As we saw in the last post, betting is the main reason behind football scripts and match-fixing.
In 2005, we learned that German referee Robert Hoyzer was working with a local Croatian betting gang and managed to influence 23 matches, including matches in the second level of German football and DFB-Pokal competitions. One of the matches saw Hamburg lose 4 - 2 to regional side SC Paderborn despite being 2 - 0 up at some point because Hoyzer gave two imaginary penalties to the regional side and gave Hamburg's player a red for objection. It is worth noting that Hamburg finished the season 8th in the Bundesliga so it wasn't a weak club by any chance.
Let's analyze this for a second.
Hamburger SV, a team that finished the season 8th, faced a team struggling to remain in the second level of German football in a cup match and it was their first cup match of the season. Now add to that the fact that Hamburger SV was up by two goals before SC Paderborn made they're comeback. It sounds very unlikely, right? Well, if it does then because that's exactly what it is supposed to be, a highly unlikely result so people betting on it would make more money.
Yes, people made a lot of money and it sounds like a match with few consequences but it should be pointed out that Hamburger SV's coach at the time was Klaus Toppmöller who almost won the treble with Bayer Leverkusen in 2002, two years prior to the scandal. So, even the coach wasn't some random one. That scandal effectively ended Toppmöller's career. The only job he got afterward is managing the Georgian national team. From a man who could have won everything to an unhirable manager.
That's not the only consequence as Germany itself almost lost out on the World Cup hosting position as media all over the world, and England in specific was ruthless toward Germany and doubted the country's ability to keep the World Cup free of manipulation. One small cup match was able to snowball into ending a coach's career and ruining a work of an entire country to host a World Cup.
It is worth noting that Germany used the World Cup revenues to install the academies and system which produced most of the players we saw since, so that match could have cost them millions.
1980 Totonero
This is probably the biggest match-fixing scandal in history. The term itself means "Secret bets" to those wondering.
The entire story is that some Lazio players used to hang out near some grocery store and a restaurant. Those players would be approached and bribed by people betting on the games in the totocalcio, which is a betting hub created by the government. Day by day, more players joined, including AC Milan players who were sent to Serie B along with Lazio and a few other clubs who were punished.
Worth noting that the scandal should have kept Paolo Rossi in prison during the 1982 World Cup but he was let out because the manager complained about the lack of strikers so he got his sentence reduced. Paolo Rossi was credited as the greatest factor behind Italy winning that World Cup.
These are just examples of talking about the traditional way of match-fixing. But we're talking about actions that involve very few people but could or have changed entire nations. But there are also non-traditional ways of match-fixing.
Togo, but only by name
Do you ever make that line where you say you and your friends could play instead of certain teams? Well, that's exactly what happened here.
On the 7th of September 2010, Bahrain, a nation that is ranked very low in FIFA's nations ranking was playing a friendly match against Togo, a team that played in the 2006 World Cup with Emmanuel Adebayor among a few other names to show for it. The match ended with a 3-0 for Bahrain.
What happened was there are some sketchy betting companies have affiliates who create fake companies and then find nations that are ranked high in FIFA's ranking and match them against teams that are ranked low in FIFA's ranking. Except, instead of having the actual team that is ranked high show up, they literally pick random people and put them in football kits after all the big bets were put.
Bahrain's coach at the time, Josef Hickersberger, laughed and was baffled in the press conference that followed at how out of breath Togo's players were. When the Confederation of African Football asked the Togolese Football Federation about it, the latter said that they didn't even know they were facing Bahrain. That is doable because you don't need FIFA's or anyone's approval really to host a friendly match.
That's a match played with betters collecting profit without one team's players even showing up. But there are matches where neither teams show up.
The match that never was
In Belarus, FC Slutsk played Shakhter Soligorsk, the bets were laid and all betters were awaiting the results. The match wasn't televised so people were following the game on the clubs' Twitter accounts as well as some news outlets who were sharing the events of the match. Except that, you guessed it, the match NEVER happened.
That's what is called a ghost game where a game only exists on Twitter and certain football sites. All that is needed is very few people in certain places with certain authorities and it could be done. In some cases, the clubs' owners put their bets after everyone. Everyone was of course caught.
That's the problem
These events, as well as many more I could share, were events that had lights shed on them. Those are the ones we know. There are many more incidents. The reason for that is simply because the money in global betting on football is worth more than the money in football itself. Something we'll cover in the last part of this series, a story of a market worth 1.5 TRILLION Euros annually.