This RAWK insanity is a small clip from a long rambling post about VAR.
With all the money and prestige involved there could be any number of different actors trying to exploit the holes in the system; gambling syndicates, individuals within the game, clubs, states, agencies, investors. Some of them will obviously try.
I am not saying that, for instance, Man Citiy are actually involved in corruption when it comes to directly influencing the outcomes of specific matches. However with regimes such as the Saudis, the Quataries, Abu Dhabi and the russian mafia for that matter, where the actual club owners are kidnapping their own daugthers, putting wives in housearrest, chopping up journalists into pieces, "sentencing the killers" to life in prison (while the threshold for death penalty is appalingly low) and then actually providing them with a life of luxury, kidnapping or buying small boys to train as jockeys for their horse racing obsession, killing quite a few in the process and literally starve thousands of people to death, WHY WOULD ANYONE THINK THAT THEY WOULD NOT CHEAT IN ANY WAY POSSIBLE TO GET WHAT THEY WANT??? It's not like they have ever shown an ounce of moral or ethical behaviour in any other aspect of life? We also know that they're already cheating on the financial side of the game.
It's not like I think they would just phone up Anthony Taylor and ask him how much to make sure City win. But would I be surprised if the Saudis knew everything Tierney downloaded or watched on his computer? Would I be surprised if the Quataris somehow had created an "asian gambling syndicate" that apparently tried to brieb people for their own "fiancial" gain? ...etc....
To be clear, I am NOT saying that any of this is actually happening as we speak. What I am saying is that, in my view, there's no doubt that there will be actors with the will and the means to make this happen if it is possible and that because of the way the game is run, the back door most certainly is unlocked.
And until the people in charge of the game actually makes an effort to lock that door, I don't think that it is unreasonable, in face of a mountain of really questionable incidents within the game, to question the integrity of those involved.
It's difficult to grasp this mindset, it's simply beyond me, how does a guy like this navigate his daily life?
