This summer’s CONCACAF Gold Cup was played against a backdrop of scandal, finger-pointing and disgrace off the pitch, but that didn’t seem to carry over to the matches. Now, with Sports Illustrated’s Grant Wahl receiving confirmation Thursday that FIFA and Interpol investigations of match fixing show something was amiss with a handful of matches, we’re forced to believe even the pitch wasn’t spared from corruption.
Wahl’s report (which you should read in full if you haven’t yet) features a betting-industry insider who is suspicious of every match played by Cuba and Grenada and also El Salvador’s opening 5-0 loss to Mexico. The suspicions come from in-game betting in which bettors wager on future events, such as how many more goals will be scored during the remainder of a game. The majority of the action is in Asia, and a Singaporean newspaper received a tip before the tournament that a syndicate from the Asian nation would have a hand in Gold Cup match results.
The FIFA/Interpol investigation was announced in mid-June with German magazine Der Spiegel reporting there was suspicious betting action on three games, both 5-0 results and one 4-0 game (I’ve got to be honest, I’m not 100% sure this is the original article because I don’t know German, but it is about the Gold Cup and match fixing).
Obviously these allegations – revelations, perhaps – should be troubling to all fans of sport, but the Gold Cup matches mentioned are particularly disturbing to me because I was there. I covered the matches on the first day of the Gold Cup for USA10Kit as I would cover any other match, expecting both teams to put their best effort forward to win. They both finished 5-0, and at the time nothing really seemed out of place.
I thought Mexico’s midfield was very good. I thought El Salvador was badly in need of Arturo Alvarez and was unlucky to lose by such a wide margin. I dismissed Costa Rica’s drubbing of Cuba as simply a show of strength from the Central Americans.
And now? Now I’m not sure what to think.
Apparently I took in matches that had some element of fixing. Previously, I thought of match fixing as something that only occurred in smaller countries or was carried out by a small group of people. Perhaps a referee on the take gives a bogus PK or, as in the Pakistani cricket scandal, a player alters his behavior enough to push an obscure prop bet in one direction or the other. I imagined match fixing being thinly veiled, such as the Nigerian Premier League game Steve Bloomfield describes in Africa United (it really is a fascinating read, and it’s quite the bargain on Amazon right now. Might make a nice stocking stuffer for yourself.).
Bloomfield writes:
The home side are going to score. I know they are. Sometimes, watching a match, you can tell a goal is coming…
But this time it’s different. This time I know the home team will score because I’ve been told that’s what’s going to happen.
He explains how the referee awards five minutes of stoppage time, though there were virtually no stoppages, and the players of the visiting team basically watch as their opponent’s captain heads in a stoppage time from a free kick in the 92nd minute. The goal wins the league championship for the home team, remaining stoppage time be damned, and sums up the experience by saying:
Sometimes a match has so much drama it’s almost as if the players are following a script. This is the first time I’ve watched a match where they really are.
This kind of fixing? This is harder to detect. As one of Wahl’s sources notes, two of the teams implicated (Cuba and Grenada) are pretty bad. They just have to be the right amount of bad so bettors putting down money can reap massive profits.
It’s more than a bit naive on my part not to have expected this kind of thing. There apparently have been CONCACAF Champions League matches under heavy suspicion, with the Singaporean newspaper mentioning this group may have influenced matches played by Salvadorean side Deportivo FAS. We’ve seen it before, and sadly we’ll see it again.
The six-figure payouts that accompany an agreement to throw a match by a certain margin have to be enticing to anybody, much less a player in a country where professional soccer might not be as lucrative as it is elsewhere. The problem, though, is not only with simply the percieved moral obligation to try your best to win any match and not be influenced by outside factors. Match fixing is like Pandora’s box. Once that trust has been breached, it’s very difficult, impossible really, to look at things the same way.
The lid of the box is ajar. We know match fixing happens. Now we know it’s hit our region, in our most important tournament at that.
Remember that aforementioned leadership? The group in turmoil? We’re left to rely on them to slam the box shut before the demons are well and truly running amok. It’s the kind of thing you don’t want to believe. I was naive to match fixing in our region. I’ll give the benefit of the doubt (which I may regret) to those in power. That can no longer serve as an excuse.
Chris Eaton, the head of FIFA’s Head of Security, told Wahl “We can defeat match fixing.” Here’s hoping his optimism is well-founded, because match fixing must be defeated. Otherwise we’ll completely lose the game we love.