Comments on: Forum Poster “Leaks” The Champions League Draw 90 Minutes Before It Happens

By: Marci

Marci — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 22:08:54 +0000

saying that the competition has been rigged is ridiculous…..people guess the or and even who wins in tournaments accross the whole spectrum of the sporting world….if someone can perfectly predict who wins all of the games in the NCAA tournament (which holds 65 teams and 64 games) then i dont see why someone wouldnt be able to guess the order and fixtures of 8 teams THINK ABOUT IT…..heres a prediction Arsenal in the finals against Barca all over again with Barca winning in the same fashion as 06….SCREW LIVERPOOL

By: nas

nas — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 19:38:54 +0000

all draws are rigged in my opinion…is it just me or does it seem that in all international draws the host nation somehow usually ends up with the easiest group and with this draw they want a big money making english team in the finals

By: vtec

vtec — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 03:02:58 +0000

i am pretty sure that that is exactly what platini proposed, that no country have more than 3 teams in the competition.

By: SFDon

SFDon — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 01:07:44 +0000

I’m convinced these draws are all rigged too….I can see your point Cem, but if Platini doesn’t want 4 english (or any other nations) teams in the semis he shouldn’t let any country have 4 teams in the competition.
I’ve started reading this blog regularly and am sadly starting to believe that most football is corrupt, not just the diddley eastern european countries….

http://footballisfixed.blogspot.com/

By: Cem ARGUN

Cem ARGUN — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 23:02:31 +0000

Well there’s this hot&cold draw balls issue. So fixing a draw might be possible without a permanent mark or color difference on the balls.

If there’s a fixed draw. I think only UEFA can be held responsible. Imagine for once, the highly probable all Brit / “Premier League beats Champions League” semi-finals. UEFA would lose tremendous money and credibility in a scenario where Premier League dominating the last two sequence of the Champions League. Spain, Italy, Germany pissed off, lost TV ratings, angry sponsors for not reaching enough global audiences… Platini’s nightmare! So if he draw is fixed, it’s fixed for the good of the Champions League… The intention behind shouldn’t be for one or more team’s favor. That might also be the reason it’s leaked.

By: kirby

kirby — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 22:40:34 +0000

maybe whoever fixed the matches fixed it in such a way that it would be easier to manipulate the match referee. maybe uefa sets out a list of refs to ref the games before hand. if someone knew this they could set up the draw in a way which they could get their ref to ref the game. you never know *COUGH*Inter – Liverpool*COUGH*

By: Ak

Ak — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 20:12:54 +0000

Jeez people, the chance of picking the correct q/f draws is 1 in 105 (just less than 1%), which no competent statistician would regard as statistically significant.

By: Adam

Adam — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 20:01:18 +0000

I’ve assumed for quite a few years that all football competition draws are rigged. Isn’t the prem supposed to be random too, even though it has those big four weekends?

By: john

john — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 19:52:42 +0000

If it was rigged, I’d guess they were trying to set up (or at least make possible / more likely) a quarter finals which included the teams with the most supporters, i.e. Man U, Chelsea, Liverpool/Arsenal, and Barcelona. Maximize the dolla dolla bills the games can generate. (or Eura Eura Euros, or whatever.)

By: Muddia Beduddia

Muddia Beduddia — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 19:46:18 +0000

I’d think you would want to avoid immediate rematches like Roma-Man-U. Especially with what happened last year. That said, I think this is a MUCH different (and better) Roma squad and think it’ll be fun to watch.