Football’s romance in danger of being ruined by greedy gamblers
While we revel in iconic moments like Italia ’90, others are bringing the game down a dark path
THE Late Late Show celebrating 100 years of Irish football will be rolled out tonight against a backdrop of allegations of match-fixing and fraud in the League of Ireland.
Amid the contributions of Michael D Higgins, Paul McGrath, Packie Bonner, Dave O’Leary, Shay Given, Stephen Kenny and Vera Pauw, among others, the elephant in the green room can’t be ignored.
For this has been a wretched week for the reputation of the SSE Airtricity League, one that has set back the progress made on many levels in recent years.
Crowds are bulging, stadiums have been saved, the reputation of club managers has grown, and there is an expectation that extended European adventures beckon.
As a plus, Cork City, Galway United and Waterford FC, three clubs with a robust support base and tradition, are gunning for a return to the Premier Division.
As the League of Ireland walks tall and looks the sporting world in the eye again, a dark shadow has been cast across the summer landscape.
The arrests on Wednesday of ten people in association with alleged betting irregularities around the outcome of matches, revealed something rotten in the soul of the League of Ireland.
Legal constraints prevent us from going into specifics behind the match-fixing but one club is at the centre of the Garda investigation.
The outcome of three games played in 2019, including one FAI Cup tie, are at the core of the midweek swoop.
Of the ten arrested, seven were footballers in the League of Ireland in the 2019 season, five of whom are now retired. Two are still active. Three of those arrested are non-footballers.
It has taken three years for the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau to compile sufficient evidence and they are close to the endgame. Charges are imminent and names will be named.
When that happens, the FAI and UEFA will tut-tut about the damage to the sporting integrity of football, and warn that anyone who engages in any form of match fixing will be dealt with severely.
And then? Everyone will look to move on, only the blemish on the ball will always be there. Remember 2022, they will say.
Was that when Shamrock Rovers won three in a row, or when Tolka Park was saved? No, it was the year when the fraud squad put the boot in and lads were arrested for fixing games.
A part of me can understand the temptation to queer the pitch and make a fast buck. Understand but never endorse.
Let’s say you’re playing for a club in the First Division, on tiny wages and a 38-week contract.
Your team is mid-table and you’ve got a game coming up that won’t affect anyone going for promotion. With bills to be paid, there may be an inclination to make a few quid.
We’re living in a world of mobile phones and betting apps with offers of free bets popping up every other day. Why not put it on ‘a sure thing’ at 4/1?
In the past 20 years, the culture of betting on football has become rampant. It was there before but very much on a smaller scale.
Today, everyone is encouraged to ‘get on’ with former footballers acting as ambassadors for the betting firms.
There are all sorts of football fancies, such as the number of goals, corners, yellow cards, red cards, throw-ins, shots on goal.
From the Champions League and Premier League to the League of Ireland and the Leinster Senior League, the bookies will give odds on anything and mostly, they will win.
They only lose when someone turns rogue. As happened in 2019 when certain inside traders in the League of Ireland knew what was coming and cashed in.
Those same ‘traders’ also know what’s coming to them now.
Football’s glorious unpredictability must always be sacrosanct.
In 1990, Ireland played Romania in the World Cup quarter-final.
No one would have dared bet on Ireland to win the penalty shootout 5-4 with a save from Bonner and a winning goal from O’Leary, which can be enjoyed again when revisited on the telly tonight.