Peter Walton..

[KentBlue]

We are in the 21st century, we live in a world of social media, internet, powerful computers, mobile telephones with built-in video recorders, cars with satnavs so you can go anywhere in the world without the aid of a reference map that was approximately the same size as the Himalayas, and you have dash cams that record your car journeys that can be activated by speaking to the fucking thing!
So it's surely not too difficult to influence the outcome of a game of football without leaving any evidence of wrong-doing?

I don't profess to know how it's done, and I wouldn't suggest any of us paying spectators do either, but as sure as both death and taxes - it is happening.

 

[BamberBridgeBlue]

Same question, is there money changing hands, who is telling the refs to cheat?
Who is paying who?

If I was committing a crime ( I am not) I would want considerable payback.

When I ask this question , I never get a reply.

Of course money is changing hands. The considerable payback comes in the form of a pay packet. For example, The Premier League has been enormously successful. A lot of that success was built during United, Arsenal and Chelsea domination with Liverpool and Spurs always painted as the plucky teams having a go at knocking those clubs off their perch.
When we came along, we weren’t invited to the party. I think we are tolerated under sufferance. I can recall many Liverpool games during the season we were neck and neck in the Premier League, that the referee gave them a helping hand in the form of a dodgy free kick in a dangerous position. They don’t get VAR checked.
In the first part of last season The Scum got loads of help in a similar way to ensure they at least got a Champions League place. To be fair they improved to the point they didn’t need the help in the second part of the season.
They won’t see their activity as criminal, just protecting their brand.

 

[Trevor Morley's Tache]

If it was extortion or bribery it would be impossible to conceal, I will stick to unconscious bias.

It's amazing just how much you can conceal if you are exceptionally well connected or rich.

There's a reason that is as difficult to get into FIFA HQ as is is to get in the Pentagon.

 

[andthesunshineband]

Remember when Scudamore said a poor rags team was bad for the PL brand..

Basically he was saying it would affect the 'value' of the 'brand' when it came to selling the 'product' world wide..

Maybe money stuffed in brown envelopes is not physically happening but in a round about way it is..

Favouring the rags (and dippers), keeping them relevant by awarding one an unhealthy amount of penalties and the other a huge leg up to win the league for the first time in a generation has gone a long way to maintain the 'value' of the 'product'.

PL referees, VAR officials, match commentators and co-commentators, not to mention SKY and BT and the written media all stand to be well serviced from the tonnes of money sloshing about in the PL trough..

After Scudamore's comments, one could not help but think it's bound to influence match officials and subsequent, rag and dipper cheerleaders when calls are close on the pitch..

Maybe it's me being harsh on our rivals, maybe all the penalty calls, forearm smashing defenders, forcing opposition players into the advertising hordings and then staying on the pitch, manager's running on the pitch after a goal and receiving no punishment when, say the Wolves manager for example did exactly the same and was given a touchline ban and fine..

Maybe the playing field is in fact completely level, VAR is favouring no particular team, ref's are not swayed by red shirted teams and the media and sports stations give fair and unbiased opinion on all the PL teams..

Maybe I'm seeing something that's just not there..

Maybe it's not bent as fcuk after all..

Anyway, I've renewed my season card so I can vent how I feel when I get back in the stadium..!

In my opinion, Scudamore shouldn't have even been allowed to clear his own desk after that statement.

 

[KentBlue]

It's been mentioned before, but anyone who's seen that rags vs Arsenal game with Riley in charge will know full well the game is bent.

 

[cookster]

It's been mentioned before, but anyone who's seen that rags vs Arsenal game with Riley in charge will know full well the game is bent.

Pretty certain that ended the invincibles run?

 

[Bill the Blue]

In my opinion, Scudamore shouldn't have even been allowed to clear his own desk after that statement.

It's blatant cheating in plain sight and the sad thing is the media did absolutely nothing about it then and it's still going on now, not that you'd hear about it

To be fair, at the time, the media were probably far too busy dishing up shit on those FFP cheats City who had already been found guilty in a jumped up kangaroo court, overseen by the usual suspects,

The gutter press were doing their utmost to get the most successful PL team of the last decade banned from European football, stripped of their titles and enforcing a points deduction / demotion to be arsed about Scudamore's trivial comments..!


Spinless *****..!

 

[old blue]

It is a long held desideratum of mine to take a meaningful sweep of the dead wood that inhabit the upper echelons of the F.A, EPL and our pals at Pigmol. One of the first things to do, is to do away with NDA's, when refs retire there should no golden hand shakes to keep schtum. Interviews should be conducted away from the pitch with the refs in a quiet room in the stadium. This follows my highest requisite that the refs should be miced up so we can hear exactly what they are saying and what they are being told.
That will do for a start, but I know it is wishful thinking.

 

[asahartford1]

They seem to be incompetent at being bent aswell don't they ?
Judging by the number of League titles and other trophies we are racking up. -)

On the whole I just think the majority of them are crap, I have seen a multitude of bad decisions this season, no team has been left unpunished.
PIGMOL are inept, not fit for purpose, the system is antiquated, Riley, like Taylor in the pfa, feathers his own nest, position for life and jobs for the boys.

Re those believing the bookies and Organised crime have a stranglehold, they would be using City as the cash cow, rather than wanting City to lose, they would be milking the team winning the most.
Mason and Moss I cannot unearth any possible excuse for their incompetence, other than age, diet, lack of expertise, and poor eyesight-)

 

[Trevor Morley's Tache]

It's blatant cheating in plain sight and the sad thing is the media did absolutely nothing about it then and it's still going on now, not that you'd hear about it

To be fair, at the time, the media were probably far too busy dishing up shit on those FFP cheats City who had already been found guilty in a jumped up kangaroo court, overseen by the usual suspects,

The gutter press were doing their utmost to get the most successful PL team of the last decade banned from European football, stripped of their titles and enforcing a points deduction / demotion to be arsed about Scudamore's trivial comments..!


Spinless *****..!

The media are just a susceptible to the flannel of corporate hospitality as anyone. It's essentially bribery/corruption.