i use to think that ? but money is not the key its the value of the job they are in
the officials are under orders from the top ? the system is made up of crooks at the top table and dare you fall foul of not doing your job, its all about united and liverpool because of the so called fan base they have all over the world its sells tv rights to arm chair fans each season, its worth £billions and more than city can offer
Nope, it's actual money that they take and thereafter they're in the grip of organised crime.
Football's always been bent, it was the key to money laundering from the 70's onwards as rich business owners fully realised their potential for dodging tax rates of 90%
Think about it this way. Target a south american player worth £250k, buy said player for £8M, £250k of which goes to the club, £250k of which goes to the players bent agent and hey presto £7.5M deposited into a south american bank having avoided massively high uk taxation in those days.
Since the late 90's, with the growth in global gambling markets and online accounts, the criminality in the game has gone ballistic.
I'd go as far as to say that to make it to the top level as a referee you'd need to be bent as a nine bob note yourself or in full knowledge of others who are bent but keep your mouth shut like a good boy / girl.
Look at all the major football organisations and all the multi-million pound bungs the heads of said organisations take for awarding say the World Cup?
Those organisation heads are the senior representatives of major footballing bodies, they're bent and they epitomise their organisations because the games bent, perhaps not always at the bottom but absolutely always from the middle to the top.
IMO the only thing that makes any football game a game of chance is that there are vying organisations often working against each other to sway the results.
Look at how certain goalkeepers flock under certain agents, and how those goalkeepers can have an amazingly propensity to throw the ball into their own net in, especially in key games that decide seasons.
I could go on, but I won't because me talking about the obvious on here won't alter how it is and certainly won't convince those innocents who still believe that football's a clean game (and that Santa Clause delivers presents each crimbo and tooth fairy's sneak old teeth away and leave cash in exchange).