User:Pelotas/todo

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By the end of 2005, a large bribing and gambling scandal is going on in Belgian football. Players and trainers are accused with taking money from the Chinese gambling maffia. Goal of these payments would have been to influence the results of games, leading to extreme profits when gambling on the results of these matches.

1 Gambling on football matches
2 First sign of trouble
3 The Chinese Gambler
4 All about Put
5 Panorama
6 Punishment ?
7 Footnotes
8 Sources

[edit] Gambling on football matches

In many countries, gambing is a lucrative passtime. In Western-Europe also, gambing on football matches is common. In these modern days, mainly with the uprise of the Internet, the amount of gamblers and money circulating in gambling circuits has increased substantially. Gambling is however bound to strict rules, which leads to the creation of a large illegal gambling circuit, which deals with huge amounts of money. In the beginning of 2005 an illegal network of internet gamblers was found, who together had earned about 27 million dollars in just one year just by gambling on the results of football matches.

If you search on Google for Jupiler League, you will probably be surprised of the number of websites you can find that allow you to place a bet on matches from the Belgian league.^[1] In Asia, mainly China, where one can raise questions about the knowledge of the selections of clubs as Excelsior Mouscron or Lierse, big amounts of money are placed on matches of these clubs. When a gambler knows in advance that a game of one of these clubs will end in a 7-0 defeat, he or she can gain huge profits when bidding a reasonable amount of money. In this scandal, a number of players and trainers of mainly smaller clubs in Belgium have been asked (for a neat amount of cash) to manipulate matches. Some of them have been accused of fulfilling these requests. For the persons offering these amounts of cash, it only represents an investment of which the profits will come from betting on the results of these fixed matches.

[edit] First sign of trouble

In October 2005, Sint-Truiden played La Louvière in a match of the Belgian First Division, also called Jupiler League. Goalkeeper Dusan Belic played a malfortunate game, as part of his blunders Sint-Truiden lost 1-3. This was the actual first sign of trouble as the English betting agency Betfair noticed a large increase in betting for this match. Also the next game of Sint-Truiden was very popular with the gamblers as a total amount of €300.000 was used to gamble on these matches.

One month later, journalist Jan Hauspie from the Belgian magazine Sport/Voetbalmagazine received a tip: In Asia, La Louvière-Westerlo was at that time a popular match amongst the gamblers. This match, was called very exciting up to the end until Westerlo suddenly scored twice from flagrant offside positions, however the players from La Louvière did not complain at all.

Not much later, Lierse fired its trainer Paul Put, who had practically used the whole B-team in two matches. Officially he was announced to be fired because the results were bad.

Hauspie, followed closely by the magazine Humo, was looking into the case and soon found out that more strange things had happened in numerous matches, a lot more than just some 'unlucky moments' from a few players. Especially clubs with strange results were found to have frequently been visited by Chinese Businessman Zheyun Ye and/or the Belgian manager Pietro Allatta.

[edit] The Chinese Gambler

Ye probably made his first appearance in Belgian football in october 2004. The first club he came in contact with was Germinal Beerschot. First he was considered to be a potential investor but this led to nothing. Afterwards three Beerschot players confessed that Ye had, six months later, offered them €25.000 to lose a certain game, which they ahd refused. In November Ye showed up at Mons, a team from second division where he offered €250.000 to get the name of his fashioncompany from Paris on the shirts of the team, this offer was turned down by the president of the club.

After this, Ye visited, often together with Allatta, a whole series of clubs in Belgium. Next to the two earlier named clubs they also had contact with SK Lierse, La Louvière, K.F.C. Verbroedering Geel, KV Oostende and SK Ronse. Only two clubs immediately sent them away Kortrijk and Roeselare. Ye also contacted individual players of other clubs as Sint-Truiden and Red Star Waasland. These players were offered amounts from €5.000 to €72.000 to perform 'below average' during a game. These amounts are not small for players in the lower divisions of belgian professional football where there are monthly salaries of less than €1.500.

In the same period a young woman presses charges against Ye for harassment. The questioning that followed, led to the police gaining more information concerning his contacts with the football world.

[edit] All about Put

Probably Ye and Allatta did not achieve to get a real influence in the above named clubs, but the sponsorcontract with Ronse was almost completed and the management of La Louvière have been accused of coöperating with Ye and Allatta. It is however reasonable to suppose that a large number of players have accepted the offers and have taken part in the actual 'underachieving' during games.

The most important names, who are named in this context, are those of two former trainers, Paul Put and Gilbert Bodart. Put is considered to be one of the central persons in this scandal: he was the trainer of Lierse SK and is said to have recieved €75.000 per match to spread amongst the players. Twice he used almonst the whole B-team of youngsters and lesser players, to achieve the beforehand agreed result (a loss) of the match. Officially Put was fired by Lierse because the results were not satisfying, but it is possible that some people in the management of the club had found out what Put was upto. At first Put denied all the accusations, but in February 2006 he is fired as trainer of Mouscron, it is said because he had admitted to have influenced two matches.

Bodart was also fires as trainer (with KV Oostende) because of "bad results". Other sources invlolving the club mention he had gambled on a loss of his team, shortly after a visit from Ye. After Bodart was fired he became trainer of La Louvière and suddenly the amount of bids in Asia skyrocketed for the match La Louvière-Sint Truiden to a staggering €600.000. He also denied everything, but quit his job in February 2006.

[edit] Panorama

On the 5th of February 2006 the VRT-programma "Panorama" made a show about the scandal. The programme doesn not give hard evidence, but does give a summary of all accusations and names of players, trainers and managers named in this scandal. New names are the players from Mons and trainer Albert Cartier. De power of the medium of television is proven again, because after the airing of this programme the whole case evolves much faster.

Two players from Lierse admit to have taken money on February 16. Goalkeeper Cliff Mardulier and captain Laurent Fassotte are immediately fired and also assistent-trainer Patrick Deman is told to leave. The next day R.S.C. Anderlecht immediately fires ex-Lierse players Marius Mitu and Laurent Delorge and Put is fired at Excelsior Moucron. Deman (the first that admitted to be bribed) en Mardulier come to an arrangement with the Belgian Football Association: they both promise to tell everything they know, not to be suspended in return for it.

On the 9th of March the police is researching the team Sint-Truiden. Three players, Marco Nys, Cyril Ramond and Ilija Stolica are taken away for questioning during training (just one day before the crucial match with Anderlecht). Also ex-goalkeeper Belic and Bodart are questioned. One week later the president of La Louvière is visited at home as the police search his home, with the same happening to lawyer Laurent Denis, who is at that time considered to play a big role in this scandal. Six people are aprehended for questioning and a warrant for the aprehension of Ye and Allatta are internationally spread. Allatta turns himself in with the Brussels' police, Ye is still missing.

In the meantime the scandal has branched to the Netherlands, first through the transfer of Delorge to ADO Den Haag. On the [{Aapril 23|23rd of April]] the VRT also claims that PSV player Archie Thompson also was bribed when he was playing for Lierse.

[edit] Punishment ?

--- translated up to here ---

De Brusselse onderzoeksrechter Silviana Verstreken onderzoekt momenteel het schandaal. Op 2 maart werd duidelijk gemaakt waar haar onderzoek zich op richt: het spitst zich toe op de clubs La Louvière, Lierse en Sint-Truiden. Tot de waslijst van delicten die mogelijk gepleegd zijn behoren corruptie, oplichting, witwassen, valsheid in geschrifte en doodsbedreigingen.

Op 13 April meldt de krant Het Laatste Nieuws dat een aantal spelers en oud-trainers in verdenking gesteld is voor "passieve private corruptie". Het zou onder anderen gaan om Mitu, Fassotte, Mardulier, Put, Deman en Mardulier. Een woordvoerder van het parket zegt dat er nog zeker meer zullen volgen.

Enkele factoren compliceren het werk van de onderzoeksrechter: allereerst is er de bepaling in het bondsreglement, waarin wordt bepaald dat onregelmatigheden binnen 48 uur aan de KBVB gemeld moeten worden. Spelers als Daniel Cruz, Luciano Da Silva en Mohammed Messoudi, die geld werd geboden maar weigerden, maar dit niet aan de bond meldden, riskeren dus een straf van de voetbalbond. Dit zou andere betrokkenen ertoe kunnen brengen tegenover justitie hun mond te houden.

Dan is er nog de figuur Allatta, die een criminele reputatie heeft. Verschillende betrokkenen bij het schandaal beweren met de dood bedreigd te zijn nadat ze hadden aangegeven zich niet meer met de omkooppraktijken te willen inlaten. Of de onderste steen daadwerkelijk boven zal komen moet dus worden afgewacht.