This week a bomb dropped in Belgain Football with over 40 people (Agents, Coaches, Referees, Players,...) being arrested and even kept in prison overnight in a grand investigation around money laundry and matchfixing in the Belgian League. I took some time to make a summary of some of the things that happened.
Often time near the end of the season there are some key relegation matches that often see strange results to say the least. I previewed one of these matches last season. The match ended up in a 4-0 win for Eupen most of the match had no sign of being fixed as Moeskroen were actually the better team during the first half. There was a a late collapse and goal for Eupen came at minute 73' 76' 80' and 89'. Kv Mechelen who relegated also are involved in matchfixing which involves the ref Vertenten who made sure Antwerp won by giving them a penalty he should never have given. The last match between mechelen and Waasland also was somewhat suspicious.
This was not the first time this happened and in the past teams (Westerlo) that relegated because of similar situation pressed charges. The investigations apperantly shed some light on other dodgy situations the lead to an entire web of money laundry and corruption as a result. On Wednesday the so called "Operation Clean Hands' and a lot of people who could be involved were arrested for interrigation.
The 2 main suspects are player agents Mogi Bayat & Dejan Veljkovic who have many players under their wings and who most clubs work with since these agents can get things down when it comes down to moving players around. They have gotten so much power that they had a lot of influence and enough power to influence matches and do a lot of money laundry with their network. So far the entire situation has been something of a rampage and involves...
- 8 Million Euro in Rolex Watches
- 3 Million in other Money Laundry
- Some Fixed Matches
- 2 Refs Suspended (Vertenten | Delferiere )
- Play suspended this weekend in 2nd division
- Kv Mechelen risking to be scratched as a team.
- ...
There are still a lot of things unclear right now and they talked about postponing Week 11 in the league because there might not be enough trained refs right now. This won't happen though and they will find a way to continue the show. A lot more will become clear the next couple days.
What this means Betting wise
The entire situation does not have that much of an influence for me betting wise since few players are involved and it all does not really have that much to do with manipulating the actual betting markets on a big scale. Near the end of the season it will be more unlikely that relegation teams will take the needed wins which might bring a good opportunity to oppose them. Always in these matches the odds were extremely low on the team in need for a win while it was impossible to oppose them because the not so small chance that the match would be manipulated somehow. (see write-up above)
I will just continue betting exactly as I have done during the year and will be making some team stats reviews to make sure I stay on top of this league during the international break week.
Let me know in the commens about suspicious matches and situation in your League the last years...
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