Europol Report: 680 Soccer Games Suspected Of Match-Fixing

forbes.com ^ | 2/04/2013 | Chris Smith

[Berlin_Freeper]

Soccer’s American detractors have accused the sport of being too slow, too low-scoring and too full of diving players. They can now add corruption to the list.

Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, released today the upsetting findings of a match-fixing investigation that began last summer. The probe found 680 suspicious soccer matches, including qualifiers for the World Cup and European Championship, as well as two Champions League games. The report indicates that 380 of the suspected matches were played in Europe.

[9YearLurker]

Have you paid any attention to NBA officiating?

[the scotsman]

It is simply ridiculous to call yourself World Champions when nobody else plays the sport professionally!. Nobody else plays American Football professionally, all other leagues of it around the world are amateur. And even if those other teams were professional, you still dont play them!.

How can the NFL/MLB/NBA winners be ‘world champions’ when almost nobody else plays the game, nobody else plays it professionally, and all said leagues are NATIONAL leagues. NATIONAL basketball, NATIONAL football. The MLB has one Canadian team. The NHL has a couple of Canuck teams at best.

Even then, its silly for the champs of those two leagues to call themselves World Champions.

In other sports, such as soccer, there IS a World Club Championship, which decides the best club team each year.

And of course there are international country v country World Cups in soccer, rugby (although no world club rugby championship, although that has been mooted) and other sports. SO in those sports, you CAN say that such and such team is the best. Because they have had to actually prove it on the field of play. To be truly world champs, you have to defeat the rest of the world. The clue is in the title!.

Calling the SB/WS/NBA winners World Champions is as pointless as the winners of Irish Gaelic Hurling or Scottish shinty calling themselves World Champs. Or Hungarian Winter Dwarf Tossing.

NO other country which has sports that are contested within only their own borders indulges in this World Champs nonsense. Canada has its own game of gridiron. But do the Grey Cup winners call themselves World Champs?. No they do not.

So it is silly at best and arrogant at worst. It is seen as American boasting and/or ignorance of the world.

Simply, you cannot call yourself World Champions if only you play it.

[Amberdawn]

Thank you for proving my point. There are no professional teams of MLB/NFL/NBA in existence in the world. Why not? If enough teams would form, I’m sure the American owners would agree to make even more money by playing against them. We have owners who spent the cash building an American soccer team, so where are the ‘foreign’ baseball, basketball and football teams?

[the scotsman]

There ARE professional teams and leagues of baseball (japan, cuba etc) and basketball (many European leagues).

I get the impression most Americans are not aware there are prof. leagues of those sports outside the US (despite US players playing in Europe during the last NBA lockout). The Euro basketball leagues esp are of a high quality.

(There were other prof gridiron leagues as well. NFL Europe, the WFAL)

The NBA/MLB refuses to play them though, yet its winners will insist on world champs status. Its a halfway street, Amber, the US leagues have to show willingness to play outside the US. And what if they lose?. No, much easier to stay in the US, ignore the world and call yourself a world champ without actually playing the world.

If Americans want to play only themselves, thats fine. Its the insistence on calling the Superbowl or World Series winners ‘world champs’, when you dont play anyone outside the US, that rankles. Silly at best, unflatteringly arrogant/ignorant at worst.

Do as the Canadians do: play just your own game, but just call yourself a national champion when you win.

[Amberdawn]

I am aware of professional teams in those categories outside the U.S. My point is that they are free to form/petition to play against American teams. Why this hasn’t happened could be costs associated with traveling to far flung countries, who knows? I’m not a fan of soccer, basketball or football, so how they refer to their championships is of no interest to me.