Betting Scandals: International Sports Reputation Under Threat

To many people this is a huge surprise because match fixing and cheating is something that we associate in the past before there were proper authorities and standards in place. In many respects it really should not be to much of a surprise because there is huge amounts of money to be made from all types of betting fixes, and where there is huge amounts of money to be made, there are those who will attempt to cheat to get acquire it.


Recent Cricket International Scandal


One such international sports scandal that has recently come to light is of course the Indian cricket teams spot fixing scandal where players were deliberately bowling no balls at certain points in the match, so that people could bet on that particular outcome of no balls.


The scandal was uncovered by the News of the World undercover team who met with a major Indian cricket agent and recorded him discussing fixing the match between India and England. Of course in order for the agent to be able to fix any match would mean that the cricket players themselves are involved in the cheating and this fact alone shines an awful light on to International cricket as a whole.


Recent UK Football Scandal


An extremely high profile case that has very recently emerged is the alleged football betting scam which involves Manchester United football star Wayne Rooney’s father, Mr Wayne Rooney Sr.


The scandal was brought to light by an irregularity in the betting odds and then the outcome of these unlikely events in a match between Motherwell and Hearts in December of 2010 where Hearts won 2 – 1 via a second half penalty. Steve Jennings who plays for Motherwell was sent off in that match and it is believed that he is involved in the betting scam and deliberately got himself sent off during the game as there were also an abnormal amount of bets placed on a player getting a red card in that game.


Final Word


Much of international sports are free of match fixing however it still appears that it is going on and is happening in various different sports. Furthermore it should be mentioned that the above are the match fixing scandals that have been discovered recently and it would not be an unreasonable conclusion to suggest that there potentially are other sports where match fixing is still taking place.

Written by Jonathan
Follow him @j21media
Jonathan works with Soccerbox who sell quality football merchandise such as the Arsenal kit and Arsenal shirt football gear ranges.

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