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.
