Liverpool record win under investigation
By: Ian Rose | December 5th, 2007Technically, this is Champions League news, and not UEFA Cup, but I’m trying to stay on top of the developments on this, so what the hell …
Anyway, looks like the UEFA matches being investigated for suspicion of match fixing might not just be early qualifiers between low-ranking Eastern European countries. According to ESPN, the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung has claimed that there was an unusually high amount of pre-match betting for a “large victory” just before Liverpool kicked off against Besiktas in their second group stage match. That would be the match in which Liverpool set the Champions League record with an 8-0 seal-clubbing of the Turkish side. The paper reports that some players on Besiktas may have been targeted by those apparently rich and well-connected Asian betting syndicates we’ve been hearing so much about.
This changes the scandal quite a bit, if it may have affected the group stage, and some of the major players. That group is so close right now that any sort of implications of cheating could blow it up entirely. Since Besiktas still has a chance to qualify for the knockouts, we now have a scandal that could affect one of the last 16 clubs in the Champions League. Yikes. I’ll try to keep on this as much as I can.
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Comments
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Germans going after the English? Crazy.
Are they really still angry about Dresden?
Posted from
United States
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Brian, I don’t really think they’re going after Liverpool. No one is saying Liverpool did anything wrong. The suspicion is that one or more players for Besiktas may have taken money to dive. Any decent team going against someone trying to lose would take advantage of it.
Posted from
United States -
The article in question describes money laundering practises by those betting syndicates. For example betting large amounts of money on a result that only warrants a minimal return. So you pump dirty money into the bet and get clean money back.
It also describes how different betting companies co-operate with the UEFA to inform them about unusual betting patterns ahead of games. E.g. there were also a lot of bets on a high scoring victory of Hamburg against Litex Lovech and Hamburg indeed won 4-0 with one goal coming from a fluke own goal. These type of events get reported to UEFA, though in case of the Hamburg match, there wasn’t enough evidence to make a case.
I think the suspicious amount of bets on a high scoring Liverpool victory also falls into that category, and they might eventually abandon investigations here as well. If not, then this is indeed quite a story.
Posted from
Germany -
Interesting point about the betting companies helping out. I’ve always been of the opinion that match fixing and other criminal activities around betting are a lot harder to pull off and less profitable where betting is legal and regulated. If people want to throw their money away, which in the long run is what betting on sports is unless you are unusually good at it, I think they should be allowed to. We’re missing out on huge revenues here in the US on sports betting - we’re obsessed with sports, but most sports betting has to be done illegally, which strikes me as dumb.
Anyway, I’m sure that you’re right and this may go nowhere. But if Besiktas moves on, there’s always going to be some question about whether they did it despite losing a match by more than they should have to line some players’ pockets. I hope we get some answers either damning or exonerating Besiktas, but I’m sure the best chance is that we won’t.
Posted from
United States -
Actually, it was having a go at Liverpool, wish is why Platini retracted it. The poor sod is still angry that a bunch of Scousers made him look like a donkey last summer. The guy couldn’t throw a tea party for a bunch of six year old girls without screwing up.
It probably was fixed, anyhow, but just to give the Frenchman some of his own medicine. He got stuck like a pig in the end with G14 dissolution agreement anyhow. Let’s see what happens in Marseilles.
Posted from
United States -
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