Match Fixing in the GAA

We had a good discussion on Twitter yesterday following news of the Sunday Worlds story on match and spot fixing in the GAA, the Sunday World tweeted us as well as the author of the story, Donal MacIntyre (who is now following Global GAA on twitter. Donal simply stated that "it's important to raise issue before it's a major problem" following our twitter conversations. (You can see the links on our Twitter feed, feel free to add your views to it!)

Here's the story for those that missed it -

Match Fixing is alive in GAA

Donal MacIntyre

FORMER Armagh star Oisin McConville and a leading EU match-fixing expert have warned the GAA needs to wake up to claims that match fixing has become a fact of life in the national sport. Former Fianna Fail TD Cecilia Keaveney says she was told 'spot fixing' has spread to Gaelic games.

The allegations were made to her as she headed up a Europe-wide probe into corruption in sport. The former President of the Council of Europe Youth and Sports Committee said: "I have heard considerable anecdotal evidence from people who have told me about the money made in spot fixing in Gaelic football without any idea about the implications it has for the sport," she told the Sunday World this weekend.
"Like with doping, those who are caught are a fraction of those who are cheating and if we are hearing considerable stories of spot fixing in GAA matches, you have to accept that this is only the tip of the iceberg."
Ingredients

The warning was echoed by All-Ireland winner McConville, who wrote about his own gambling addiction in his autobiography, 'The Gambler'.
"There have been rumours down the years," he told the Sunday World this weekend.
"Big bets on players to be the first to kick the ball out. Spread betting is where people make their money. I don't know any players who have but I've heard the stories and we would have to be naive not to believe them."
McConville, a reformed gambling addict and now counsellor, added: "All the key ingredients are there for corruption. Lots of people have money problems - clubs, players - and there will be a percentage with gambling problems.
"They will be vulnerable to corruption - this is a reality and we all have to face up to it."

The two time All-Star, who won the All Ireland with Armagh in 2002, recalled that one team played Armagh and rumours were rife that they had bet on themselves to lose big.

"There was supposed to be big money on it. They were expected to lose and did by a huge margin."

Former Donegal Dail Deputy Keaveney was part of a task force that gathered evidence for a high-level report on the blight of sports corruptions for the Council of Europe. She issued her warning to GAA chiefs a week after the arrest of leading Italian players, and concerns about match fixing in the Airtricity League.

She said she is determined to get Irish sporting bodies to take the issue seriously.
"Is there any reason to doubt that amateur, unpaid sport is not at risk from match fixing?" she asked.

"Can Ireland and its national game is immune?
"I believe it is time for the GAA to take the evidence in other sports seriously and protect our Gaelic games from both attacks from
outside and from within.

"What I have heard gathering evidence and talking to people is only the tip of the iceberg. They are talking about making a few quid here and there but fail to see the damage it will do to the sport long term.

"The people doing it see it as a one-off event, a stroke, but it's the start of a process and if you are caught up in match fixing once then you could be ensnared into something much bigger next time.

"I am trying to pre-empt a major scandal. Once you lose the good name of sport, there is a very long way back. Athletics and cycling found that and the GAA could find the same," Keaveney said.

Dr Declan Hill, the Canadian academic and world expert on match fixing, supported Keaveney's assessment and said: "No sport is immune from the problems and economic problems make it much more likely. It's an issue across all sports, as we have seen from cricket and horseracing and even tennis."

A GAA spokesman urged anyone with direct evidence of match fixing to contact the association but refused to comment on anecdotal claims. Both Dr Hill and former TD Keaveney called for the setting up of an independent regulator across all sports to handle the issue.

Sean Potts of the Gaelic Players Association, which represents inter-county players, said the GPA is aware of the vulnerability of players with gambling problems to corruption.

"We are discussing match fixing with players' associations across Europe but have come across no specific allegation at home," he said.
"We know elite athletes are particularly vulnerable and that betting is more accessible and pervasive than before. It's not just a game of cards on the bus to a game anymore."

The GPA runs a confidential counselling line for players with problems and has noticed a trend towards gambling problems but has not had direct reports of match fixing.

Oisin McConville says that gambling is a growing problem. "It used to be one every three weeks. Now I get two or three calls a week from people across all sports. The problem is that there is still quite a stigma attached to the illness and it leaves players very vulnerable.

"It's like a love affair. You become a compulsive gambler and at the same time a compulsive liar.You will do nearly anything, and I mean anything, to place your next bet. I've done a lot of work with heroin addicts. My drug was gambling and a gambler will beg, borrow, scheme, and steal to do betting business."
Despite huge concerns raised by the Council of Europe report and separate ongoing investigations in 10 European countries, there is still no international anti-corruption organisation to deal with the issues in the way that there is with doping.

Across the world and in most sports, it is clear that low wages or no wages and poor economic circumstances provide a fertile
breeding ground for match fixing and that makes Ireland and its sports very vulnerable. The Airtricity League match between Shelbourne and Monaghan on May 4 raised concerns with FAI bosses after ten bets were placed on the probability of a penalty being awarded and scored. One bet was worth €5,000.The bets were out of sync with normal patterns.

Rumours of the unusual bets were so prolific that Airtricity League director, Fran Gavin, who had been driving to Drogheda that Friday evening, raced back to Dublin to inform the players of the irregular bets before the start of the game. The match ended 2-1, with a penalty awarded to Monaghan in the second half. The irregular betting pattern was on a different penalty outcome.

The FAI is still studying the incident and the Airtricity League has informed UEFA of the betting patterns.

Last year, suspicions surfaced around a fourth round FAI CUP tie between Shelbourne and Sheriff YC. The non-league side beat Shelbourne 3-2, after being 2-0 down. An investigation into irregular betting patterns yielded no evidence of match fixing, despite Sheriff YC being backed when 2-0 down at half time.

Taken from Sunday World Online - [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
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What are your thoughts and views on this? I feel that there is no way that our games can been seen to be above match or spot fixing, especially when there are large sums of money to be made by amateur players "on the side", the biggest issue is getting evidence! I guess that's Donal MacIntyre's job as a journo!

Very suspicious of Kerry's display yesterday.

It's like every other sport. What could be done to resolve the problem? When I worked in a bookies it is illegal for Sports personailties to bet on any competition that they are involved in. However the GAA is big and would be almost impossible to prevent lesser known players from gambling.

in some respects there is two elements to this whole thing of match fixing. We've all attended an end of season club game were both sides needed a point to stay up or one team struggling for points is playing a team they haven't a hope of beating and yet that's exactly what has happened. Its quite obvious that an agreement has been reached in the changing rooms beforehand as to what the result of the game is going to be.

Not so long ago i watched a end of season league game involving my own club, both teams needed a point to be sure of securing division 1 status. With about 4 minutes to go and the score 1-8 apiece it was almost embarrassing to watch the last few minutes. I never seen as many back passes in a gaelic match in all my life including several from the half way line back to the respective keepers. Whilst there is no suggestion on my behalf that there was any bets involved it still goes against the ethos of any sport!!!!

The more sinister side to this and the one which Donal McIntyre is alluding too is of corruption with in the sport. Again several years ago (possibly as far back as 2003) my own club played Ardboe in a championship game. We would have been underdogs and yet at that time we always gave Ardboe a good game and beat them on several occasions both in league and championship football. After a great game of football we came out on the right end of a good victory. Within hours of the win rumours started to surface of the possibility that the Ardboe guys had all betted against their team losing and were getting odds of near 7/1.

Hard to know if it was true or not but the rumour mill gathered serious momentum. I was at the game and it would be very difficult to say wit any real conviction that the Ardboe team were not giving 100% commitment, it was a full blooded game with plenty of hard hitting football. But guys who were in the know in the county were sure that the game was "rigged"

I'd say liquidity on most GAA markets is too small to make this worthwhile. They don't do club games on betfair and you'd be doing well to get more than a couple of hundred on with Powers or Boyles. Mulhollands were a differnt story back in the day but their well clued up now, burned too many times

bocerty wrote:Not so long ago i watched a end of season league game involving my own club, both teams needed a point to be sure of securing division 1 status. With about 4 minutes to go and the score 1-8 apiece it was almost embarrassing to watch the last few minutes. I never seen as many back passes in a gaelic match in all my life including several from the half way line back to the respective keepers. Whilst there is no suggestion on my behalf that there was any bets involved it still goes against the ethos of any sport!!!!

In God's name what would you honestly expect in the situation. The draw ensured status for both clubs. Excellent work all round...

Our county hurlers had a fine win at the weekend . But on occasions I would be in the company of a few ex county hurlers from about ten years ago and they let it be known that if they were playing someone they were sure to beat a few of the lads would back the other team . One of the fellas was a free taker and would laugh an say sure I miss a handful score an odd one were beat by a point of two nobody knows any difference and we get a lift out of the bookies.

redhandman wrote:Our county hurlers had a fine win at the weekend . But on occasions I would be in the company of a few ex county hurlers from about ten years ago and they let it be known that if they were playing someone they were sure to beat a few of the lads would back the other team . One of the fellas was a free taker and would laugh an say sure I miss a handful score an odd one were beat by a point of two nobody knows any difference and we get a lift out of the bookies.

i'd expect nothing less from those hoors from Dungannon!!!!

bocerty wrote:The more sinister side to this and the one which Donal McIntyre is alluding too is of corruption with in the sport. Again several years ago (possibly as far back as 2003) my own club played Ardboe in a championship game. We would have been underdogs and yet at that time we always gave Ardboe a good game and beat them on several occasions both in league and championship football. After a great game of football we came out on the right end of a good victory. Within hours of the win rumours started to surface of the possibility that the Ardboe guys had all betted against their team losing and were getting odds of near 7/1.

Hard to know if it was true or not but the rumour mill gathered serious momentum. I was at the game and it would be very difficult to say wit any real conviction that the Ardboe team were not giving 100% commitment, it was a full blooded game with plenty of hard hitting football. But guys who were in the know in the county were sure that the game was "rigged"

The way that you've told it Boc, that rumour doesn't stand up. Ardboe had a talented young side back then, but it is hard to believe that Killyclogher would have been anything close to 7-1 to beat them in the Championship. Killyclogher were runners up in 1999 & 2002, and won the county title in 2003. Ardboe weren't even in the final during that period, so I just can't believe that any bookmaker was stupid enough to give odds of 7-1 against your boys (I'd struggle to believe anyone would have got better than 2-1 against KC at that time). Factor in the suspicions that several wagers of even £100 would give rise to, and I just don't see who would have covered those bets.

Consider it a good win, and ignore those still trying to detract from it!

Thomas Clarke wrote:

bocerty wrote:The more sinister side to this and the one which Donal McIntyre is alluding too is of corruption with in the sport. Again several years ago (possibly as far back as 2003) my own club played Ardboe in a championship game. We would have been underdogs and yet at that time we always gave Ardboe a good game and beat them on several occasions both in league and championship football. After a great game of football we came out on the right end of a good victory. Within hours of the win rumours started to surface of the possibility that the Ardboe guys had all betted against their team losing and were getting odds of near 7/1.

Hard to know if it was true or not but the rumour mill gathered serious momentum. I was at the game and it would be very difficult to say wit any real conviction that the Ardboe team were not giving 100% commitment, it was a full blooded game with plenty of hard hitting football. But guys who were in the know in the county were sure that the game was "rigged"

The way that you've told it Boc, that rumour doesn't stand up. Ardboe had a talented young side back then, but it is hard to believe that Killyclogher would have been anything close to 7-1 to beat them in the Championship. Killyclogher were runners up in 1999 & 2002, and won the county title in 2003. Ardboe weren't even in the final during that period, so I just can't believe that any bookmaker was stupid enough to give odds of 7-1 against your boys (I'd struggle to believe anyone would have got better than 2-1 against KC at that time). Factor in the suspicions that several wagers of even £100 would give rise to, and I just don't see who would have covered those bets.

Consider it a good win, and ignore those still trying to detract from it!

TC - those were my thoughts exactly at the time. Back then we had a guy playing for us called Rory Meenan, not sure if you remember him, he was on the Tyrone senior panel in 2002 but couldnt make the U21 panel that same year (Mickey had some gripe with him, even though he captained Tyrone to an Ulster minor title under Mickey)!!!!! Rory was one of the classiest footballers Tyrone ever produced and had one of the sweetest left foots of any footballer, he was about 6"2 and built like a brick sh!t house. He had a clinker game that night.

The initial rumours emanated from Ardboe and I always reckoned it was the Ardboe guys way of trying to save face. The were the hardened championship team and yet we were the new kids on the block and they didnt like it.

No one will convince me they "threw" the game but others in the county think differently

Match fixing - Dubs win Sam ..... makes sense to me ...

mossbags wrote:I'd say liquidity on most GAA markets is too small to make this worthwhile. They don't do club games on betfair and you'd be doing well to get more than a couple of hundred on with Powers or Boyles. Mulhollands were a differnt story back in the day but their well clued up now, burned too many times

I've heard of sizeable money beig bet on spread bet sites. Total points per team in championship markets were one area that it's happened. The first year that the qualifiers were introduced the long or buy prices offered were far too low. If a team got a gallop in the qualifiers the bookies took a few hammerings. Replays were another area that obviously ramped up your win on a buy.
Though the stories I heard were more related to talking advantage of weak pricing rather than an inside knowledge. Clearly after a year or so the bookies would have the stats to correct thE.g donegals odds on retaining ulster immediately after the draw would have been high and reflected in the fact that the draw was though. What happens then is that their total points will be low. However if you take a more logical approach that they get three games in ulster lose to Tyrone and have say two or three back door games they may end up scoring as much as say cork winning an all Ireland.
ings. Also i think some bookies have stopped this market

ive being very suspicious of this a long time especially league games som e funny results along time