Michel Platini reckons that match-fixing is the biggest scourge to his sport, and who are we to disagree? I’m thinking that diving and simulation is a far bigger blight on soccer’s sanctity, though events in a friendly last month are making me reconsider.
Macedonia 3, Canada 0. Doesn’t seem like an untoward result, but it’s brought plenty of scrutiny from UEFA as to the conduct of Bulgarian referee Anton Genov during the game, so much so that they have suspended him pending further investigation. Genov awarded four penalties total in the match, two to each team, and betting operators has suspicions raised by an unusually large number of bets placed on the number of goals scored and number of penalties awarded.
UEFA Spokesman Rob Faulkner notes that European soccer’s ruling body has “decided not to appoint Anton Genov to any European matches until further notice” and honestly, the evidence doesn’t look good for Mr. Genov, a 43-year-old who has been on FIFA’s approved referee list since 1999 (and it’s that list from which World Cup finals referees are selected).
Video and such after the jump.
If I was reviewing this, I’d just think this was two teams who weren’t very good. The penalties don’t look too egregious to me, and I’ve seen bad tackling like this at enough amateur games to think that maybe it’s just a case of Macedonia and Canada being Macedonia and Canada (FIFA rankings: 66 and 59 respectively).
[Ed Note: Canada's ranked that high by FIFA?]
To add further cause for concern, on Monday the Bulgarian FA sacked its referee commission, the entity responsible for appointing referees to games and handling referee assessment. Their reasoning? Finding a slew of errors made by referees in the domestic league, and with suspicion surrounding one of their own, reasonable doubt would suggest that Genov’s guilty.
Still, one to watch for the future. This investigation follows claims by UEFA in September that they were looking into several CL and Europa League qualifiers for evidence of match-fixing, and in late November named five clubs who they’d found to be guilty in match-fixing.
For once, it looks like ol’ Michel was right. Maybe this match-fixing stuff is worse than an Archer’s Bow or Drogba special.
How early was the Macedonian in the box on the 2nd penalty? (Around the 1:20 mark). He literally runs alongside the penalty taker step for step, and does the same thing the 2nd time (around the 1:35 mark).
Clearly, the issue is that the Canadians are so bad that they can’t even score when the ref is trying to fix the match.
seriously, even the UF starting XI could make at least one of two PKs