kelvinmak's Blog
So, the fix was in, it looks like.
Surprised? Don't be. Soccer, for a very long time now, has not been the innocent sport that it was once perceived to be.
Do you remember, say, fifteen years ago, major clubs being sponsored by betting exchanges? Today, Bwin is the kit sponsor of Real Madrid, and the "official online gaming and betting partner" of Manchester United. Because Lord knows soccer clubs need a betting partner.
Or do you remember live match odds being broadcasted and updated on adboards of that actual match? Catch a Premier League game this weekend, and there's a very good chance you'll spot them. And it's not just who wins the match and by how much-- you can bet on pretty much anything from the amount of sending-offs to which team gets the first throw-in.
All this is to say that, in its relentless pursuit to "grow the game", soccer will get into bed with anybody with big money, no matter how ethically questionable, as long as it's within the law. And in this case, once they opened the door to international gambling firms, organized crime followed. Gee, mobs and gambling, who would've thunk that?
Will this news affect the average fan's entertainment, in the big picture? Probably not. The amount of money spent in the top-tiered leagues means that the world's biggest and most-followed teams are a lot more resistant to match-fixing than those that toil a few tiers beneath them (unless the team plays a minnow in a continental match, as in-- allegedly--the case of Liverpool vs. Debrecen.) But that's where the problem is, as far as throwing matches is concerned-- the parity. The money and glitz and glamor of the big leagues don't extend too far down, and the temptation is rife for those players to participate in a fix to score a payday.
The other part of this is, surprise surprise, FIFA. Do you trust Sepp Blatter to do anything that actually cleans up the sport? When the technically legal part in all this-- the legitimate betting exchanges-- brought so much money into soccer, and increased its popularity (or at the very least, interest in it) around the world? Don't kid yourself, FIFA and the gambling firms' interests are very much aligned. Gambling is just one more way for the sport to lure in fans and their money, especially in the lucrative Asian market.
Sure, the fallout of this investigation will likely prompt FIFA into taking some sort of action (how much of it is mere window dressing, who knows), but the mantra of the sport's governing body has always been to stick its head in the sand, and failing that, sweep as much as possible under the rug. FIFA is more likely to do the bare minimum to defuse the controversy than getting to the root of it, because doing so would create a controversy. And since the top leagues are more resistant to match fixing, there's even less of an incentive for Blatter and Co. to clean it up-- hey, as long as the big cash cows are still healthy, that's ultimately what matters.
So make no mistake, all the money involved means that soccer gambling is here to stay. And as long as there's profit to be made, there will be those who try to beat the system. The more interesting part of this is to see how fans will react, from here on out, when a player fluffs a sitter, scores an own goal, or when an official makes a bad call. Instead of dropping copious amounts of f-bombs, fans may very well develop a second nature and automatically suspect that the person in question was paid off (and then drop the f-bombs.) In a way, this almost feels like when the steroids stories first broke in baseball-- from then on, every late blooming slugger who seemingly came out of nowhere had questions marks over them. Maybe in soccer we'll never look at blunders the same way again.
But, unlike the steroids stuff, don't proclaim this as some transformative moment, a loss of innocence thing. Nah, in soccer, that's been gone for a long long time.
(Photo via AP)
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more than any transgression that they do. Soccer won't miss a beat with this just like last year at the Euro's. Italy was accused of match fixing yet no Italians were outraged about it. There is a love for soccer unmatched by any sport that will see them through this trying time.