Match-fixing has become a rather complicated scenario nowadays, and the sad reality is that almost every match is fixed in some way or the other. Recently, Al Jazeera News Network exposed a huge match-fixing scandal involving three former international cricketers and few bookies, and this certainly takes out a lot of fun from the game. Let us look at some match-fixing incidents in football and cricket that sent shockwaves all over the world.
Hansie Cronje was a former South African cricketer who was found to have fixed matches in a series where South Africa toured India. His activities were discovered by the police and he later confessed to a match-fixing scandal. He was convicted of purposely losing a game to win money and was given a life ban. He later passed away in a plane crash in 2002.
The Italian Football Federation found eight players guilty of match-fixing on October 2000. Suspicion was raised when there were huge bets of a 1-0 halftime score and a 1-1 full-time score, and that’s exactly what happened. The players guilty were Giacomo Banchelli, Cristiano Doni and Sebastiano Siviglia from Atalanta; Alfredo Aglietti, Massimiliano Allegri, Daniele Amerini, Gianluca Lillo and Girolamo Bizzarri from Pistoiese.
Three players Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir were found guilty of spot-fixing in 2010. Both the bowlers underperformed by purposely bowling no-balls. The three players were banned between 5-10 years and the players along with the bookie involved were given a jail sentence as well.
Genoa was found guilty of a match-fixing scandal in 2005 and relegated to Serie C1. They bribed their opponent Venezia in the final match of the season. Venezia lost the match on purpose and Genoa got promoted to Serie A. However, the sporting justice found out about the event and even banned Genoa’s Chairman Enrico Preziosi for five years.
In 2013, cricketers Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan were involved in a spot-fixing scandal. They were playing for Rajasthan Royals and intentionally underperformed to get money from bookies. In a separate case, Mumbai Police found Vindu Dara Singh and Gurunath Meiyappan guilty for betting and having links with bookies.
In 2005, referees Edilson Pereira de Carvalho and Paulo Jose Danelon were banned from football for life for intentionally giving out bogus decisions in matches. The Brazilian crowd still chants ‘Edilson’ when they feel a referee has made a bad decision.
Lou Vincent fixed matches in the Champions League 2012 for the Auckland Aces against Hampshire Cricket Club and Kolkata Knight Riders. He was given life ban, though he blamed Chris Cairns for ordering him to fix the matches.
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