Liverpool Game In Match-Fixing Probe
Liverpool’s record Champions League victory over Besiktas was last night at the centre of shock match-fixing allegations.
Uefa is examining a number of Champions League, UEFA Cup and Intertoto Cup ties and the spotlight has now turned to the Reds’ 8-0 thumping of the Turkish side at Anfield last month.
Investigators from German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung have discovered there was a great deal of money bet on Besiktas to suffer a heavy defeat. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Liverpool and Besiktas’ players have come under suspicion of having been targeted by Asian gambling syndicates.
They collapsed to the heaviest defeat in the competition’s history after trailing just 2-0 at 52 minutes.
Uefa have handed a 96-page dossier to Interpol because of doubts they have over 15 games dating back to July 2005, but insisted last night that irregular betting patterns were not enough on their own to raise suspicion.
Liverpool said last night they know nothing about this claims.
(December 5, 2007)
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Well it’s a relief to see LFC isn’t at blame for this as when I first caught glimpse of a headline like this that involved our club I was disturbed and eager to find out more, FAST!!
We absolutely anhialated them, was a walk in the park, and the Besikstas players did look as though they had given up when walking out of the tunnel to start the match, so maybe there is some truth in this allegation, I just hope there are reprocussions against us or that result/record.
Errr, I meant “No reprocussions against us”
Michel Platini has confirmed that Liverpool’s 8-0 thrashing of Besiktas in the Champions League is not part of UEFA’s investigation into match fixing allegations.
The UEFA president admitted that online betting is becoming a major threat to the game and revealed he personally met with European police and politicians to assist with ‘protecting the game’.
Speaking in Dublin at the official launch of The Football Association of Ireland’s new headquarters at the National Sports Campus, Platini expressed his concern at the vast sums of money bet on European games.
He insisted: ‘There is nothing in that (Liverpool v Besiktas) no, nothing.
‘We have some games under investigation, and one is more important than the other.
‘We have some teams but not a huge amount of games. But there is no national association and there are some clubs which come from the Intertoto Cup.’
Platini added: ‘This is a big danger for football, but we have an early warning system, to protect the game against the amount of money coming from Asia, from betting.
‘We are here to protect the game. I went to Brussels six months ago and came back one week ago to ask the European police to take care of the sport because there are so many things we cannot do anything about.
‘The violence, the racism, the betting - there are many dangers for our sport so we asked to help.
‘I asked the politicians in Europe to help us to protect our game too. But it is very complicated with illegal betting, very complicated to investigate.
‘Who is responsible? The president? the club, the referee, the defender, the goalkeeper, the forward? Who can you go to see who is responsible?
‘It is very complicated but we need to get a solution with the politicians or police. It is a huge problem with the sport.’
(Breathes again)