Declan Hill would have been happy. Today as I was watching the Club World Cup semi-final between Estudiantes de La Plata and the Pohang Steelers my mind started to go to dark places. In case you weren’t watching (and why weren’t you? It’s the world championships) the Korean team was given three red cards, finishing the game with eight men.
It wasn’t that rough of a game.
Now, to be clear, I’m not accusing anyone of anything, but I do know that you can often bet on the amount of red cards that are given in a game and I also know that it’s pretty rare for there to be three red cards in a single game.
You’d probably get a pretty good line on such a bet.
Just sayin’
I kind of hate Mr. Hill for making me doubt like this. I want to believe in the purity of sport. I’m sure he’d tell me that why he needs to make me doubt. Without doubt there will never be real change and without real change there will always be doubt. It’s a bitch of a dilemma.
Who knows whether today’s game was fixed. Maybe the Koreans were just outmatched and the referee was a bit card happy. It’s possible. But, if you’ve read The Fix you also know that it’s possible that the referee was “thanking” someone for the nice three-way he had with the Swedish models prior to kick-off. Not to be flippant, but it is what it is.
I will likely tell Hill about my doubt, and how it made me feel, tomorrow on It’s Called Football when we chat with him about match fixing in general and last month’s Canada – Macedonia game in particular.
If you love the sport – and why else would you be here – you should listen. And you should force yourself to hear.
NOTE: Hill also appeared on Prime Time Sports tonight. I’ll post that link after our interview goes up.
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Tuesday, December 15, 2009
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2 comments:
I think you are right Duane, the first and last red card were definitely big stretch. Both of them were fouls, but none of them were worth a red card (especially the last one by the keep on a player not running toward the goal with 3 defenders left behin and outside of the zone).
yeah i agree with anon above and you said it well it wasn't a very rough game some calls were yellows but the keeper did not deserve a red for that at all or even a yellow, and the goal that the steelers was incredebly offside and unarguable so if the bets were on 3 reds and a 1 goal spread (give or take) it would make a lot of sense and i do find that most calls vs the steelers were bull.
nick
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