bannedfromHandV Posted September 21, 2012 Share Posted September 21, 2012 So, don't know how to do short links etc sorry but just read this on the BBC website, is the guy for real or what? You can tell he's 'played' (insert - simulated, feigned, pretended, acted etc) in Italy: "Swansea City manager Michael Laudrup says he sees no problem with teams paying rival sides to win games. The Dane stressed he was completely against "match fixing", but believes the term needs to be "better defined". He said: "If Swansea play the last game against a team and a third team pays Swansea to win the game, I really don't see anything bad about that." Accepting money to influence the outcome of a match is against Football Association and Premier League rules. “For me, match-fixing is somebody pays someone to lose a game” Laudrup was asked about the issue of match fixing by a journalist working for European media organisations at a news conference. The scenario Laudrup describes could involve a club in the relegation zone paying a team a bonus if they beat one of their closest rivals, enabling the threatened club to stay up. Laudrup, who has 104 caps and 37 goals for Denmark, was asked the question because he played for Lazio and Juventus in the 1980s, and Italian football continues to be dogged by match-fixing claims. As many as 13 Italian clubs - mainly from the second division - are under investigation. Juventus coach Antonio Conte was given a 10-month suspension in August for not reporting alleged match-fixing in two games involving ex-club Siena in the 2010-11 season. He denies the claims and is appealing. Laudrup, 48, said players guilty of being paid to lose should be banned from the game for life instead of being given fixed-term bans. He said: "To say I'm against that [match-fixing] is like saying today it's Thursday - it's obvious. "The worst match fixing I've heard was what happened in Italy before I came there in the beginning of the 80s, where somebody bought three or four of the players in a team to lose a game. "That means that seven or eight players in a team were playing to win, like normal, and three or four of them just to lose." However Laudrup has no issue if there were bonus from rival teams. "It's just a bonus. For me, match-fixing is somebody pays someone to lose a game," he said. "In Spain where there's one or two matches left in a season we always talked about the suitcases. "But the suitcases is to win - I don't see anything bad about that. "I think we have to define very well what is match-fixing because there's different levels, I think." Spokesmen for both the Football Association and Premier League declined to comment specifically on Laudrup's revelations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted September 21, 2012 Moderator Share Posted September 21, 2012 He's right that match-fixing is to lose. After all, you can decide to lose a match. You can't decide to win one. You can only try harder. But we don't have that culture of paying for influence full stop, so he's on a hiding to nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted September 21, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted September 21, 2012 2,549 posts and you still can't do short links? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted September 21, 2012 Share Posted September 21, 2012 I don't really see an issue with it either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laivasse Posted September 21, 2012 Share Posted September 21, 2012 I guess there's a worry that if this kind of thing becomes ingrained in to your footballing culture, then an implicit threat develops that teams will throw matches in your rivals' favour if you don't pay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarewsEyebrowDesigner Posted September 21, 2012 Share Posted September 21, 2012 Yeah, where does it end? Who regulates it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted September 21, 2012 Moderator Share Posted September 21, 2012 He's wrong. What if a team deliberately plays under their potential when they aren't paid, then only step up when they are paid. They have effectively fixed the other games that they lost Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted September 21, 2012 Moderator Share Posted September 21, 2012 I guess there's a worry that if this kind of thing becomes ingrained in to your footballing culture, then an implicit threat develops that teams will throw matches in your rivals' favour if you don't pay. It is easy to prove if the threat is explicit. But yeah once the practice becomes the norm, there is an expectancy. It's best not to go down that road at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PompeyVillan Posted September 21, 2012 Share Posted September 21, 2012 I guess there's a worry that if this kind of thing becomes ingrained in to your footballing culture, then an implicit threat develops that teams will throw matches in your rivals' favour if you don't pay. You've hit the nail on the head. There's enough money in the game, it's completely unnecessary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bannedfromHandV Posted September 21, 2012 Author Share Posted September 21, 2012 2,549 posts and you still can't do short links? Aye, tad embarrassing. Tho in my small defence I rarely post news items. This would destroy football, no two ways about it and I actually found it galling to hear a professional of the ilk of Laudrup to be talking about it so nonchalantly. Also didn't / don't get his comments about suitcases in spain, is he referring to players going into holiday mode before a season ends?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted September 21, 2012 Share Posted September 21, 2012 What they can do in Spain isn't that bad IMO, my understanding is that if barca are playing getafe on the last day and if barca draw real win the league then real can offer the getafe players a bonus to win, it's dodgy but not that bad, there isn't the gulf in money in this country for it to happen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troglodyte Posted September 21, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted September 21, 2012 What they can do in Spain isn't that bad IMO, my understanding is that if barca are playing getafe on the last day and if barca draw real win the league then real can offer the getafe players a bonus to win, it's dodgy but not that bad, there isn't the gulf in money in this country for it to happen Isn't there? Anyway, as others have said, even though it's not as bad as deliberately losing, it's still not a road I'd like to see football in this country go down. It'd be wrong to start making this type of situation commonplace, as things could rapidly become more blurred between a team deliberately losing, and a team not putting in 100% effort because they weren't paid any money that they expected to receive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted September 21, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted September 21, 2012 What they can do in Spain isn't that bad IMO, my understanding is that if barca are playing getafe on the last day and if barca draw real win the league then real can offer the getafe players a bonus to win, it's dodgy but not that bad, there isn't the gulf in money in this country for it to happen Isn't there? 2009-10 domestic TV revenues by club (per Jose Maria Gay of the University of Barcelona), in Euro Barca: 158m (26% of the La Liga's total) Real: 136m (22% of La Liga's total) Man Utd: 65m (5.8% of the PL's total) Wigan: 43m (~4% of the PL's total) Getafe: 6m (~1% of La Liga's total) Compared to Spain, there's no meaningful gulf in finance within the PL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PompeyVillan Posted September 21, 2012 Share Posted September 21, 2012 That's only TV revenues though Levi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted September 21, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted September 21, 2012 I would strongly suspect that the gap in merchandise, gate, and sponsorship between Barca or Real and Getafe is at least what the corresponding gap is between Man Utd and Wigan. At minimum the gap between Real and Getafe is not 108m Euro less than the gap between Man Utd and Wigan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted September 21, 2012 Share Posted September 21, 2012 Indeed. The distribution of wealth in the Premier League is far more evenly than anywhere else comparable, it's one of the major successes of English football. Agree with BOF's comment earlier too, Laudrup is merely a victim of not understanding British culture. He isnt really saying anything wrong, but we dont entertain those sorts of ideas here, I'd wager that teams with "nothing to play for" in the final two or three games of the season **** teams over who badly need the points more often here than anywhere else in European football and the Italian mentality that rolling over at the end of a season to help somebody else out is absolutely abhorrent to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qwpzxjor1 Posted September 22, 2012 Share Posted September 22, 2012 Teams should be trying their absolute hardest to win every league game. To say "we'll step it up if you pay us" is ridiculing the fans who DO pay them to try to win every week. Do the fans not matter to football at all any more? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troglodyte Posted September 22, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted September 22, 2012 I'm not saying that the distribution of wealth in the Premier League is less equal. I was questioning villa4europe's assertion that there "isn't the gulf in money in this country for it to happen" - I'd say there is, potentially, even though it's not as wide as that in La Liga, for example. Still very much doubt we'll see football go down this route, however! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted September 22, 2012 Share Posted September 22, 2012 He's wrong. What if a team deliberately plays under their potential when they aren't paid, then only step up when they are paid. They have effectively fixed the other games that they lost Well i think he is referring to games at end of season when mid-table teams have nothing to play for and players thinking about their summer holidays. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts