Bookies and Bribery in British Football

By: Daryl | April 4th, 2008

Bribery in Britain I’m sure everyone’s already seen or heard today’s big story by now. If not, then here are the basics: an unnamed footballer accepted a £50,000 bribe to get himself sent off (and persuade three teammates to get booked) in a football match somewhere in Britain in the last two years.

Apparently the player has played in the Premiership, but given the timeframe and the amount of money, it’s unlikely the game in question was in England’s top flight. I know the likes of Ashley Cole are fond of the old pound sterling, but I don’t see him dirtying the beautiful game for an amount that’s less than his weekly wage.

The game theoretically could have taken place anywhere in Britain, but seems it had to be at a reasonable level for said bookie to make any money. According to The Independent:

It is not known precisely how the bookmaker profited from the sending-off and bookings, but the assumption is that he either struck or laid “spread bets” relating to the cards, and that the game was at a level significant enough to warrant a sizeable market in this.

I’ll leave others to speculate where that could be.

It’s not quite match fixing, but deliberately getting sent off in exchange for money definitely counts as corruption. So now British football has some big problems to face up to.

More worrying is that it wasn’t a straight cash in hand deal between the player and the bookie. The £50,000 was apparently a gambling debt the player owed, which was forgiven in exchange for the player’s participation. Talk about a vicious circle.

The good news is that the mystery player was treated at the famous Sporting Chance clinic, set up by former Arsenal defender (and reformed drunk-driver) Tony Adams to treat people with addictive illnesses. The bad news is that Sporting Chance chief exec Peter Kay stands by his claim that gambling addiction is an “epidemic” among British footballers. The not-very-surprising news is that Arsene Wenger has called for any match-fixing players to be “banned for life.” Maybe he’s right, but a life ban seems to be his answer for everything these days.