My book 'The Fix' is published tomorrow (as I type) and looks at the famous matchfixing scandal involving Olympique Marseille in 1993.
But let's not pretend that matchfixing was solely a continental problem.
Ten British players were jailed in 1964 for match fixing offences, most commonly betting against their own side in matches they'd go on to lose. It possibly cost Tony Kay and Peter Swan places in Alf Ramsay's World Cup squad.
In the 90s the Sun broke a story alleging that Bruce Grobbelaar, John Fashanu and Hans Segers agreed to take bribes in exchange for fixing Premier League matches.
“Match Forecasting” 😎
One of the key matches that formed the prosecution case was this 3-0 Newcastle victory over Liverpool.
A series of questionable positional choices from Grobbelaar aided Andy Cole on his way to a first half hat trick.
Apparently conceding three goals was worth £40,000 to Grobbelaar. In the days before £40,000 would be a down week for a Premier League footballer.
Grobbelaar's former business partner Chris Vincent, another ex-Pat Zimbabwean living in the UK was the one to try and set him up. Vincent contacted the Sun newspaper offering to entrap Grobbelaar into admitting he fixed matches, the Fleet Street outfit who provided the clandestine recording equipment.
While Vincent provided enough evidence for the Sun to splash with the allegations, convincing the high court of your credibility as a witness when you've accepted a £33,000 payment for the story (rising to £100,000 for a successful conviction) proved beyond him.
Grobbelaar claimed he had been stringing Vincent along with lies about what he had done in order to later report him to the football authorities.
At the eventual trial the judge called Vincent “thoroughly dishonest con-man”.
The jury were unable to reach a verdict, so a mistrial was declared. A retrial began in June 1997, only for the same outcome to occur. The CPS dropped the case but the FA now stepped in and charged the players with breaches of betting regulations.
While Segers and Fashanu let the matter lie Grobbelaar would not. He sued the Sun for libel - and incredibly won! He was awarded £85,000 in damages but the Sun contested the verdict with the case eventually being decided in the House of Lords.
The Law Lords decided that the Sun hadn't proven their specific claims of match fixing so the verdict stood but they also contended that there was enough general dishonest conduct from Grobbelaar that they reduced his payout to just £1 and held him liable for the Sun's legal costs. The verdict bankrupted Grobbelaar.
And if you enjoy stories about football match fixing please buy my book…
https://www.pitchpublishing.co.uk/shop/fix
If you've already bought it - thank you (and five star reviews show you care)