’Sometimes we fixed more games than we could bet’

In an exclusive interview with Play the Game, a former match-fixer tells how effectively criminal syndicates are still manipulating sports results despite all initiatives against it. The whole approach against match-fixing could be wrong, Declan Hill reports.  This was first printed at: https://www.playthegame.org/news/news-articles/2019/0584_sometimes-we-fixed-more-games-than-we-could-bet/ ** The knock came late at night. Marko Stanovic – whose name has been changed to help protect him from the mob – was in one of the world’s great match-fixing gangs. A group whose criminal ties stretched deep...

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The ‘Secret’ Report for WADA

Below is the confidential paper on building an investigative culture in a corrupt sports world that I wrote for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Think Tank held in Lausanne on September 20th. It was supposed to be secret but some craven twit leaked it to his pals in the media within 24-hours of it being circulated. Now that a number of journalists have read it, I have no hesitation in making it public. The headlines are: 1)     World Anti-Doping Agency is not...

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Rio Olympics: 3 Gold Medals and 2 F-Marks

Back from a personal boycott of the Rio Olympics caused by the cowardly attitude of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to the Russian doping scandal.   Here are three gold medals and a couple of F marks that should be awarded. Gold Medal to the Rio de Janeiro police It is hard not to like the take no prisoners attitude of the Rio de Janeiro police to senior international sports officials and spoiled athletic brats in the US swim team. Actually, ‘take no...

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2 Farces, Turkish Nightmare & Infantino’s Blatter-Lite FIFA

It was not a good week for sport. The Turkish nightmare continues. There are strange doings, as usual, in Singapore and Qatar. However, the big story is that Gianni Infantino's FIFA has now become a Blatter-Lite FIFA: the same organisation, only with better table manners for the media.   The key issue is the resignation of Domenico Scala as the Head of the Audit and Compliance Committee. He quit FIFA as Infantino pushed through a measure that would have allowed the FIFA Executive Committee...

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Match Fixing 301 Course

Dear Friends, The lectures will be controversial. The material will be accurate. There will be shocking videos. Please see below my thoughts on the upcoming Play the Game conference in Denmark. If you’re a conference participant I guarantee that you will not leave unshaken. Introduction It was a dramatic and surprising announcement. Ten years ago at the Play the Game conference in Copenhagen, I announced that European sport would be hit with a wave of Asian-style match-fixing. It was the first time that...

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The ‘Sports’ Farce in Washington

To my American colleagues who went to the seminar on ‘sports integrity’ at the National Press Club on June 24th, You saw a presentation by a man with little credibility in sports integrity and two other men who have failed. You attended a presentation sponsored by the Qatari sports establishment.    This is a group that is suspected by sports fans around the world of corruption in securing the rights to the World Cup tournament of 2022. This is a group that...

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