All bets off for League
Sunday November 09 2008
Sport and gambling lead, inevitably, to corruption: wherever money is wagered on a result, someone will try to influence it. It is not a shock, therefore, that allegations of match-fixing are currently swirling around the eircom League.
Those allegations may prove inconclusive, but they have been prompted not by rumours, but by peculiar betting patterns on matches that delivered peculiar results. The problem with these allegations is that, in the absence of a whistle blower, they are virtually impossible to prove.
Other major international sports have had to cope with betting scandals, with varying degrees of failure. The FAI's existing rules ban players (and anyone else involved) from gambling on a match in which they can influence the result. They could take a lead from tennis and simply ban League of Ireland players from placing a bet on any League of Ireland game, with proven transgressions receiving hefty penalties.
All of that, however, will be academic if the league continues along its current trajectory, because in a short space of time there may be no clubs left standing, and no matches to fix.
