by Matt Riley
18th May, 2014
May 2010 sticks in my mind for two reasons. The first was the astonishing result of Rene Desaeyere's Muang Thong United in their AFC Cup game against Qatar's Al Rayyan. Without enough squad players to fill the bench, The Kirrins pulled off a shock win on penalties with keeper Kawin Thamsachanan proving the decisive difference.
The second was the conversation with members of the opposition club afterwards. They told us that the Qatari FA had sewn up the votes for hosting the 2022 World Cup by fair means and foul and they would definitely get the nod. For me it sounded like false bravado from a losing team, but Rene was certain these people were serious men with serious wasta (influence.) So the next time I was in the UK I decided to pop into my local betting shop and find out the odds of such an unlikely occurrence. And that was when things started to get very interesting....
I could bet on any of the host cities for the 2022 games from favourites like the USA to outsiders Australia (who were, shockingly for this sports mad continent, to receive only one vote.) But there was one country who were not even quoted: Qatar. I went to all the high street bookies, checked online and then reviewed takers of unusual bets like Paddy Power, but none of them accepted wagers on Qatar. When I said to the man in the shop how surprised I was that one of the possible hosts couldn't be bet on, he felt it was because they were no hopers. Aston Villa get quoted odds to win the EPL at the start of each depressing season, so that didn't seem a plausible answer either.
During the summer of 2010, the only hint I saw that something was building came in a tiny footnote in a British tabloid's sports section. It quoted betting for Qatar as 25 to 1 but coming in all the time due to a "successful public relations campaign." Big wheels were turning. Encouraging FIFA words from high up were massaging momentum in the right direction and the previously unthinkable (and still unbetable) was confirmed in December of that year when Qatar were awarded the tournament.
In Qatar of course gambling is illegal. It is one of the few things they share with Thailand. But, whilst wealthy Qataris invade casinos like Malaysia's Genting Highlands, Thais adopt a similar approach to their road traffic laws. They are there, generally understood but routinely ignored. The hugely popular national lottery is not considered a form of gambling and Muay Thai bouts see wads of cash passed across crowds after mystic hand movements denote the odds and outcomes. Are we to believe that football is the only sport in this gambling mad country that is outside the influence of gamblers?
With websites like soccerway.com providing highly accurate data on five Thai leagues, this and other similar sites are very convenient conduits for betting. Whilst Thailand officially blocks IP addresses of gambling sites, where there is a wifi there is a way. English football wears its debt to betting on its shirts, but here the hidden power of a multi billion dollar industry sees it go unnoticed and unregulated. For a country located at the epicentre of match fixing and gambling dark practices, it seems naive to assume that it is untainted by the huge power of gambling syndicates.
Like the issue of spot fixing in cricket, players earning small amounts in the regional league are easy (and cheap) targets for match manipulation. This is also where keeping officials poorly trained and unsupported makes economic sense. Looking to manipulate a match presided over by an already inconsistent and poorly trained official is so much easier than with a confident and supported professional.
Now that Thai football is awash with money, it is alive with gambling possibilities. The lack of a credible FA to provide oversight, the huge demand for gambling from Thai men and the power of club owners to lift the carpet and apply the brush to any uncomfortable truths make it a highly attractive environment to manipulate. Gone are the days when results would be the sole outcome to bet on, and this has been a cheat's charter.
For red and yellow cards, awarding of a penalty or even corner, a well organised betting syndicate can manipulate events which previously seemed wholly arbitrary. The atomising of betting opportunities has also meant that each individual result within a game doesn't even need to bring a handsome return. The returns will accumulate in a way that spreads the risk and becomes hard to trace for lack of a one off, headline grabbing amount.
There are always whispers that Thai football is a vehicle for gambling syndicates with direct access to senior members of clubs. By ignoring it, the whispers only get louder. It is an issue that has to be openly addressed, ruthlessly clamped down on when evidence is discovered and players and staff consistently educated that they throw away their careers when they negotiate a match outcome. Like the Thai Highway Code, in the current climate, it would be an extremely useful document for levelling up uneven tables or swatting away annoying flies.
No comments:
Post a Comment