http://www.theage.com.au/sport/soccer/liverpool-match-fixed-claim-20130205-2dvwc.html

Liverpool fail to score more than 1 against Debrechen in a fixed match!

In 2011, 900000 foreigners visited Engand to watch football, spending an average of £850 per head.

900000 x £850 = £765000000

A club like Man Utd's contribution to the national economy is sigificant indeed. If Man Utd's success were to dry up, so would the number of gloryhunters who come from abroad to cheer their club.

European clubs like Real Madrid, AC Milan, and Bayern Munich have the backing of heavyweight financial conglomerates as well influential politicians. That refereeing decision are skewed in their favour, should surprise no one.

Here is an interesting blog addressing some of these issues:

http://footballisfixed.blogspot.de/

There are far too many vested interests within the game with nobody willing or able to control them, so it is of little surprise that shadowy figures may be lurking in the background and who knows perhaps the foreground.

Dominic makes a valid point regarding GDP and the role that football plays in it, like the banks, some people within the game may feel that they are too big to fail. They are of course wrong and those newly won fans of the last decade or so, will find it all too easy to walk away from the game if it is found to be in the least rigged or fixed.

Even the long suffering 'fanatical' supporter will question the validity of following a game if they believe it to be in any way tarnished by actual match-fixing. It has of course happened in other European countries and people still attend in fairly large numbers, but if this investigation brings to light large numbers of fixed games or casual throwing of matches, it might spark a rethink of the paying public's priorities.

Already the large club is being touted as innocent (which it probably is) therefore providing assurances that the English game is clean, and the small clubs custodian is the man at fault, making the problem - and there most definitely is a problem - seem petty and unimportant.

If these Journo's loved the game more than they loved the celebrity of being associated with its star players, they would have dug deeper into the dark side of the game and revealed to the public what is and has been happening to the game in the past decade or so.

Can imagine the bent keeper fuming and thinking "Christ these are shite - for fuck's sake, just put a ball CLOSE to me and I'll do the rest!"

I hope this disgrace does not come to pollute the English game, it goes beyond disgrace.
If any player at the CL level is involved, he should be sued for all his current earnings, Life time bans and jail time should be mandatory - it would have to be the harshest possible punishment to set an example.

No laughing matter overall though. I am not saying he did anything he shouldn't have, but had Mr Heitinga been bribed to defend as badly as he did on Saturday, all the moaning on here would have effectively been meaningless as would our push for CL. I can see the appeal of football rapidly disappearing for many of us if this wide scale corruption is proven.

Other sports must find it laughable to watch football, one of the only major sports where rules are open to whatever interpretation (or blatant disregard) one man in the middle wants. We've already been disadvantaged by that this season.

Everyone laughs it off at the time but we would be in a lot healthier position with regards to fourth with even just a few points more. People will say, "Oh but that happens for everyone..." but how many points have been gifted to Arsenal through numerous dodgy penalties, or those not given against such as Arteta's blatant foul on Pienaar? Over the course of a season, these accumulate to disadvantage some teams and keep the old order in position.

Other footballing 'coincidences' include how whenever Arsenal, Liverpool or Tottenham play Champions League qualifiers they always have the second leg at home (the RS seem to get this in any European tie) whereas of course we didn't. How whenever the FA Cup seemingly needs a little boost all the big teams are miraculously drawn apart and at home until the quarter-final stages.

How in the Champions League whenever there's an opportunity to draw two teams from the same country, or two particularly volatile teams (Chelsea & Barcelona) in the same group then it always seems to happen. I wonder what the chances of the group of champions being drawn together this year, the first year in which the coefficients (another blatant injustice) allowed it to happen? Amazing coincidence.

Of course the most laughable example has to be Liverpool: "We'd love to play TNS" being draw against TNS "We'd love to play Liverpool' in the Champions League qualifiying draw. Didn't relaise you could pick who you wanted as your opposition. Then again, it wouldn't do the viewing figures any good not to have the Champions of Europe in their own competition, would it?

In the old days the FA and others running the game had some semblance of respect and were in the main part trusted to run the game, but these days with large corporations and TV involved they have no control over the game that they're supposed to govern.

As to the game itself, it's becoming more like rugby light, with players pulling, holding, obstructing at every opportunity, but if you try to put in a legitimate tackle, you're in real danger of getting a red card. Ballotelli scored 2 goals on Sunday for AC Milan, I only saw his second – a last minute penalty kick, which followed one of the worst decisions I have seen this year. In commentary, a pundit posed a good question, why if you bother with an official behind the goal, must he be on the same side of the pitch as the Linesman? So in this particular instance, both were unsighted and only the referee had a 'clear' view of the incident.

If we are lucky enough to get to Wembley in the FA Cup it could be 9 out of 13 fixtures we face the big clubs.

...and to think some of you believe that these shadowy lurkers are only motivated by money.

Smoke? That was his kettle on the go!

Look at it from the other side. Had we played those teams away in the early part of the season we may be a lot lower in the league and without the same level of confidence.... would that perhaps have been a conspiracy to make sure we had no chance of qualifying for Europe again? Sorry, don't buy that one.

The game is corrupt, you only have to watch a derby to see this. Rodwell sent off for a legit tackle, Sewerrat not even spoken to for raking ankles and heels. Gerrard diving against Sheff Utd and winning a pen because of "intent". Fergie time, Ruel Fox being the only player to score a league penalty in 14 years for the away team at OT. The ref blowing for full time just as the ball is about to cross the line off Carsley. Gerrard jumping into an Olympiacos defender's back and winning a pen. Spurs getting food poisoning a day before an effective champions league decider. I could go on and on...

And look at the structural corruption. Coefficients designed not to allow competition but to prevent anyone but the regulars to contest a trophy. Financial Fair Play to prevent any club climbing up too quickly to the regulars' dining table. Favourable draws (Man City in the group of death 2 years and counting).

And the phrases "interfering/not interfering with play", "intent", "non-deliberate handball", "just a coming together", "active/inactive", "drawing the foul", "minimal contact", "every right to go down" and blah blah blah.

IMO there is a narrative created to allow the regulars to win when the structural advantages they get don't work. I'm talking fine margins here... a qualifier, decisions that might affect maybe 6 points over a season but that is the difference between having a fighting chance or not at a trophy/top four/ 20 million TV rights from CL.

We have had the bulk of our 'easier' fixtures and will have little time to recover our composure if things go awry in just a couple of these more difficult fixtures. As you are more likely to pick up red and yellow cards in these games, I dread to think what sort of team we will be able to field for possible Semi-Final or Cup Final, not to mention the game at the dark-side. Can you imagine the uproar if Man U had to play these teams in quick succession towards the end of a long and arduous season. Given our record in these games it might explain the Club's decision to hold fire on any incoming transfers.

It may well not prove to be conspiratorial, but it is highly suspicious that the fixtures have come out this way, if you add the fact that a good start to the season was hi-jacked by puzzling refereeing decisions, the cards do not appear to have been dealt fairly.

The fact is, if we had been putting these 'easier' fixtures to bed as we should have been, then our position in the table would allow for a few slip ups at the business end.

If we don't qualify for 4th, it's simply because of the sides inability to deal with the lesser sides.

Sounds good to me but be careful: if they get banned somehow it will be extended to all English teams and will be in a season when Everton qualify for the CL! cynical, me?

On a separate note, the whole CL is a scam designed to keep the rich clubs rich. Lawful yes. Legitimate? Personally I don't think so. But that is a different debate.

If we beat Man City at home and average a point a game from our tough games, that will give us 50 points and the other 7 games will have to be won to give us a grand total of 71, it's not impossible but it does seem highly unlikely that we will achieve anywhere near that amount. More likely we will slip up more than once so a figure of between 60 and 65 points is possible, but will it be enough to get the holy grail.

In the past we have gone to OT etc thinking that a point would be a bonus, this season it is the minimum we have to get to keep our hopes alive.

The odds of that being random is slightly longer than 1/1000 !!!

(Six of the past seven seasons we've had Man Utd at home first as well).

The very fact it has been ten consecutive times equally reinforces that it really is random!

Tony Kay wasn't guilty of match fixing. He was guilty of betting against Shef Wed and played brilliantly in the game concerned. He would not have received a life ban now and it was disgraceful that he did then.

He was one of the finest players ever to wear the Blue of Everton and I believe that we would have won three more league titles had he not been banned. He was by any definition an Everton Great.

Think about it: 3 - 0 down at half-time to lengthen the odds, followed by the improbable (nay, miraculous, some might say) comeback. It made absolutely no sense until yesterday, did it? Then it seemed pretty obvious!

Dear God, let them be stripped of that trophy! Wouldn't that be, er, kinda nice (if not likely).

Alan, it was the despicable Dave Mckay who crippled Husband. Mike England, of Blackburn and Spurs, wasn't a yardog type of player.

Dick@188, As has already been stated, Kay was coerced into putting a bet on Ipswich against Sheff Wed by a lowlife Jimmy Gauld who later sold his story to the Sunday papers. The match in question saw Kay named as Man of the Match

And the whole episode is nowhere near as bad as the case were Grobelaar trousered oodles of used notes in a hotel room, the entire transaction being filmed, and, guess what? Despite all the evidence he wriggled free, a disgrace.

At the station, we both wanted the bog. Inside in one corner was a bloke selling tickets,curios we pushed our way near to him... NO MISTAKE — it was the man himself with dark shades on. So he's a liar and a CHEAT. Football and Everton lost a great player.

As for Kay, it dosen't matter that he was MotM in the Sheffield v Ipswich game. To bet against your own team still stinks.

How would you feel if it became known that one of our players backed Man Utd in the next game. Win or lose, he can rest his head on a pillow full of ill-gotten gains.

FIFA is about as crooked as they come and pretending that petrodollars had nothing to do with Qatar getting the '22 world cup is a complete joke. Could probably add Russia to that with the '18 WC.

I just hope that if anyone is found guilty of match fixing, regardless of club size or whatever capacity they were involved in, Europol will make sure the penalties are exremely harsh to set an example.

The closing paragraph says : The evil of the match fixing remained, and Man U and Liverpool went unpunished, knowing they could do what they liked with impunity. If Tony Blair had been alive and interested he would have said that a line should be drawn under the events and we should move on. It was that sort of deal.

The more things change the more they remain the same?

some information is given in the following link.

http://mondialblog.tumblr.com/post/42514939301/financial-doping-is-dead-long-live-35m-losses

'What has emerged in the two hours subsequent to the Premier League announcing details of the deal, are two tiers of losses.

The £35m per season allowable loss over three years must be underwritten by club owners. If it is not, it is limited to a £5million per year loss. This is still a lot but will at least prevent ‘another Portsmouth’ to use the term that ill probably be smeared all over tomorrow’s newspapers.'

So does this mean that EFC will only be allowed to lose £15m over 3 years? If it did we would be in a fire-fighting situation again. We had better enjoy the rest of the season while we can.

How the fuck can someone earn close to a billion dollars riding a pushbike? Easy cheat like fuck and buy off all your competition. Hmmm... so that's how Man Utd do it?

On fixing in general. Yes, the game is rigged. The wealthiest team has won the league almost every season since a group of people in the early 90s figured out how to fix the game forever.

The club controversially rejoined the First Division in 1919,[17][18] despite only finishing sixth in 1914–15, the last season of competitive football before the First World War had intervened — although an error in the calculation of goal average meant Arsenal had actually finished fifth,[19] an error which was corrected by the Football League in 1975.[20] The First Division was being expanded from 20 teams to 22, and the two new entrants were elected at an AGM of the Football League. One of the extra places was given to Chelsea, who had finished 19th in the First Division and thus had been already relegated. The other spot could have gone to 20th-placed Tottenham Hotspur (also relegated), or to Barnsley or Wolves, who had finished third and fourth in the Second Division respectively.[19]
Instead, the League decided instead to promote sixth-placed Arsenal, for reasons of history over merit; Norris argued that Arsenal be promoted for their "long service to league football", having been the first League club from the South.[18] The League board agreed; they voted eighteen votes to eight to promote Arsenal ahead of their local rivals Tottenham Hotspur,[17] which has fuelled the long-standing enmity between the two clubs. It has been alleged that this was due to backroom deals or even outright bribery by Sir Henry Norris,[17] colluding with his friend John McKenna, chairman of Liverpool and the Football League, who recommended Arsenal's promotion to the AGM.[17]
Wikipedia

It's very much the same scenario that was played out in the cricket spot-fixing scandal from a few years back - and the revelation from Matthew Le Tissier's autobiography that he was approached to kick the ball out straight from the match kick-off because bookmakers offer markets on time of the first throw in - so something seemingly arbitrary and meaningless (in the scheme of things) can still be a very lucrative opportunity provided that there is a bookmaker happy to take the bet.

People talking about FIFA or UEFA not wanting Everton in the Champions' League and ordering directives to Collina etc are - in my opinion anyway - way off. This is not at about big team bias - or getting penalties away at Old Trafford - it's about finding ways to place bets on outcomes that can in some way be pre-arranged.

If the game isn't corrupt then how come 3-odd years ago the Champions League draw was accurately leaked in advance before the 'live' draw happened?