Betting scandal in England?

by Art Morte Wed Jul 11, 2012 7:19 pm

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/1124053/fifa-investigates-claus-lundekvam-betting-claims?cc=5739

FIFA has announced that it will investigate former Southampton captain Claus Lundekvam's claims that he took part in a sustained betting scam that also allegedly involved other Premier League stars.

A statement said: "FIFA is monitoring this issue and involved its chief investigator in England. Once all information is known it will be decided who is leading the investigations.''

In an interview in Norway, Lundekvam revealed that he was regularly involved in spotfixing during his nine years at Southampton.

"It's not something I'm proud of," Lundekvam said. "For a while we did this almost every week. We made a fair bit of money. We could make deals with the opposing captain about, for example, betting on the first throw, the first corner, who started with the ball, a yellow card or a penalty. Those were the sorts of thing we had influence over."

Lundekvam claims, though, that results were never fixed, merely individual events within matches.

"The results were never on the agenda," he said. "That is something I would never have done. We were professional competitors. Even though what we did, of course, was illegal, it was just a fun thing."

Does he have a reason to lie?

What makes this interesting is that if he's telling the truth, they were betting or influencing on rather harmless things, like who gets the first throw-in. That's a whole lot of easier to get right than trying to secure a certain scoreline or result. I can understand more players being lured by that sort of stuff than actually trying to get a certain result. Just give the other team the first throw-in and play for real the rest of the game.

What are your thoughts?

by Doc Wed Jul 11, 2012 7:24 pm

I could imagine that someone in FIFA is saying "If they could bet on the small stuff, what's to say they won't bet on the larger stuff." Personally, I wouldn't protest against any investigation.

Who knows what they might find...

by Vibe Wed Jul 11, 2012 7:27 pm

Trouble in heaven? Laughing

by Great Leader Sprucenuce Wed Jul 11, 2012 7:28 pm

Nothing will become of this.... they would have to get Lundekvam to reveal everything from over 10 years ago and get all the people involved to reveal everything too.

People are comparing to the spot fixing to the Pakistani Cricket team but this is'nt even close.

And it's not like they were affecting the outcome of games either.

by Doc Wed Jul 11, 2012 7:35 pm

That's the problem with investigating something from so far back. People either forget, don't care anymore or are just not apart of the whole football scene. Hell, one or two might be dead.

@Mole, I thought the ~~shitty~~ nonsensical JT court case was the main Sports headline in dear old England?!

by Great Leader Sprucenuce Wed Jul 11, 2012 7:38 pm

It is lol, but this is a close 2nd.... at least from a sporting stand point.

The whole court case is just a farce and to think my taxes are actually going towards paying for it :facepalm: