By Walter Broeckx
Amazing things happening in the world of football these days. Of course we at Untold have been writing for years about strange things in football. Strange things in referee land. About gambling. About match fixing. About money laundering. About dodgy transfer dealings that could be connected with money laundering. We have done it all.
And as for now we don’t have much Arsenal related news we like to take a little view on the things that happened in the last week and that show that football is not excluded from society and it has problems with corruption and even drug dealings. A little walk in this weeks press, join me if you like.
Let us start with match fixing. As you will know non-existing in England. But now we got the news of a match fixing scandal in Austria. Not really a country that one in general relates to corruption.
The facts as far as we know them of course. GrÖdig is a team that has been promoted to the Austrian Bundesliga. And in their first year they do rather well. With a 5th place after 15 games they are far in front of the relegation place.
But this week one of their players, Dominque Taboga, went to the club board and said that he was being blackmailed by the gambling mafia. According to the accusations of Taboga they had asked him to throw a game away in the top division. And when he refused to do this they threatened that it might have serious consequences for his wife and children.
And when he refused it they put a gun against his head (same as happened in Belgium a few years ago) and they forced him to sign a declaration in which he admitted that he had fixed games. And once they got this letter of guilt from him they started blackmailing him with this letter. So whatever the criminals wanted it was a win win situation. And Taboga had to pay money to the criminals.
Now to make things worse one of the criminals was Sanel Kuljic. A player that has played 20 games for the Austrian national team and was top scorer in Austria in 2006. So one could say a top player in Austria. And that Kuljic once started his career in GrÖdig. What a fine coincidence.
Taboga had paid up to 70.000 euro to that Kuljic and another of his partners in crime. But after his confession to his club board they called the police and they went hiding when a next payment of 3.000 euro would take place. And so they could arrest Kuljic and his criminal partner, a person from Chechen; on the spot.
Once again we notice that it is gambling syndicates that are trying to fix games. And if we keep in mind that many clubs in the PL and English football are sponsored by betting companies for a big part. And the fact that millions of pounds are being bet on matches in England…it makes you wonder…
So we have a former top player from Austria who wanted to fix matches and blackmailed a colleague. Can it get worse?
Well it could. Maybe in Spain? Where we had the case of José Caminero. Sporting Director of Atletico Madrid. One of the top teams in Spain and rather famous for their past with some strange happenings on which Tony reported a while ago.
So what happened over there? Well in 2009 Caminero was arrested for money laundering for Columbian and Mexican drug cartels.
Caminero was a player that played for Real Madrid in his early days, then went to Atletico had a nice career over there, played 21 games for the Spanish national team and was their top scorer on the world cup in 1994 in the USA.
But after his career things didn’t go that well and in 2009 he was working for the drug cartels. The police arrested him but let him free while waiting for his trial. And now the trial will take place and he could be sentenced to 4 years of prison and a fine of around 4.000.000 euro.
Now one really funny thing is that despite Atletico Madrid knowing about his drug cartel money laundering and his arrest they gave him the job of sporting director in 2011. One of the first things he did was going to Chelsea and got their young goalkeeper Courtois on loan from them. If I would have a bad character I would ask: ‘what where they sniffing in Madrid and at Chelsea?’
Now we do have to admit that from the days that Caminero took over at Atletico Madrid things have gone better for them. On what powder they run remains another question maybe… or if you think at the first part of this article… better not.
Thank God we don’t have such stories at Arsenal. Or such persons. But can you be certain that such things cannot exist in England? The Australian football scandal a few weeks ago with players coming from England might suggest otherwise.
But for now I have enough of scandals in football. Until we find another one of course… or we could speak about Qatar and how they treat human beings… as this is a FIFA break…maybe the right time to talk about it….
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Earlier posts
- Team spirit is the answer
- Depressing international games and injuries…
- Knock, knock who is there?
- Comparing the league table
- A tactical analysis: Arsenal – Tottenham
- He’s got no hair, but we don’t care: Steve Bould
- Lost a battle, but the war goes on
- Away to United: the preview
- Is there a level playing ground and who cares?
- The officials for the match at Old Trafford
- What makes a team title contenders
Well done Walter,
Given the allegations right at the top of FIFA, one of which you allude to in your article, it cannot be a surprise if others think they would like to get their noses in the trough too.
Doing a little Googling it showed that many years ago there was a betting scandal in what was then the old English First Division. So nothing new there.
No society is immune to corruption.
This information is something I have to digest wholesomely.
Walter my friend, farther you go from place where peoples surnames ends with IĆ less possibility for corruption/game fixing there is. Trust to someone whose surname ends with IĆ 🙂
Ten Commandments
There once was a good Minister, who in order to make his family’s budget go a little further, rode a bicycle to Church and to Church functions. One day his bike turned up missing. He searched everywhere, but could not find it. Since it was a very small town he lived in, and most of the town was in his parish, he assumed that one of his flock had strayed and stolen his bicycle.
He spoken with his Deacon about his quandry. The Deacon suggested that at the Sermon next Sunday, the Minister talk on the Ten Commandments. When he got to the Commandment “Thou Shalt Not Steal”, the Minister should turn on the Fire-and-Brimstone and preach like he had never preached before. The guilty part should then feel such remorse for their wrongdoing, that they would return the bike.
So Sunday came and the Minister gave his sermon. It was a good sermon but when he reached “Thou Shalt Not Steal”, there was no Fire-and-Brimstone. The Deacon was puzzled and asked the Minister why he hadn’t really socked it to the thief.
“Well” said the Minister, “I was all set to turn on the Fire-and-Brimstone like I had never done before. That part was to be my sermon to end all sermons. But when I got to the “Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery” part, I remembered where I had left my bicycle!”
A sermon about lying
A minister told his congregation, “Next week I plan to preach about the sin of lying. To help you understand my sermon, I want you all to read Mark 17.”
The following Sunday, as he prepared to deliver his sermon, the minister asked for a show of hands. He wanted to know how many had read Mark 17. Every hand went up. The minister smiled and said, “Mark has only sixteen chapters. I will now proceed with my sermon on the sin of lying.”
And its goodnight from me – God , I hate these international ‘breaks ‘ !
There is wholesome truth in this assumption. If we can afford to carry out a meticulous study and examination of a gathered data on the conduct of past games by referees everywhere over an extensive period of time, it would be succinctly manifested that there is every reason to coin this bad practice. It is no hidden secret that many renowned football club managers have employed diverse tactics like mind games, refusal to sell players who want to go to another club as a way of fixing matches. Pure and genuine football should always be played in the field and not out of the field. by employing such tactics is in a way predicting the outcome of games that have yet to be played. This is my humble submission.
Quite unbelievable the sort of people at senior levels in club football, how is this guy anywhere near a top club? Ok maybe we all know. Seems a few clubs with a somewhat shady recent history are now doing very well, with it seems little investigation into their new money or who may be behind it. One such possible team may stand between us and a place in the next stage of the ECL.
But what can be expected when the game is run by FIFA,
Wow, Walter, terrible stories. We are so lucky that our manager is a man of proven integrity. But who knows what is going on elsewhere?
And you are right to point out the high profile of betting these days, even to the level of sponsorships. There are betting shops all over our area as well, more and more of them. Encouraging people to hand over their few hard earned pennies in the vain hope of getting rich.
I have heard personally also of people with addiction to betting, who have nearly ruined their lives, and we know some well known footballers have suffered from it. Whenever I see those betting adverts at half time in matches, where they are really urging people to bet all through play, it makes my blood run cold.
Arsene Wenger was asked recently if he had a bet, and he said he didn’t bet. He made a joke of it and said he didn’t have time, but I bet there’s more to it than that.
Just realised I said ‘I bet’!
Just shows we can’t even avoid it in the language!
I do think clubs that have betting companies sponsoring them with adds in stadium and on shirts is a conflict of interest! I think it ought to be banned. I know that gambling will go on but football should not be seeking financial support from gambling sites, companies, rings, gangs.
The point of soccer is to entertain. But gambling has a different agenda.
Another incisive piece, Walter. I say corruption is rife in the premiership. One just needs watch the documentary run by channel 4 on how to buy a football club, where some of the most famous faces in English football are recorded wining & dining or doing deals with the most corrupt names in football, such as the Asian football & Fifa exec bin Hammam who was banned for life for corruption, and one of the biggest far east gambling fixers Joe Sim. How anyone can be close to such shady individuals and be perceived to stay clean is beyond me.
Hey Brickfields, are you sure this congregation wasn’t made up of the managers in the premiership. Think if you asked the managers in the premiership who read Mark 17 you’d probably find Wenger would be the only one not to raise his hand:)
@ Al – You’d probably be right ! Most of them would have also ‘admitted’ to have had read Mark 18, 19 & 20 too !
A liar only uses the truth when they want their lies to sound truthful.”
― Al David
“The world is not fair, and often fools, cowards, liars and the selfish hide in high places. ”
― Bryant McGill ( Voice of Reason )
“A storyteller makes up things to help other people; a liar makes up things to help himself.”
― Daniel Wallace ( The Kings and Queens of Roam )
“If you lose your integrity, you will also lose your identity, your sensitivity and your dignity. Integrity is honesty, modesty and security in all kinds of weather. It should be our priority!”
― Israelmore Ayivor
All quotes from –
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/liar?page=2