Wait.
Someone watched that game and thought PORT got a good run with the umps?
What in the actual ■■■■. Permaban them. All for differing opinions but that's taking the ■■■■
Umpiring was shocking both ways, Port got a couple more goals from frees than the Cats though.
That number 30 is the worst umpire ive ever seen, blatant cheat
Wait.
Someone watched that game and thought PORT got a good run with the umps?
What in the actual fark. Permaban them. All for differing opinions but that's taking the ■■■■
Yep, Chris Scott, Selwood and me.
Did you see the first half of the game? It was like an Essendon match. Geelong forwards get molestered and get nothing and up the other end they pull out crap in the backs
I am sick of the umpiring, but I am more tired of the rule changes. It is the “flexible” interpretation that is making umpiring so difficult and inconsistent. That goes for the MRP as well.
The hands in the back is bad enough, as is the deliberate out of bounds, but the rule change that has really ruined the game is the holding the ball.
It is becoming a game of keepings off, where players throw the ball around, lie on top of it, take it out of each others hands, until either someone gets a kick away or the umpire throws it up for the whole process to start again. It’s not skillful throwing the ball around like that, its the sort of thing you do in a park or the beach with friends, neither are the rugby style mauls that occur.
They talk about it being tough, but it’s ruining our game, and really turning it into another sport. The things that were unique about our game, are slowly but surely being “ruled” out.
It is always said that history will judge us, and I think that the last ten years or so will go down in history as the period that increased the reach of the game, but completely ruined it in the process.
The AFL has been so concerned about making money, that they have forgotten their core role, which is to protect the game.
In that they have failed abysmally.
"april 2011 acc notes that criminals are cultivating relationships with sports people and likely to exploit the situation"
Is that referring to people like Charters who was supplying Dank thus could have (not saying he did) given us something dodgy instead of what he said he was giving us therefore blackmailing players? Or are they referring to bikie gangs getting on the inside of clubs and supplying illicit drugs?
Why did Charters get bashed and when exactly did it happen?
To me, this is the great unanswered question. He got threatened to shut up, so... his response was to go straight to the media, and voluntarily appear before ASADA? That has never made sense to me.
As far as I'm concerned, this guy's testimony is what buried us, and James Hird's obvious association with him is what buried him.
Luckily nobody followed up that whole little 'I supplied HGH to an AFL team' statement that he made in a fairfax interview...
Yep, I remember that one. Still, if I was threatened by organised crime, I'm not sure that I'd run to the media, and have the ABC bring a camera into my crime-financed wog-mansion, so I can talk about PEDs in sport. Unless of course, I was getting some pretty solid protection from somewhere.
There was a lot written about Shane Charter in April, and it seemed to be the heart of the whole story. Then he got interviewed by ASADA. Then nobody wrote about Shane Charter again, except for when they were trying to ping us for using TB4.
hmmmm.
Threatened if he talked or threatened if he didn't?
I know which one appears to make more sense.
You wouldn’t try and fix a 2nd week final
You’d fiddle a ■■■■ game nobody’s going to watch or care that much about. GWS or Melbourne or St Kilda.
Still think the most dubious umpiring performance I’ve seen is Nicholls awarding Josh Toy 6 free kicks (total 8 for him for the day) while Reimers was clearly and comprehensively pantsing him in every facet of the game.
So Roos is like umm stealing all his staff from all over the the caper. And Melbourne seem to have enough money to hire all these new people.
That can't be right...? Is that the same Melbourne that relies on hand-outs from the AFL, and furthermore was found out to have used AOD after denying it had ever done so?
Given that we copped the worst penalty ever in any Australian sport after self-reporting, I couldn't imagine that a responsible AFL executive would display such bad governance as to give them the money to do that.
I missed the game, would love a compilation of the ■■■■ decisions.
They just decided that any 50/50s they'd pay Geelong's way and ignore going the other way. There was only 1 or 2 real absolute howlers but a LOT of iffy ones and they all went one way.I missed the game, would love a compilation of the **** decisions.
10 arrested for match fixing in the Victorian Premier League?
Hmm, wonder if that will in any way relate us a little further down the track?
10 arrested for match fixing in the Victorian Premier League?
Hmm, wonder if that will in any way relate us a little further down the track?
Yes, I believe one of the arrested drives a kia.
They just decided that any 50/50s they'd pay Geelong's way and ignore going the other way. There was only 1 or 2 real absolute howlers but a LOT of iffy ones and they all went one way.I missed the game, would love a compilation of the **** decisions.
it was that ■■■■■■■ sivec or stivec or whatever hes called. utter germ couldn't unpire his way out of a paper bag, which ironically is probably how he gets paid by vlad.
From "The Age"
Now this is disrepute!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Victorian detectives have swooped on a match fixing syndicate operating from Victoria‘s Premier League professional soccer division.
Fairfax Media can reveal that international match fixing syndicates run by organised criminals have been fixing soccer matches in Australia, making hundreds of thousands of dollars on Asian betting markets.
An investigation revealed that up to ten European footballers playing professional football in Australia have been recruited by the syndicate.
David Obaze playing for Southern Stars against Richmond at the Kevin Bartlett Reserve. Photo: Simon O'Dwyer
Some of the players arrested have played professionally in the United Kingdom before coming to Australia.
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One avenue of inquiry being probed by police is whether the players were recruited by the syndicate before flying to Australia.
The team at the centre of what looms as the largest match fixing scandal to hit Australian sport is the Southern Stars Football Club, which is based in Melbourne‘s south-east.
David Gallop, NRL Chief. Photo: Ben Rushton BGR
The team is on the bottom of the Victorian Premier League ladder and has been thrashed on several occasions this year.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been wagered on the outcome of the club‘s games, including the number of goals conceded, by the syndicate in collaboration with the allegedly corrupted players.
Deputy Commissioner Graham Ashton said that winnings on the bets were about $2 million and the players were alleged to have been paid thousands of dollars for their involvement. He said it was the biggest match fixing scandal in Australian history.
The scandal will put huge pressure on the state and federal government to concede to long-standing police requests for laws to be changes so authorities can share with sporting bodies information about suspected corruption.
Victoria Police‘s Purana taskforce, in conjunction with the force‘s sports integrity unit, arrested up to ten people across the state today.
Those arrested include Southern Stars players David Obaze, Nicholas McKoy and Joe Woolley and the coach of the club, Zaya Younan.
Another of the players arrested is Reiss Noel, who travelled with Joe Woolley to Australia in the middle of the year after unexpectedly leaving English club AFC Hornchurch.
The players are understood to have allegedly received kickbacks for conceding goals or throwing matches, and police have been unable to rule out the possibility they were involved in match fixing at their previous clubs.
They are expected to be charged with corrupting the outcome of betting.
The players arrested are from Britain and are mid-tier professional players. It is understood that the match-fixing syndicate has allegedly targeted the players and a second tier competition in Australia because it believed it would lessen the chance of detection.
The amount of money being wagered in Asia on professional soccer in Australia, including second tier leagues, has been increasing dramatically over the last few years.
The bets on the allegedly fixed matches are suspected to have been wagered on the internet, Asian and underground gambling markets, meaning it is hard for local law enforcement to track.
Mr Ashton said seven search warrants had been executed at Preston, Clayton and Wantirna.
Nine international players and Mr Younan were arrested and are being interviewed by Purana detectives.
Mr Ashton said they were expected to be the first people charged under match fixing legislation passed earlier this year by the state government.
"I'd certainly like to commend the Football Federation for bringing the matter forward diligently," he said.
"Over the last 12 months we've been saying consistently this is a major threat to Australian sport.
"The players aren't unwitting pawns, they're in full knowledge of what was going on."
Police are investigating every game the team has played this season. It is possible the players were recruited specifically to fix matches.
Mr Ashton said the FFV started to have concerns about Stars matches in July, but irregular betting patterns were the reason the syndicate had been detected.
FFA: 'Integrity of football is paramount'
Football Federation Australia (FFA) today commended Victoria Police for the investigation of alleged match-fixing in the Victorian Premier League and this morning‘s arrest of ten suspects.
FFA CEO David Gallop said that FFA provided Victoria Police with information relating to suspicious betting activity and welcomed the investigation by the Sports Integrity Intelligence Unit within the force.
“The integrity of football is paramount,†said Gallop. “We provided information to Victoria Police within 24 hours of receiving an alert from our international betting integrity monitoring agents Sportradar, who then worked closely with the investigation team.
“The arrests today show that the integrity measures put in place by FFA are working to detect illegal betting activity.
“We‘re determined to keep football clean. Alongside other sports bodies in Australia and globally, we must eradicate corrupt behaviour from sport.â€
In addition to the criminal proceedings in Victoria, FFA will charge the people arrested today under FFA‘s National Code of Conduct. They will face a range of sanctions including life bans from football which would apply worldwide.
Absolutely correct.
And that is even before considering the match fixing that happens most weeks when the maggots get instructed which teams should be favoured that round. NB They don't even have to influence the win/loss so much as the point spread, since so many bets are done on this.
what about the FIX-ture the competition is rigged right from the start making it easier or harder for teams to get into the finals apart from the match review panel who recommend 3 weeks for one player and nothing for another in similar circumstances & the "interpretation" of rules during a game by umpires ..............match fixing can be done under this as there is no one allowed to complain about the way an umpire interprets the game nor do they have to justify their decisions ..............
This is more related to the soccer article, but I still remember the carry on during the 06 world cup from the media here about how the Italian side would be affected by the Serie A corruption scandal of the time. The media acted as though there was no corruption in Aus, akin to the whole “Aussies don’t dope” attitude. Sport is corrupt at every ■■■■■■ level, in every country, Australia is not immune.
Will this Darkest Day be remembered one week later?
And the ACC had nothing to with it. The Federation got all of its information from sports radar services!Will this Darkest Day be remembered one week later?
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/world/the-big-fix-is-in-20130917-2tx8f.html
'My life is over. All I have fought for has come to nothing. The club itself has been crushed under the dirt. The people whom I trusted have betrayed me. We were fighting against them with slingshots and they had mortars.''
Robert Kutashi was a good man. He was a journalist-turned-football coach who had been appointed to head the anti-match-fixing efforts of the Hungarian League. On February 28, 2012, the Hungarian police announced they had arrested dozens of players for fixing, including six from Kutashi's own team.
The next day - March 1st at 4.10pm - Robert Kutashi called up a friend at a Budapest newspaper and spoke those words. Then he went to a tall apartment block in the 14th district of Budapest. The building, ironically, overlooks a bankrupted soccer stadium and is next to a casino. Kutashi went to the top floor, took out his mobile phone from his coat, which he then folded neatly on the floor. Then jumped.
Match fixer Wilson Raj Perumal. Photo: Reuters
If Robert Kutashi were the only victim of this wave of match-fixing that is engulfing the world of sports, it would still be a tragedy. However, he is just one of many. There is a long trail of bribes, extortions, sexual blackmail, kidnappings, attacks, murders and suicides linked to match-fixing around the world.
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There have been match-fixing controversies in dozens of different countries and last weekend in Australia came news of a fresh scandal allegedly linked to the same people who were involved in the match-fixing in Hungary that drove Kutashi to his death.
There is something going on in modern sport that we have never seen before. Here is an explanation.
David Obaze (left), who has been arrested, in action with the Southern Stars football club.
Fixing and corruption in sport has a long history. At the site of the ancient Olympics in Greece, built in 776BC, there is a row of the remains of statues dedicated to their gods. The statues were built with fines paid by athletes and coaches who had been caught cheating. So there has been corruption in sport for at least 2800 years.
However, this generation is facing something almost entirely new. It is a form of match-fixing that is linked to the globalisation of the sports gambling market, and it is as if someone has taken match-fixing and injected it with steroids.
This new type of fixing has the power to destroy much of the modern sports world. Because of its international popularity, football is most at risk. However, this new kind of fixing has also embedded itself in tennis, cricket, Japanese sumo wrestling, horse racing, Taiwanese baseball, US college sports and a host of other athletic events. This new form of fixing will, unless fought, sweep aside many sports and leave them dead and destroyed.
Arrested players (from left) Joe Woolley, Ryan Hervel, Cristian Cristea, Tamas Nagy and Nicholas McKoy.
If we take the entire sports gambling world, most of the familiar forms of gambling are relatively small. Las Vegas has only a tiny share of the total world sports gambling market (less than 1 per cent).
The illegal sports gambling market of North America is far larger than Las Vegas. It is often run by American organised crime syndicates like the La Cosa Nostra.
However, again when compared to the total world sports gambling market, it is relatively small.
If we take those two markets - Las Vegas and the US onshore, illegal markets - and then add in the offshore North American sports gambling sites (located in Costa Rica and the Caribbean), then add in the big British and Australian sports gambling companies such as Ladbrokes, William Hill and Betfair, and also the European sports national lotteries, you would have less than 40 per cent of the total world sports gambling market.
The rest of the sports gambling market is in Asia. The Asian sports gambling market is huge. It dwarfs the combined European and North American markets. Most of the Asian market is illegal, often run by the Chinese equivalents of Al Capone. And because much of it is illegal, it is difficult to give an accurate estimate of its total size.
A senior executive of the World Lottery Association, the umbrella-group of legal government-run gambling companies, claimed the total amount of the illegal sports gambling world, with most of this market being in Asia, is approximately $90 billion.
Other estimates have gone even higher. Officials at Interpol - the international police organisation - have claimed that the total world sports gambling market is worth $1 trillion.
In the past 30 years, this vast, illegal gambling market has corrupted sport across the continent of Asia. There are a few honourable exceptions of Asian sports leagues which are corruption-free.
They are the genuine exceptions. The fixing in Japanese sumo wrestling is so bad that recently the organisers had to cancel the national championship. The only other time that these championships have been cancelled was in 1946 just after the Second World War and the American bombing raids that flattened many Japanese cities.
The Taiwanese baseball league has had so many scandals linked to gambling match-fixing, it has now been reduced to only four teams. Pakistani cricket is a byword for this type of activity.
Much of Asian sport is drenched in similar types of corruption. The Chinese football league is a national disgrace. Those are the words of the former Chinese premier Hu Jintao, who declared in the autumn of 2009 that there was so much match-fixing and corruption in their football league that it embarrassed China.
There are similar circumstances in football leagues across the region: South Korea, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore have all faced similar scandals in their own leagues.
In Malaysia, the corruption was so bad that following a national police investigation in 1994, one cabinet minister estimated 70 per cent of matches in their leagues were corrupted.
When there was an attempt to clean up the very corrupt Singaporean-Malaysian joint football league, the two countries came close to a diplomatic incident. The Malaysians claimed the league was so corrupt because the gamblers in Singapore were fixing a lot of the games; the Singaporeans said the league was so corrupt because the criminals in Malaysia were fixing a lot of the games. Neither could agree so the league was disbanded because of the corruption.
It is this gang of match-fixers from Malaysia and Singapore who are now travelling the world to fix games.
Asian fans are not stupid. They know what is going on. They are not happy about all the corruption in their sports. In fact, they are very angry. So they turn their allegiances to teams in other leagues where they think the contests are not corrupt. This is part of the reason why fans in China are now wearing Manchester United or Houston Rockets shirts.
Far more importantly, the punters in that vast illegal Asian gambling league are switching their bets from the local sports, with all their inherent corruption, to international sports. They are betting on events from ATP tennis matches to North American ice hockey games to tiny games in semi-professional Australian soccer.
There are also a number of companies who place monitors at these matches. The companies send their people to the games where they stand on the sidelines with their mobile phones or laptops reporting back to the illegal gambling market in Shanghai or Johor Bahru or Manila.
They are not just reporting on the big Premier League, La Liga or Serie A games. They are reporting on games that are tiny in size: Canadian soccer games played in front of 200 people, Finnish baseball games, German table-tennis tournaments.
For example, in July 2008 in Copenhagen, Denmark, the annual Tivoli Cup took place.
The Tivoli Cup is a youth tournament for Danish teams. It is a big tournament, but most matches are played in parks and watched by a couple of dozen people, parents and, that year, four Chinese monitors reporting on the games back to the gambling market.
In other words, the illegal gambling market in Asia is so powerful that it is worthwhile to monitor games of Danish teenagers playing football matches in the park.
Later that same year, in an indication of both the power of the market and the ruthless criminals who control much of it, two Chinese gambling monitors who presumably decided to double-cross their bosses were found tortured to death in their apartment in northern England.
What are the Asian fixers doing? They too are not stupid and they are trying to do to European and North American sports leagues what they so successfully did in their own leagues: corrupt them.
Now the fixers are coming to Europe, Latin America, Africa, North America and Australia and forming alliances with local criminals. It is an ideal marriage. The Asian criminals get access to the teams and players; the local criminals get access to the lucrative Asian gambling market.
Here is how they work. The Asian fixers have a ''runner'' who works as their agent. These agents hire a local ''project manager'' - usually a team official - coach, manager or senior player. The key quality of a project manager is that they have to have lots of credibility and power on the team.
The runner gives the project manager a sum of money to start to persuade the players to join the fix. The project manager knows which players are most likely to take part in a fix. In a more complicated variation, the runner will arrange the transfer on to the team of various players who have worked fixes before.
In Finland, the world's biggest match-fixer, Wilson Raj Perumal, who is suspected of masterminding the rigging of professional soccer matches in the Victoria Premier League, helped bring in eight Zambian players who would then win or lose games on his command.
Once the fix is set up, the runner phones the Asian fixers with the information on how the fix will be played. This is not just which team will win or lose but more complicated choreography. For example, if a team can lose the first half, but end up winning the game, they can earn 20 to 30 times their money.
Then these fixers - with their years of experience - ''fix'' the Asian gambling markets. Using agents and sophisticated tactics they hide their activities from the bookmakers.
In one fix in a 2009 match played in a minor soccer league in Canada, they had a globalised network of fixers, runners and players stretching across nine countries and three continents.
In this way, they have fixed soccer games in at least 60 countries, including the United States, El Salvador, Guatemala, Zimbabwe, Malta, Cyprus, Greece, Turkey, Finland, Hungary, Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia, Albania, Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Belgium, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Hong Kong and Canada.
They fixed matches at every level from youth-level football tournaments to the lucrative Champions League to, according to Europol, the Europe-wide police organisation, hundreds of international matches.
The problem is that few inside the sporting world are actually taking this issue seriously. There are, of course, lots of conferences, lots of speeches, lots of high ideals, but very little action.
Even Australia's own legislation is tough on paper, but it still needs to be backed up with rigorous enforcement on the streets and the stadiums.
Until the sports world decides to get tough on this issue, stand by for more match-fixing controversies and more victims like Robert Kutashi.
Declan Hill is an international investigative journalist who infiltrated an Asian match-fixing gang for his book The Fix: soccer and organised crime.
His next book, The Insider's Guide to Football Corruption, based on his doctoral thesis from the University of Oxford, will be published next month.
I am staggered that the afl did not consider Ross Lyon's actions in playing his reserves in the last match as bringing the game in to disrepute.Surely it must also be seen as the having the potential to be match fixing !
What double standards we are putting up with.