I emailed someone ITK about one of our games this season who confirmed that a heavy lay of bets appeared at halftime which affected the result. I'm suspicious this has happened at least twice with us and moreso with another club.Remember back in the 2011/12 season when Walton suddenly disappeared off to the USA and Mason got pulled from a couple of games he was supposed to be reffing us in? Well I was told that a guy was paid a small fortune to produce a dossier proving a correlation between dodgy refereeing decisions and suspicious movements on non-regulated betting markets in the Far East. Analysing those markets and advising professional gambling clients (and bookies) is his business. Basically, by doing that, he could show strong circumstantial evidence that games had been fixed and referees were involved in that (allegedly). Now, as you can imagine, it's hard to believe something like that but my source was in Abu Dhabi and said it was common knowledge in certain circles. Also it seems it wasn't the first time he'd done it and back around 2008/9, a few referees "retired" very early after a similar dossier was presented.
Two other events helped confirm it. First of all, Mike Riley came up to the Etihad to do a Q&A with Points of Blue. It was done under conditions of some secrecy and was supposed to be a pilot for a series of road-shows they were going to do but these haven't taken place as far as I know, nearly four years on. Why pick us for that, unless there was some reason to do so? Now I wasn't given the name of the guy who did it but I could guess as there's not many who have that sort of knowledge. and sure enough, the guy I thought it was claimed at the end of the season that he should have been given a winners medal as his part in us winning that title was crucial. Now this guy is a Mancunian and a rag but even he claimed that the rags would have cheated their way to the title if he hadn't been asked to do what he did.
So although it sounds very far fetched, I firmly believe there are two dossiers in existence that present very strong evidence that a number of refs in the last ten years been bent (and we're talking at least 7). And certainly when you look at the performances of certain officials, you can believe it.
I enjoyed that Riley meeting and think it was a brave thing to do but some of it left me open-mouthed. Two things particularly stuck with me.
When we were discussing the red card for DOCGSO. We said, quite reasonably I thought, that giving a penalty restored the goal-scoring opportunity so why further punish a team that have conceded that penalty, unless the offence merited a red card in itself of course? His response was "Well we thought about that but decided that if we stopped doing it, players would wait until an attacker was in the area to foul them." At which nearly everyone said "But then you could give a penalty!"
And the other moment of incredulity was when we were talking about Lee Mason after he'd been talking about how they appoint referees to try to avoid conflicts of interest. Mason had just given that infamous penalty at Old Trafford, when Ashley Young came from an offside position, dived to win a penalty and earned Shaun Derry a red card in the process. We tried to convince him that Mason was a rag but he said that Mason had declared an allegiance to Bolton, as members of his family had season tickets there. It might even have been you who then pointed out that Bolton and QPR were involved in a relegation struggle so how could appointing a referee who allegedly supported one of the teams involved in that relegation battle to officiate in a match involving the other NOT be a conflict of interest. It had clearly never occurred to him.
I emailed someone ITK about one of our games this season who confirmed that a heavy lay of bets appeared at halftime which affected the result. I'm suspicious this has happened at least twice with us and moreso with another club.
I would like to know why Webb is allowed to advise on BT Sport whilst being Reilly's left hand man at PGMOL. Surely that's a conflict?
The same match official that aided our capitulation at the swamp last season interestingly enough.Spuds away.
The same match official that aided our capitulation at the swamp last season interestingly enough.
And Thaksin's best mate.The same match official that aided our capitulation at the swamp last season interestingly enough.
And Thaksin's best mate.
Probably nearly 50 years.....but like most decent people on here...I have the intelligence to be able to insult them without having to refer to people (including one of our own) who were killed in a plane crash!