Football (Soccer) Match-Fixing Scandal Reaches Canada

The huge match-fixing scandals that shook Europe earlier this year seem to have reached Canada – Canadian gambling news sources report. CBC News ran a detailed piece on an alleged match-fixing scandal in the Canadian Soccer League.

Allegedly, a Europe-based gambling syndicate paid EUR 15,000 bribes to the players of Toronto Croatia team to manipulate a game they played against Trois-Rivières.

Trois-Rivières player Reda Aggouram remembers the match: “I remember my goal. It was the free kick for us. One of our players took the free kick, and then the goalie didn’t punch it away, he punched it in front of the net, and then I took the rebound.”

No charges have yet been made against the players allegedly involved in the match-fixing, and no official complaints have been filed to the police.

The strict Canadian gambling laws only allow betting on sports thru government-owned and controlled agencies, both in land establishments and online.

However, sports fans willing to bet on sports in Canada may be able to use websites that are based outside Canada but take bets on Canadian sports events.

Game fixing in football (soccer) is as old as the game itself. Every two or three years or so, huge scandals involving bribed referees and bought players outrage Europe. Some cases are brought to court, some sentences are given, but as soon as the next season starts, everyone seems to forget about it.

The national leagues start again, the Premier League kicks in, and no-one remembers the humiliating loss a famous team suffered maybe as part of the match-fixing operation. Fans continue to scream at stadiums or in front of the television.

Referees keep making unexplainable decisions, but the authorities governing international and European football seem to neglect to introduce measures to fight inaccuracy, such as video-referees or in-game photo analysis.

According to estimates, bribes for match-fixing in Europe can reach the sum of several million Euros. This year alone, evidence of match-fixing was brought to light in Italy, Turkey, Croatia, Germany, Switzerland and Austria.