Jump to content
Melbourne Football

Alleged Match Fixing in Melbourne City Youth Game


haz
 Share

Recommended Posts

I know this should be in the youth section but more people will see it here. I think the article used our name to geta few more clicks.

 

But what was that rumour about the youth teams finishing 3rd on purpose to avoid going up to a harder division?

Quote

Victoria Police are investigating claims a match involving Melbourne City’s youth team was fixed.

By 

Jack Kerr

 

8 DEC 2017 - 5:30 PM  UPDATED 24 MINS AGO

The match under investigation occured in last year’s National Premier Leagues Victoria 2, the competition in which Melbourne City’s Under 20 team finished third.

In a statement, Melbourne City said there is no suggestion the club, its players or anyone associated with the club is under investigation.

The World Game understands the coach of a rival team has been questioned by police, with claims that several of his players have been arrested.

A Victoria Police spokesperson said: “Detectives from the Sporting Integrity Intelligence Unit and Crime Command are investigating allegations of match fixing. 

“The investigation into the matter, which relates to a sporting event in Victoria last year, remains ongoing and as such it would not be appropriate to comment further at this time.”

It is unclear which club is under investigations.

Victoria introduced laws making it an offence to corrupt a betting outcome in 2013, and used them almost immediately in the Southern Stars scandal, where players were imported from England for the purposes of fixing a number of Victorian Premier League matches.

As a result of their investigation, five people were convicted and another banned from football for life.

Earlier this year, the winner of the 2016 Australian Open Boys tennis competition, Oliver Anderson, pleaded guilty to breaches of those same laws in a Victorian court.

But while Victoria appears to be the country’s hot spot of such activity, an expert in match-fixing investigations says it is unlikely to be the only state where results are being scripted. 

“I’m not sure if any other state police force is actively looking into this issue,” says Mike Pride, a former AFP officer who now specialises in international match-fixing investigations and works as integrity and security consultant for the Perform group.

“Fixing appears to be occurring in most countries and I would not think any state in Australia would be immune. 

“Victoria appears to be proactive in assessing and investigating match manipulation.

“As for Australia as a whole, the lack of resources and understanding make Australian sport, especially at the lower leagues, susceptible.”

Most states and territories now have near-identical legislation to Victoria’s.

Football Federation Australia (FFA) employs the Swiss-headquartered Sportradar to monitor betting markets for A-League, FFA Cup and National Premier Leagues games for signs of match-fixing, and it was Sportradar’s work with Victoria Police that exposed the Southern Stars scandal.

FFA also has integrity agreements with Australian betting companies to share information regarding suspicious bets. A similar agreement between Tennis Australia and local betting companies led to Anderson’s case.

“Large single bets at NPL2 level would trigger an alarm,” says Pride. “But usually the larger bets by illegal betting syndicates are spread across many syndicate members to appear as smaller bets, to not trigger an alert.”

The World Game can also reveal matches from the Victorian State League have been regularly offered for betting by a bitcoin-betting site licensed in Montenegro. These games include some from the second division, including teams as obscure as the Essendon Royals and Altona City.

Federal Police in Austria investigated how a practice match between clubs in the 6th and 7th tier ended up on that site earlier this year.

While no betting companies in Australia open books on games at this level, regulations in Victoria, created under the direction of the FFA, permit betting on “football competitions conducted in each of the Australian states and territories by member federations of the FFA”.

The FFA would not say if it was appropriate that gambling be allowed on all matches at this level, which go down to at least the eighth tier of Australian football, or if these games were covered by its agreement with Sportradar.

In a statement, the governing body replied it: “takes seriously the integrity of football competitions in Australia and has a regime in place with its Member Federations, police and legitimate gambling companies to mitigate against anyone who would attempt to undermine the integrity of those competitions through illegal gambling or match fixing.

“FFA does not go into detail publicly around the integrity measures it has in place as to do so could undermine the effectiveness of those measures and actually assist people who intend match fixing or other illegal activity.”

 

 

https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/article/2017/12/08/exclusive-police-investigating-match-fixing-game-involving-melbourne-city

 

Edited by haz
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...
46 minutes ago, playmaker said:

Hmmmm, so dandy was up 0-2 and the result was 2-2, and then they claim was no players were involved. How does that work?

Firstly, the police are alleging that the charged attempted to fix the match (leading to the conclusion they weren't successful), so potentially they tried to bribe players or an official to no avail. The article states that police started investigating within days, which imo lends support to this theory that there was a failed attempt which was then reported to the police. 

Secondly, no where in the article does it say that players weren't involved, The ABC are just stating, for legal reasons, that their article should not be construed as saying that players were involved. This being very distinct from saying players weren't involved.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, playmaker said:

Yes they do

 

Quote 'There is no suggestion any players involved in the match are alleged to have committed a sports corruption offence.'

As I said, they are covering there asses from a legal perspective, which is distinct from saying no players were involved...

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 11 months later...
2 hours ago, Dylan said:

I dont think it needs to be a caution. People can say what they like (unless its the usual exemptions which are everywhere you go) and they can all expect the ridicule that comes with it.

Pretty much the approach I'm going to apply until it descends into defamation territory, he can say what he likes.i will too and that's that I think he's a fucking twat.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Dylan said:

I dont think it needs to be a caution. People can say what they like (unless its the usual exemptions which are everywhere you go) and they can all expect the ridicule that comes with it.

I haven't banned him. It's just a shot across his bows.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...