Saturday 31 December 2011

Third Party Ownership, Control of Referees, Firms of Agents Working Together to Fix Games in the Premier League

Players and Fans are the two key ingredients that make football the beautiful game.
The skill and the atmosphere, the suspense and the uncertainties, sometimes even a randomness of poetic and physical forms.

Football will always be this but there are some parts of the game that now exist in a parallel universe to the game/play outlined above.

This is the football world of agents and 3rd Party Ownership, rigged matches controlled by cartels and consortia from various strata of the global underworld, doping without any valid testing regime, criminalised referees and players, referees owned by bookmakers, clubs, organisations, gangs, mafia...

The current football corruption trials in China reveal much of the format of the fixing of games - (incidentally China is also the primary foundation of much of the fixing in the big European leagues hence the pressure of more and more late morning/lunchtime kick offs in Europe's major leagues eg Spain and Italy starting at 10:30 and 11:00 GMT on Sunday matches this season).

The Chinese even have expressions for the types of corruption that we witness weekly in the EPL - "Hei Shao" means 'Black Whistle' (and the EPL has more black whistles than the Burkino Faso National Whistling Orchestra), while "Da Giaqiu" represents 'playing fakeball'!
There are numerous other expressions eg for matches controlled by two separate firms of agents that might effectively control up to half of the players on the pitch, for agreed draws and the annual sharing of points etc etc.

The beautiful game is infested with leeches sucking it dry of any nuances of integrity or sport, postmodern football is becoming a parody of the artform.

We have been provided with information regarding two firms of football agents active in the EPL who not only undertake shared third party ownership structures for individual players but who also work together to fix matches (sometimes with help from certain match officials).

We are not willing to reveal the firms, the agents, the players, the match officials or the clubs - only my work colleagues and professional advisers have been made aware of the murkiness.

But, for example, there is an event this weekend in the EPL in which the two firms of agents in question own ##### key players and ### of the refereeing team.
For one of the major big city EPL derbies, one firm alone owns ### central midfielders from one team and the goalkeeper and a ################################ on the other.
Just imagine the possibilities if you were a very naughty boy?!!?!

From the perspective of you the reader/fan, the key point is surely this - if these individuals are corrupt then these matrices allow the rigging of games for massive global profit running into the tens of millions of pounds in the underground betting markets.
It completely destroys the game.

One thing is certain in postmodern football - if a corrupt loophole exists or if one may be carefully constructed (even if it requires duopolistic combinations), there are those out there only too willing to exploit the opportunities.

Socrates (the one with the ciggies and the ball skills): "Beauty comes first. Victory is secondary. What matters is joy."

The good die young while Doug Ellis gets a knighthood, while Liverpool and Chelsea Fcs are proud to be racist, while child traffickers who think Black people are coloured slice the action all over the place...
... if you think the public face of your sport is tawdry, the iceberg is markedly murkier under the surface.

Happy New Year.

Enjoy the Fakeball.

Tuesday 20 December 2011

Proël Not Doël

Solstice greetings from Jerry and the other assorted bodies involved in this sublime object of desire.

If you are lucky over xmas, you will receive posts on Flimsy Sabermetrics, The Art of War and Whistleblowing, and one on the non-existence of time, the existence of multiverses, eternal inflation, cosmological rebirth, dark matter, the Higgs boson and the Standard Model (oh and the problem with gravity and people).

If you are really really lucky, you won't have to put up with anything...

Monday 19 December 2011

Riley Out - He's Two-Faced, Slippery and He Stinks

In March 2010, we produced a post on a peculiar bias in the decision making of Jon Moss, a then Football League Referee - "Doing A Little Deal Down The Moss" (http://footballisfixed.blogspot.com/2010/03/doing-little-deal-down-moss.html).

The post is reproduced in part below.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Yesterday, Jonathan Moss, a bog-standard referee from the wrong side of the Pennines, gave a fallacious penalty (the infringement occurred outside the penalty area) that allowed West Bromwich Albion to defeat Blackpool by 3 goals to 2.

Blackpool manager, Ian Holloway, was furious about the decision.

And why is this of any concern to the likes of you?
Well, Mr Moss should never have been allowed to officiate on this match in the first place.

Below we list all of the occasions where Moss has refereed either West Brom or Blackpool during his five year Football League tenancy.

Scunthorpe 1 Blackpool 0

WBA 3 Luton 2

Norwich 1 WBA 2

Blackpool 3 Scunthorpe 1 - despite having Brandon sent off by Moss after 38 minutes.

Blackpool 0 Plymouth 0

WBA 4 Ipswich 0

Peterborough 0 WBA 3 - a penalty and sending off in favour of the Throstles.

Hull 2 Blackpool 2 - Sent off Kaspar Gorkss of Blackpool.

Blackpool 1 West Brom 3 - Gave West Brom their equalising penalty.

Burnley 2 Blackpool 0 - A penalty to seal the Hillbilly victory.

Blackpool 0 Watford 2

Blackpool 1 Nottingham Forest 1 - Ian Evatt sent off after 68 minutes.

Blackpool 2 Newcastle 1 - must be because it helped West Brom!

Scunthorpe 1 West Brom 3 - two sendings off and a penalty when the game was one-all sorted out this particular affair.

WBA 3 Blackpool 2 - gives Albion fake penalty for winning goal.

So, what are the scores on the doors?

West Bromwich Albion matches with Mr Moss blowing the whistle:

7 matches.
7 wins.
4 penalties in favour of West Brom and none against.
3 sendings off in favour of West Brom and none against.

Blackpool matches with Moss's sides:

10 matches.
2 wins and 5 defeats.
0 penalties in favour of Blackpool but two against.
0 sendings off in favour of Blackpool but three against.

How exactly do the Football League reach the decision of who referees whom?"
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It was with an air of inevitability that it was noticed that Mr Moss had been promoted to the PGMOB Select Group of match referees for the current season.

His close 'relationship' with West Bromwich Albion is now enhanced since new club agent John Colquhoun was appointed (along with Roy Hodgson following the Anfield Fiasco) by his friend Jeremy Peace.
We have been reliably informed that Colquhoun and Moss were first acquainted in the early nineties when Colquhoun was a player at Sunderland/Millwall while Moss was on the Academy teams.
Moss was already qualified as a referee but did not focus on dressing up in strange outfits and exerting authority over groups of men until he gave up playing in the late nineties (like Colquhoun).

Moss has already had involvement in four West Brom matches this season as either referee or 4th official (an increasingly influential role in the world of microphone contact and television replays).

In total, Moss has officiated in 10 matches and four of them have involved WBA!
On the one occasion he was refereeing Albion, Moss gave them a penalty in a highly suspicious collection of betting patterns against Everton in the Carling Cup. West Brom still blew it causing Hodgson to memorably rip off his expensive Italian jacket and throw it to the Goodison turf.

How exactly does Mike "Kipper" Riley at the PGMOB reach the decision of who referees whom?

One of my colleagues contacted the Premier League about the selection of referees and the seeming control that various clubs have over the choice of match officials.
Their response alleged randomness so we did a statistical analysis of the PGMOB selections and random it is most definitely not.
Interestingly, the Premier League have now removed all historical information on the match refereeing team appointments from their website in a truly Stalinesque example of transparency.

Why is it illegal to print this information elsewhere?
Why?
What is it about the appointment of match officials that leads to such secrecy from the Premier League?
What is it about the appointment of match officials that leads to Spanish referees only being made public at 00:00 hrs on the day of the event?
What is it about the appointment of match officials that leads to UEFA delaying release until the day before Champions League and Euro 2012 matches?
What is it about the appoinment of match officials that leads to a representative of the Polish Presidency of the EU pleading for greater co-operation to tackle corruption, including reforming member states' legal codes and giving referees short notice on which matches they are due to officiate?

Corruption!??!!?!

Is this the same corruption referred to by Pierre Cornu, the lawyer tasked with fighting corruption in football on behalf of UEFA.
We have quoted the man here before: "I don't think that we will be able to eradicate this problem. We don't pretend. It's just everywhere. It's like drug trafficking. There will always be drug addicts. The only way to not bring people to court is the legalise drug trafficking."
He continued that corruption risks damaging "the very soul of sports" and will jeopardise funding for football. Cornu claims that the criminalities are arranged via corrupt match officials.

We are not saying that Jonathan Moss is involved in corruption.
He might just get carried away by the airing of the word "Albion" or perhaps throstles are his thing. Who knows?
But some referees most definitely are very very very corrupt indeed and if it is possible for clubs to place match officials on key events, we are looking at horseracing rather than the beautiful game.

A Game Theorist might suggest three solutions to this systemic problem.
i) Vastly increase the number of match officials - 18 isn't enough for 'the biggest league in the world' especially when a number of them hardly ever officiate and when the leading lights are involved in two matches most weekends (one as referee and one as 4th official).
ii) Randomise the selection process.
iii) Bring in video replays for ALL contentious decisions.

The Bundesliga is markedly cleaner than the big three leagues of England, Spain and Italy when it comes to the corruption inflicted on the game by match officials.
When a rogue official did surface in Germany he was dealt with and imprisoned.
Is it any coincidence that attendances are markedly higher in the Bundesliga and tours of real English football fans make their way over there for a real football experience?

Wednesday 7 December 2011

Ohi! Ohi! Ohi!

On Saturday lunchtime, Mike Dean shamelessly distorted the hyperreality in Chelsea's aided 3-0 victory at Newcastle - an outcome only a surprise to those utterly outside the loop.
Last night Mr Dean was in Dortmund in a heavily and obviously rigged Champions League match against Marseille.

On the final rounds of matches in UEFA and FIFA competitions when qualification is dependent on the outcome of two separate matches, the authorities insist on coincident kick off times to ensure no team(s) possesses an advantage in time.
Now while there are Cosmologists who will inform you that time doesn't exist, for the purposes of this scammed scenario, we'll assume that it jolly well does...

When Mr Howard Webb and co-defendant Mr Michael Dean eventually co-ordinated to allow the game to go ahead, Olympiacos and Arsenal had already been in motion for three minutes.
These minutes, m'lud, proved to be significant.

An aside to describe the crime scene - Champions League Qualifying Group F.
Dortmund had to defeat Marseille heavily and hope that Arsenal prevented Olympiacos from winning.
Marseille had to perform to remain one point ahead of the Greeks.

By half-time in Greece, Olympiacos were leading Arsenal 2-0 and as they departed the pitch, Marseille were 0-2 behind in Dortmund. With an extra minute of first half injury time, Marseille pulled a goal back and the second half in Germany began fully four minutes after the Greek match.

When Olympiacos scored their third goal, guaranteeing victory (3-1) over Arsenal, there were six minutes remaining in Dortmund.
To qualify, Marseille needed to score twice.
And score twice they did...
...before less injury time was added than should have been the case and the French side were through.

The fact that both Dortmund and Marseille are/were members of the G14(18) group of power clubs that allegedly no longer exists, allegedly no longer matters...

Not saying that Webb/Dean were directly involved in a criminal scam but the late start and early finish in favour of the scam shows that, at the very least, the two men didn't inhibit it!
And with their previous...

If, beyond the stretch of all rational probability, Webb/Dean accidentally added time to the equation - fair dinkum.
But what if UEFA 'allowed' this advantage to the two G14(18) sides?
Would UEFA ever allow such an advantage for teams from Serbia or Belarus? Yeah right...

The imposition of a template primed for corruption also affects the 65,590 people who paid to witness the Dortmund v Marseille match and anyone paying out to watch the event on television.

In that football mimics politics, the conference to save the Euro is taking place in the city of Marseille this week.

But the hyperreality is parallel.

In 2002/03, the Germans were the first EU country to break the threshold in the stability pact and no action was taken.
They elected not to punish themselves.
Like you do...

Fast forward to the recent past and the constant German/French carping about the irresponsible Greeks and their irresponsible borrowing.
But for every irresponsible Greek borrower there is an irresponsible German bank lending.
It takes two to tango to Depression.
They really cannot have it both ways - normal people exploit moral hazard and they should be victimised; bankers really exploit moral hazard and they should be supported with the money of the victimised people.

So the French/German axis demolishes Greece twice over - in politics and in football.
The Germans should try lecturing to my Corfiot friends on the morals and ethics of power - Kerkyra used to have a thriving Jewish quarter, m'lud.

But back to the footie...

As football is so fixed, it is imperative to maintain the illusion of integrity in order that little pieces of evidence don't quantum into the public sphere.
UEFA and/or Webb/Dean have let us all down in the incompetence of their contorting of our neohyperrealities.

We rest our case.

Thursday 1 December 2011

The Gleasga Kiss Brigade

Sir Ferguson (Man Utd), born Glasgow.
Eric Black (Sunderland caretaker manager), born Bellshill, 9 miles outside Glasgow.
Kenny Dalglish (Liverpool), born in Glasgow.
John Colquhoun (West Brom Club Agent and Strategic Orchestrator), created in Stirling just 23 miles from Glasgow.
Alex McLeish (Aston Villa), born in Glasgow.
Paul Lambert (Norwich City), devised in Glasgow.
Owen Coyle (Bolton), Glasgow-born.
Steve Kean (Blackburn), born in Glasgow.
Joe Jordan (Tottenham), born in Cleland, 10 miles outside Glasgow.
David Moyes (Everton), born in Glasgow.

And downward...
Dougie Freedman (Palace), from Glasgow.
Willie McKay (Doncaster Rovers club agent), born in Milton of Campsie just outside Glasgow.
Darren Ferguson (Peterborough), Glasgow silver-spooned.
Derek McInnes (Bristol City), born in Paisley, a mere 7 miles from Glasgow.
Malky Mackay (Cardiff City), came out of Bellshill 9 miles from Glasgow.

50% of all Premier League teams as well as 15 of the 44 teams in the two top flights of the English hierarchy have absolute or considerable management control by an individual from Glasgow and its environs.

In comparison, Manchester has no managers or significant others in the top two leagues and no senior input at all in the EPL although David Platt (Assistant at Man City) was born in Oldham, Barnsley manager Keith Hill hails from Bolton (the poor bastard) and newly appointed Michael Appleton at Portsmouth has managed to escape his birth in Salford.

Glasgow 15 Manchester 0.

The top two teams in the Premier League are Mancunian.
The most successful team ever in the top flight is Man Utd.

Rangers and Celtic and, indeed, Scottish football in general are shit.

So, dubious connections aside, why are there so many Glaswegian managers and their like at the top of English football?
You don't see Dutch managers running huge swathes of the Bundesliga or a French foreigh legion in Spain.
So, why?

We suspect that there be a rank rotten reekin' pish pundit behind it all!!