Match fixing

[Leyton388]

I can see the headline now

"shevchenko paid to miss istanbul pen"

The mirror can sensationaly reveal that former AC milan striker Andriy shevchenko was paid to miss the final penalty in the 2005 champions league final that handed Liverpool their 5th European cup.

[-V-]

Not really bothered. People can use to wind us up but everyone knows we had nothing to do with it. Its always players who take money to lose

[Leyton388]

deleted

[Icon]

I can see the headline now

"shevchenko paid to miss istanbul pen"

The mirror can sensationaly reveal that former AC milan striker Andriy shevchenko was paid to miss the final penalty in the 2005 champions league final that handed Liverpool their 5th European cup.

I always had doubts about that game. How they scored three so quickly in the first half was suspicious with our amazing defense at the time.

[-V-]

I always had doubts about that game. How they scored three so quickly in the first half was suspicious with our amazing defense at the time.

[Icon]

Sarcasm. No worry....

[Shaggy]

EXCLUSIVE: Goalkeeper at centre of match-fixing storm tells Sportsmail he is clean and was NOT paid to throw game at Anfield

By ALEX KAY

He is the man at the centre of match-fixing allegations that have rocked English football.

The man, according to reports that emerged on Monday night, who is alleged to have thrown a game when in goal for Debrecen against Liverpool in the Champions League in 2009.

But Vukasin Poleksic did not go into hiding when he discovered on Tuesday he was the protagonist in another major scandal only seven months after serving a two-year suspension for such an offence.

No, he answered his telephone and agreed to this interview with Sportsmail. His employers at Debrecen were keen to co-operate too, passing on Poleksic's mobile telephone number in the first place in the hope that their 30-year-old Montenegro keeper would front up these very serious accusations.

At least that was their stance until an official statement was issued on Tuesday afternoon saying neither the club nor their player would be making any comment.

To Sportsmail, however, Poleksic was keen to give his version of events and respond to the allegation that he was paid by an illegal betting syndicate in Singapore to let in more than two goals in the opening group game of Liverpool's Champions League campaign that season.

The match ended in a 1-0 victory for the English hosts at Anfield. Rafa Benitez, Liverpool's manager that night, said his side would have won by a greater margin had it not been for a fine defensive performance from the Hungarian side.

'Anyone who watched the match would know that what people are saying is bull,' said Poleksic.

'We lost 1-0 at Liverpool and I played a good game. I made lots of saves: a one-on-one against Albert Riera, one from Fernando Torres, one from Steven Gerrard. I remember it all. How can anyone say I threw the game?

'The match did not seem at all odd that night. There was nothing. I was just delighted to be playing at Anfield. It was a great night for me and my club and we played well.'

Last June, Poleksic finished a two-year ban for failing to tell the authorities about an approach from fixers before a game with Fiorentina in the same Champions League group a month after that match at Anfield.

A look through the highlights suggests Poleksic might have a point. Although none of the saves were world class, they were more than competent and the opportunity was definitely there to have conceded more without raising suspicion.

The goal he conceded came after a decent save from a Torres shot, the parry falling to Dirk Kuyt to tap in. Liverpool won but they were frustrated by their opponents, who defended well.

Poleksic says there is a reason for that. The game represented the pinnacle of their careers.

'It was the biggest match of my career,' he said. 'Liverpool have always been my favourite club. I love them and can't believe what people have said about me. But I know I am clean.

'At the end of the game, I swapped shirts with Pepe Reina, as I did in the return game. I still have Reina's shirt on my wall at home. I'm such a big fan of his.'

While Poleksic was happy at first to tell his story, he did then inform Sportsmail he would be switching off his phone. Not that he was surprised to find himself at the centre of a new storm. His past, he knows, will always be held against him.

'It's always the keeper who is blamed because if they make a mistake it often leads to a goal,' said Poleksic, who has 23 caps and could be involved when England play Montenegro in a World Cup qualifier next month.

'I just worry that people will believe what is being said.'

'Liverpool have always been my favourite club. I love them and can't believe what people have said about me. But I know I am clean.'
- Vukasin Poleksic

The scandal surrounding the 4-3 home defeat by Fiorentina a month after the Liverpool game was far more damaging for the goalkeeper. Fixers tried to bribe him ahead of the match.

He refused, he says, but paid the price for failing to inform the authorities, even though they did make it clear the game was not fixed.

'They called me a week or 10 days before the game and it made it difficult for me to play,' he said.

'I was so scared of making a mistake in case I was accused of something.

'I don't know who the people were who called me. I told them, "I don't do this, I'd never do this, please don't call me". '

'I don' t know where they were from but I made the mistake of not saying anything. I wasn't sure it was so serious and I had no information about the people so I didn't say anything.'

The failure to pass on the information about the criminal gang's intentions meant a two-year ban and a ¤10,000 (about £8,500) fine from UEFA, which was upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport despite an appeal.

His team-mate, Norbert Meszaros, was handed a fine and a six-month ban but both were overturned due to a lack of evidence.

Poleksic has since returned from his ban, playing seven games this season and returning to the Montenegro squad for the World Cup qualifiers against Ukraine, San Marino and Poland.

He will likely be on the bench when Roy Hodgson's side visit Podgorica next month.

'Every goalkeeper in the world makes mistakes but my big one was that I didn't call the police,' he said.

'I didn't play for two years because of this but it's my fault because I didn't report it.

'But I didn't fix anything. I came back in June and the club have been behind me the whole time.

'They know that I have done nothing wrong. I've been training, I've played some matches and I've been in the national team.

'I trained hard in those two years but it's been difficult. I didn't go to see any matches because it was too difficult for me.

'Nobody understands what I've been through. It's been very difficult for my family too and I couldn't have got through this without them.

'Players get injured for six months and it's difficult for them. But I was in perfect health for two years but unable to play. It was harder than having an injury but I'm a strong person.'

With the world now watching him, he will need to continue to be strong in the next few weeks.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2274086/Match-fixing-scandal-latest-Goalkeeper-Vukasin-Poleksic-denies-fixing--EXCLUSIVE.html#axzz2JsLmi9hd

[Alex]

They make it look so seedy with that grainy footage

[Pablo]

Nothing in this. Nothing will ever happen about it. Still it won't stop the press milking it for every sensational headline they can muster in the mean time

[Captain Stu]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...#axzz2JsLmi9hd

Well I'm convinced.

[PTP]

The amount of **** blue****e have given me over this

"LFC cheated in the champions league it's all over the papers and ssn so it's true"

Hang on dickhead! have you actually read about it! - the actual facts are (as i see it) - the Debrecen goalkeeper had been approached to throw a few matches around the time we played them, he rejected the approaches, but because he didn't report the approaches at the time. he was investigated. Other than that no wrong doing was found and certainly no links or any suggestions from anyone that LFC were involved in this in anyway.

Doesn't matter to these tabloid loving blue nose cunts....it's in the papers, LFC mentioned, so that means we also cheated in 2005 etc etc etc

[Captain Stu]

The amount of **** blue****e have given me over this

"LFC cheated in the champions league it's all over the papers and ssn so it's true"

Hang on dickhead! have you actually read about it! - the actual facts are (as i see it) - the Debrecen goalkeeper had been approached to throw a few matches around the time we played them, he rejected the approaches, but because he didn't report the approaches at the time. he was investigated. Other than that no wrong doing was found and certainly no links or any suggestions from anyone that LFC were involved in this in anyway.

Doesn't matter to these tabloid loving blue nose cunts....it's in the papers, LFC mentioned, so that means we also cheated in 2005 etc etc etc

I've seen a few Mancs with "we won it three times... without fixing matches... we won it three times..."

Pa-****ing-thetic.

[Tee]

That makes my blood boil. How I ****ing despise what this sport has become.

[Shaggy]

EXCLUSIVE: Top match-fix investigator reveals ‘real story’ about new cases
By Nick Harris

SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year
7 February 2013

The leading investigator into the global match-fixing crisis in football has confirmed that a press conference on Monday hosted by Europol “was misleading” and “it is a concern that the message was not clear.”

Friedholm Althans is the chief match-fix investigator with Bochum police in Germany and also the most senior police official and spokesman for the multi-national Joint Investigation Team (JIT) – codenamed Operation VETO – which between July 2011 and January 2013 conducted a review of match-fixing cases around the world.

Monday’s press conference led to global headlines saying that a Europol investigation had found almost 700 football matches had been fixed. (The official Europol release is here).

But Althans has clarified in an exclusive interview with Sportingintelligence today that there should have been a clear separation in the press conference between ‘old’ cases in Europe – 380 of them, which have long been known about and prosecuted – and 300 “new” cases, in Africa, Asia and Latin America, which Operation Veto has uncovered as a by-product of looking at the “old” cases.

“On Monday the message was not clear,” Althans said. “The 380 cases referred to in Europe are old cases that everyone has known about, cases already dealt with by authorities in Germany, Hungary, Finland, Slovenia and Austria.”

The 380 cases, he said, included matches outside those five countries, notably 79 fixed games in Turkey and others elsewhere where the prosecutions happened in Germany or one of the other five nations.

For clarification, Althans said that when money was mentioned in the press conference, it should have been made clearer that crooked bets of €16m, crooked profits of €8m and bribes to those involved of €2m related only to German cases.

One of the most headline-grabbing single facts of Monday’s conference was the revelation that an English club had been involved in a “suspicious” Champions League match in England. It is known now this was Liverpool’s game with Debrecen in 2009.

This too is an “old” case that wasn’t just known about but had already been prosecuted via Uefa and upheld by CAS. The goalkeeper involved, Vukasin Poleksic, was banned for not reporting approaches from fixers. He was not banned for fixing and maintains his innocence.

The “new” information that should have been more clearly stated in the press conference, Althans says, is that 300 “new” cases have been looked at in Africa, Asia and Latin America, as “spin-offs” from the investigations into the fixes in Europe.

“We have what we call ‘first evidence’ in about 150 of these 300 cases,” Althans says. “That means we have some results of investigations that show more than suspicion. How many in total are more than suspicious we might know in about six months.”

A blog yesterday by match-fixing author Declan Hill stressed the newness of some of VETO’s revelations. (Link to the blog here). That blog claimed an investigator said up to 150 international matches had been fixed in the last two years.

In fact, Althans has clarified to Sportingintelligence that of the 300 “new” cases in Africa, Asia and Latin America, “around 90 per cent of those involve international matches”. Or in other words, around 270 international games are among the 300 “new cases”.

However, these are not from the past two years. They relate to games played “mostly in 2009, 2010 and 2011″, according to Althans.

Althans estimates that “around 50″ different international teams were involved in these “suspicious” internationals, which is a truly alarming number should further investigation prove it to be correct.

“It’s about 50, but the international teams themselves were not necessarily involved in the fixing, these games could have been fixed by the referees and officials,” Althans says.

He added that all the 300 “new” games under suspicion are linked to the same Singapore cartel.

The next step for Althans and his team is to hand over their findings to local police forces and law enforcement agencies to try to take then forward and prosecute. He envisages this will happen through Interpol. “We [in Europe] don’t have jurisdiction to do this,” he said.

When Sportingintelligence asked Europol if their role in these matters was now finished as an organisation, a spokesman said: “No comment.”

http://www.sportingintelligence.com/2013/02/07/exclusive-top-match-fix-investigator-reveals-real-story-070201/

[baitman]

STATEMENT FROM LFC CLUB SPOKESMAN


we at LFC will investigate all allegations of match fixing after next weeks 3:1 win over zenit st petersberg.