As you may know, I contribute a weekly picks column to this site. As someone who has been wagering on sports for my entire adult life I think I have a good grasp on general tendencies and have attempted to provide weekly winners. On top of that I am a bit of footy enthusiast and try to keep aware of as much as I can in world football especially as it pertains to FIFA.
I am not writing this article for the casual fan, although I encourage anyone who cares to read it.
If you pay attention, you occasionally may hear of bribery accusations, match fixing scandals and arrests being made in various places, Italy especially in more recent times. My first revelation into the dark underworld of world football came 2 years ago when I read “The Fix” by Declan Hill (highly recommended), where he goes into the seedy realm of criminals across Europe and Asia who fix soccer matches. It was incredibly enlightening. I was forever changed, not in my love for the beautiful game, but now let’s just say that all that glitters isn’t gold.
Far be it for me to make unwarranted accusations but we should all operate under the assumption that our favorite players and teams – our heroes – have committed some immorality or other in the past. But then look at yourself in the mirror and ask if you have not…
My next trip to the dark side of the tracks came last year in May before the World Cup started. I saw the ESPN 30 for 30 piece on the migrant workers in Qatar. You may have heard about this yourself. If you have not then I highly recommend you look into it.
By Agência Brasil , via Wikimedia CommonsI fully intend to enjoy the 2018 World Cup in Russia, even though that will surely have it’s own form of human right’s violations, so perhaps I am being hypocritical when I urge you to Boycott Qatar 2022. I will not be leading the revolution, but in 7 years time my TV will be turned off unless the situation changes. I am not the most righteous man on the planet but even I have a limit to the evil I will tolerate.
Socrates has been credited with saying that “the unexamined life is not worth living”. So I have to delve into my soul to draw any conclusions from this week’s events. Yes, I care about world football, and this will not change. Yes, I believe that there are criminal ties to the sport in all countries. But where do I stand?
In last year’s World Cup in Brazil many of the citizens of the host nation were displaced from their homes. Stadiums that will not be used ever again were built with taxpayer’s money. There was clear evidence of mismanagement by FIFA, if not just flat out corruption. But there was 1 match that stand’s out for me as pertaining to this subject:
On June 18, 2014 Cameroon played Crotia in the 2nd Group A match. Knowing that Crotia was a very good team, and that this was a must win, I bet on them and was fairly confident. They won 4-0. Shortly after the match was finished, a story came out about an Asian match fixer who, prior to kickoff, not only correctly predicted the score from his jail cell, but also that Cameroon would have a player sent off, which came in the form of Alex Song who was red carded in the 40th minute.
Because I had read Declan Hill’s book where he has told almost the exact same story about a gangster fixing a match while behind bars, I found this to be ultimately believable. I had bet on a fixed match on the world highest stage. I was part of everything I, or any other honorable person in this world, should hate…
Rather my first thought was “Damn, I should have bet more”.
Next: Chelsea FC: 5 Things Learned From 2014/15