by artan » Wed Jul 31, 2019 3:09 am
The big leagues may have been fixed 30-40 years ago but there's way too much money at stake nowadays. Qualification for Champions League (reaching a top 4 finish) in one of the big leagues gives teams alot of money. Relegation out of a league like the EPL will lose a team I think a hundred million because of TV money and sponsorships. Advancing each round of the CL gives a team prize money of tens of millions not including other revenue from ticket sales, merchandise, extra advertising, etc.
Bottom line is there's so munch involved in the big leagues. A team throwing a game away for a quick dollar would be insane because getting relegated or not going through to the next round will lose them significant money and can set the team back a few years.. That dilemma doesn't exist in a league like Albania where revenue sources are non-existent. Albanian teams are so poorly run and so inept that the only way they can get money is to fix games. None of them can qualify for Europe, none of them can develop players to sell, none of them attract fans to the game, merchandising/sponorships/etc are non-existent, etc.
Edit: Like the other guy said if there were fixing it would probably be the officials kinda like in the 2002 WC Finals how FIFA blatantly tried to push Korea to go through with a definite fix against Italy.
The big leagues may have been fixed 30-40 years ago but there's way too much money at stake nowadays. Qualification for Champions League (reaching a top 4 finish) in one of the big leagues gives teams alot of money. Relegation out of a league like the EPL will lose a team I think a hundred million because of TV money and sponsorships. Advancing each round of the CL gives a team prize money of tens of millions not including other revenue from ticket sales, merchandise, extra advertising, etc.
Bottom line is there's so munch involved in the big leagues. A team throwing a game away for a quick dollar would be insane because getting relegated or not going through to the next round will lose them significant money and can set the team back a few years.. That dilemma doesn't exist in a league like Albania where revenue sources are non-existent. Albanian teams are so poorly run and so inept that the only way they can get money is to fix games. None of them can qualify for Europe, none of them can develop players to sell, none of them attract fans to the game, merchandising/sponorships/etc are non-existent, etc.
Edit: Like the other guy said if there were fixing it would probably be the officials kinda like in the 2002 WC Finals how FIFA blatantly tried to push Korea to go through with a definite fix against Italy.