Wednesday 27 February 2013

The Wally Holds the Brolly But Who Holds the Betting Slips?


Yesterday Steve McClaren jumped before he was pushed at FC Twente Enschede.

In a meritocracy, this should represent the end of this man's career in football...
...but it won't because a slot will be found within the non-meritocratic monstrosity that is the FA.

Okay, some facts from the public domain - McClaren the manager has now failed in four of his last 5 posts at Twente, England, Nottingham Forest and Wolfsburg while McClaren the man has concurrently failed in two extra-marital affairs.
FC Twente are currently one of the least fit outfits in the Dutch Eredivisie - McClaren is responsible for maintaining these fitness levels if the club is to qualify for Champions League (for the title is already beyond them). He has failed.
Leading the table at the mid-season break, Twente now sit in 5th place.

The man who Brian Glanville charitably describes as "inept" also, at the very least, runs a loose operation.
Betting patterns on Twente Enschede matches are very revealing - in over 50% of Eredivisie matches this season the outcome is in the market pre-match.
Then there was the Europa Cup match between Bursaspor and FC Twente but that is another story for another day.

We do not know the source of this trading but we are aware of its existence.
Somebody very close to the club is betting on outcomes.
This money correlates with outcome over 90% of the time.

So surely the question has to be...
...how close to the centre of a club's operations does one have to be to achieve these corruptions?

And the answer to that question will evolve from the betting patterns at FC Twente in the period to the end of the season now that McClaren has done the walking-the-plank thing.

Forensic the Fuck-Ups in Football - How Fantastic!