just pay for it out of the exchequer directly. Sort of like a license fee.
I'm sure you have a small tv and no sky subscription, but you really should stop watching poorball, it's dreadful.
I'll still enjoy a game of footie when I can.
So the flip side of the coin is you watch Dirty Desmond's channel 5 on a tiny screen to help make you feel secure when you watch the sex shows?
Come on, answer truthfully!
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