(Penalty) Spot-Fixing in Football?

A story was circulating on mainland Europe last night that German authorities were planning to investigate the epic 4-4 draw between Newcastle and Arsenal on Saturday. The story came from a French television station who stated that senior Interpol officers were looking into suspicious betting patterns in the game. (Full story here http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/arsenal/8308192/Interpol-deny-investigation-into-Newcastle-Arsenal-game.html)

The article goes on to state that, of all the parties concerned; Interpol, the FA, UEFA and the Premier League had neither notified each other, or set into motion any plans themselves to investigate the issue. Furthermore, Interpol, do not conduct independent investigations themselves, they work in conjunction with all of the relevant authorities and have done in past examples of fixing in sport, not just football.

Either, there is a big cover up and all the parties are playing along to hide the fact the investigation is happening or, far more likely in my opinion, this is a case of a suspicious press putting 2 and 2 together and making 632,981. For absolute starters, the winning goal on Saturday from Tiote was such a magnificent goal and with only a couple of minutes left to play, at such a time in the game to make it unbelievable to be able to plan it to finish that way. Furthermore, the odds on the comeback happening must have been so high that they are attractive to punters, even for a couple of quid as the returns would be so high, leading to more money being put on the outcome.

Overall, I find it very hard to believe that match fixing in football, at Premiership level, games are incredibly difficult to fix for a number of reasons. Firstly, the fact that it is a team game with 18 players involved for each team means each player has to be bribed to play badly in front of millions of people, as opposed to, for example, tennis whereby not all events are played in front of such a large crowd and a shock defeat can be put down to an individual having a bad day at the office.

And secondly, the wealth that players at level have means they have not the need for the carrots that crooked bookmakers can dangle in front of them. Unlike the recent spot-fixing case in cricket, footballers at Premiership level do not come from a poor background and are not poorly paid whilst bookmakers cannot threaten their families. Salman Butt, Mohammed Asif and Mohammaed Amir, whilst their actions were not right, they have the cover that they are from a poor background, are poorly paid and bookmakers can threaten their families with violence, all meaning the bookmakers can exercise incredible amounts of power over them.

The combination of these two factors mean that match fixing in football at Premier League level is rather unlikely. However, that's not to say that fixing in football cannot happen. As the Pakistan case in cricket proved, matches do not have to be fixed for bookmakers to make huge profits from the sport. Betting on when a no-ball or a wide will be bowled can now be done in the age of online gambling and it is far easier and cheaper to coerce or tempt a couple of players than a whole team, as was the case with Butt, Asif and Amir.

Similarly, it is not beyond the realms of possibility that the advent of in-match gambling in football can lead to a situation whereby a player, for example, aims to get booked on a certain minute to win some money for bookmakers and in return, get some cash themselves or other incentives. Or perhaps, conceding a penalty on a certain minute in a game, spot-fixing. Geddit?

Which is not to say that this regularly occurring in football in this country, far from it I would say, but perhaps it's something that needs to be considered and kept an eye on in the future.