OT: Cameroon & FIFA Investigating Potential Match-Fixing by Cameroon
A while back I posted a link to a NY Times investigative piece on match-fixing in friendlies before the World Cup. At the time, many doubted this could be an issue in the Cup itself. Well, let's hope not, but the infamous match-fixer mentioned in that report supposedly predicted that Cameroon would lose to Croatia 4-0 and that a Cameroon player would be ejected in the first half. Guess what happened:
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EDIT: Both Cameroon and FIFA are investigating.
No wonder they were shit the entire tournament. Disappointing considering they used to be pretty good.
This is stupid.
True, diving is annoying, but it is not like Lebron James, placekickers, and the majority of the NHL do not exist. MLB doesn't have the chance, as it is non-contact. Oh, and remember all those stories about NFL and NCAA defenses slowing down no huddle by faking injury.
It's best to not express your point of view when it is that obviously skewed.
You point to soccer specifically when you talk about diving, instead of speaking about its effects on other sports as well. And in terms of off the field issues, didn't the NBA ref scandal register with you? How about the ridiculous way the NCAA goes about its business?
No offense, but you do not hate soccer because of the diving. You hate it because you live around a lot of people who have told you to hate it, and are oblivious to the fact that you can't form your own opinion.
I want to like the World Cup. I really do. But it's hard to like when guys react to being hit on the shin like they've just been shot. It's hard for me to put aside my midwestern/football play-through-pain outlook.
because the diving and histrionics take away from some pretty amazing athletic feats.
Getting kicked by soccer players hurts dude.
FYI I've played soccer since age 6
What's up with your username/tag line? Kind of dickish to single out another poster like that.
So your argument is that you hate anything in a "sport" that isn't the platonic ideal of the sport? The point of all sports is to win, and however you do that within the confines of the rules is fine. I take WAY more offense to a bunch of guys using PEDs in football, baseball, basketball, etc. than a couple of guys trying to get penalties so that they can win the game.
doesn't come close to the hilarity of that in soccer. Moreover, flopping in these other sports is considered a scar, an embarrassment. In soccer, it's defended by its fans and considered part of game strategy. I'm enjoying the world cup, but the diving is truly annoying.
You paint broad strokes when you say that fans endorse diving. I, for one, don't like it, strategy or no.
The reason for its prevelence, is that soccer is more conducive to diving. There are no commercial breaks if you are gassed. Set kicks are highly dangerous. There is more contact than basketball. When is the last time someone made a clean basketball tackle?
There is no exact comparison to soccer in sports. I believe that diving owes more to this fact than it does to the culture of the sport.
I wouldn't disagree completely, but watch an NBA playoff game and I don't see too many guys overally embarrassed by trying to draw questionable fouls. It's part of the game, and the flopping argument seems premised on a select number of games magnified by a perception issue. Oftentimes, guys do go down with what seems like minimal contact because they are running full-speed and are suddenly clipped our pushed over. Maybe they embellish a bit, but if the point is to note to the officials that the defender impeded your ability to do what you were doing, I don't see the issue. You don't need to play "No autopsy, no foul" rules just to prove your manhood.
Ah yes, the "pussy" argument put forth because a more nuanced explanation of why you actually don't like soccer isn't worth it. Just say you don't like it and leave it at that - I'm fairly certain any of these "pussy" players could run your butt ragged on the field and are some of the best in the world at what they do. But sure, it's easy to act like an ass on the internet.
I suppose you also hate college football and basketball, because the NCAA is shit.
This is the only fake sport I follow
Hardly surprising if you watched the game. The Song foul, the late fight between teammates and the goalkeeping were all very odd.
The original Spiegel article quotes Panumal saying there are "seven bad apples" in the Cameroon squad.
I wonder if the on-field bickering--there were several incidents of it, not just the late head-butt--was between players in on the scam and players that weren't and were pissed at their teammates poor play tanking?
Why would these athletes, who make hundreds of dollars when their nation finds the money to pay them, want to fix a game?
I could use some extra spending money
Should we expect anything different? I mean soccer is literally the only sport in the world where impropriety happens. Typical.
Agree. And this is also specific to Cameroon.
I mean, the Toledo football team from a few years back: The RB that rigged games was from Cameroon.
Any guy knocked out in the first round of a boxing match... Cameroon.
utgers basketball team from the 60's... all from Cameroon. Except the bench guys. They were from New Jersey.
Shoeless Joe Jackson.... half-Cameroonian. (or is it a Cameroonigander? Camerooner?)
It's a real probelm over there.
its not working
Your sarcasm meeter is filling too quickly before it sputters. You need to clean it out so more crap can fit into it ....
To assist... obviously this problem isn't a "soccer" problem just like it's not a "Cameroon" problem.
Even though Shoeless Joe was 1/2 Cameroonaranian. But that's just coincidence.
*shakes head and walks away*
.. Fucking Navarre
*Nods head in agreement*
...You said it, fucking Navarre.
If the match fixers knew that 4-0 was what was published and didn't change it to a new scoreline than they are pretty dumb.
It seems to have appeared on a Facebook conversation between Spiegel and Panumal and I doubt anyone in the syndicate would be a regular reader of the Spiegel facebook page.
The Spiegel article's a bit unclear--you could also read it as referring to a private message Panumal sent after initial contact was made on Facebook.
...was scare-mongering, I think it's worth pointing out that it dealt entirely with syndicates getting corrupt officials on the field. That would be hard to do in a WC and the particular mechanisms described in the article would be literally impossible because individual federations don't handle match assignments.
Corrupt players is a different animal altogether. And side bets like "Team X to have a player sent off in the first half" is exactly where I'd look.
Valid point, but the whole premise of the article was that gambling syndicates were trying to fix FIFA matches for profit, and the particular way they did it in the friendlies was via the use of corrupt officials hired by a company set up by a convicted match-fixer (!). Now, the same syndicate is possibly using another method. The premise of the original article remains valid, in my mind: FIFA has a problem, and they may not be very good at dealing with it. We'll see.
...was that "gambling syndicates were trying to fix FIFA matches for profit" it did a pretty poor job of demonstrating it. There wasn't a single example of a match being fixed, or even subject to an attempt, that was under FIFA jurisdiction. They were all friendlies arranged by the national confederations involved, or national-league matches that again are under the jurisdiction of the national federation in question and not FIFA.
That was my objection to the article. Actually two objections: (1) it presented it as if it was new information but we'd known it all for years, and (2) it took known corruption in local federations and a known syndicate that was making use of that corruptionand tried to present it as a specimen of FIFA corruption. Easy enough for the poorly-informed with some rudimentary knowledge of FIFA corruption involving determination of tournament sites, and the vast opportunities for graft profits associated, to make the leap and conclude that FIFA's tournaments were corrupt too.
In the last couple of years FIFA's handed out lifetime bans to at least 100 players and coaches and officials caught fixing matches or accepting bribes. What more do you propose they do? They can sanction a federation, keep Cameroon out of future tournaments. They can cooperate with the authorities to help with criminal proceedings. They can beef up their gambling-odds monitoring system. If they really, really wanted to push the matter they could take action against federations that allow direct involvement in football by gambling institutions, but that's pretty unlikely when you've got state-sponsored gambling on soccer in many countries. (And it's not just soccer.)
Tells the Telegraph that the conversation happened after the match, not before, and gives them screen shots of the conversation that appear to confirm this.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/cameroon/10939113/Wilso…
It's the coincidence between the predicted and allegedly-fixed circumstances (the score, the red card) that makes the allegations convincing. If they weren't predictions at all, just after-the-fact speculation that such events could have been fixed, there's nothing convincing in it at all.
Of course the guy's a convicted swindler and it's certainly possible he could have doctored the screen-saves. I guess we now wait for Spiegel to come forward with their evidence.