In society

Strange games

June 17, 2009 Anton Oresh

What a country as a whole, what kind of customs are in it, such is it all in particular. Are corruption and bribes flourishing in Russia? Flourish. So why shouldn't this in sports, and even more specifically in football? But imagine - no! For all my long enthusiasm, there was only one case in the second football league, when the team was punished for the so -called “contract match”, that is, a match in which there was no honest struggle, and the teams went to the field to play the public with the previously known (but not public) finale. Maybe there were other examples, not in football and not in the higher leagues, but I don’t remember such cases, and apparently they were very small. And officially, there is still nothing “contract” in our sport and his flagship football.

Last weekend, once again “did not happen”. The Terek teams and the Samara Wings of the Soviets played in Grozny. As soon as the match ended, the Internet exploded, and on Monday the newspapers also rustled. The public unanimously recognized the match contract. More precisely, “strange”, because the word “contracted” is everyday, kitchen, and publicly such bullshit is called more political correctly - “strange match”.

What was "strange" in it? The same teams at the end of last season played a no less “strange” meeting among themselves. Then Samara won with a 4: 3 rare account for football - with the complete impressiveness of the sides on the field, with the complete absence of rigid martial arts and yellow cards, that in modern football a real wonders - the judges give out generously cards. And even for one of the participants in the meeting, it is difficult to leave the field without warning, and so that both, and in such an account, implying the obvious boiling of passions! That last year’s victory allowed the “Wings” to get a ticket to the European Cups, and for the formidable the match had no special tournament significance. In such situations, in our championship, especially closer to the finish line of the tournament distance, similar stories are adopted all the same - who needs victory, he, as a rule, receives it. Not necessarily for money. For example, today we need glasses more and you will give them to us, and we will return the debt for the next year.

Time to pay for debts for Samara, apparently, has come. And after last year’s 4: 3 she lost 2: 3 in Grozny. And again on the field was anything but boiling passions. Again, not a single yellow card (the second time in a row! At 12 balls clogged in two matches!). At the end of the fight, the defenders of the “wings” behaved right along the Zhvanetsky: as a domestic medicine, which "unlike Swiss not only does not kill the microbe, but also cooperates with it." The Samara Slutsky’s very emotional coach (in the photo on the left) was unusually quiet on the bench of his team and a non -laid in an interview, like almost all the participants in the “drama” who, in response to accusations from all sides, are in no hurry to sue, tear shirts, swear and God. They are sure that the noise will settle, the wave will subside and life will flow as before.

And they are right! Because it was always exactly how all these stories ended, so why should it be different now? The golden words “not caught - not a thief”, but how to catch, even if you can not try?

Now the Premier League holding the championship says that “there are no prerequisites for an investigation into this match. And then, the Premier League is not the organization to conduct an investigation, special bodies must do this. ” And what prerequisites in principle could be for investigation? For example, did people enter the field with a suitcase of money and paid publicly? This “strange match” has now hundreds of thousands of eyewitnesses, and the vast majority does not consider it honest - is this not a prerequisite?

They always say: there is no evidence, we are not an investigative body. Well, let's say. But still, after all, such crimes rarely happen that the criminals leave their business cards, pistols with fingerprints and a bloody trace until their refuge. Evidence must be sought, collected, and then they will appear, and not wait until they are found somehow themselves. And about the “non -investigative organ” - also true, but why not attract real investigative authorities? At one time, the Minister of Sports, he is the head of the RFU Vitaliy Mutko, amazingly answered this question: they say, law enforcement agencies and without football are loaded with work, they have serious crimes to the ceiling, and then we will come with our football. I agree, the contract match is not a murder. But then let's not investigate small thefts, hooliganism, bribes in not particularly large sizes on this occasion. Let the police catch only killers, terrorists and Khodorkovsky, and the rest will somehow resolve.

In Italy, in Poland, in the Czech Republic, in Germany, France, they were not too lazy and found time to look for evidence, attract the police, were not afraid to soak the reputation in the eyes of the world community. And we remember how not just the teams of the second league were punished, but the great “Marcel” or “Juventus”, how they were excommunicated from football and the most influential people fell behind bars.

The same Mutko said another beautiful phrase: they say, there are now less contractual matches. How so! They are not at all! Zero! So where is it below zero, if only it is not about temperature? How can something that does not exist in nature decrease?

One of the indirect, although significant evidence of the “agreement” is the reaction of bookmakers. Actually, in a sports environment, they are two. Some focus on them as a certain higher authority, others do not hide irony. Before the match in Grozny, the bets were made amazing, strange. Despite a higher class and a higher place in the Samara table, they did not look at all with favorites. Moreover, the favorite, and the Terek looked obvious. Let him even play in his field - there should not have been such coefficients for his victory. And such a shaft of bets on an ordinary in every sense, the match in the usual course of events does not exist. This collapse and forced the bookmakers to reduce the coefficient so as not to go broke. Bookmakers are not naughty, not gods. But they risk their money and willy-nilly try to hold their hand on the pulse, to keep abreast of both obvious and secret circumstances that can affect the outcome of the matches. In other countries, they also affect the outcomes themselves, but this business has not yet reached a foreign level and usually acts not in the role of the vertebral of fate, but as a victim of circumstances.

But at the same time, as I said, many chuckle at the “bookmaker argument”: since the bookmakers said, then you won’t argue with them, they all know better than the players and hockey players themselves. So the coach Slutsky expresses doubts: “Recently, people began to focus on bookmakers very closely. Sometimes the bookmakers themselves are called people who almost rule the world and can affect any situation in sports. And based on what coefficients they offer for the results of the games, a conclusion is drawn about the cleanliness of a particular match. Only now, when small coefficients are played, no one has doubts, and when the opposite occurs, many begin to look for underwater trends. ” Yes, it happens that bookmaker suspicions are not justified, but we are talking about the “premises”. When the sloppy sums begin to put on an ordinary game on an ordinary game - is it at least not curious? When in a match of rivals comparable in the class, one of them suddenly begin to put incredibly often and a lot - isn't this a reason to delve into the details?

If you wish, finding the ends would not be so difficult. Because the circle of interested parties is obvious, because they have no habit of carefully to sweep traces, because this was never required of them before. But no one makes such attempts! Sport in this sense is unique even in our unique country. Still, in other areas they catch someone from time to time. Police, officials, judges and prosecutors, organizers of custom -made murders are even sometimes found. Rarely, but still such cases are known to us. And in sports - once for all the time of observation! Because in this system there are practically no victims. Those who suffered today themselves will be on a horse tomorrow, and vice versa. The system feeds everyone, and going beyond the circle means to fly out of business, to become a lousy sheep. If there are those who take, that is, those who give. And when they take “everything”, they give “everything”. And no one is interested in stopping this. Therefore, all the briskly, all influential structures say that “there are no prerequisites”, that “this is outside the competence of our organ”, and all football “cones” add that the match “has not seen”. That is, do not even bother that here I can comment if I have not seen. No one saw, no one is competent, no prerequisites, evidence and evidence. Was there a match?

Photos of RIA Novosti