Liverpool’s ‘Match-Fixing’, and the FA Cup Cockup

The Red Ranter is splitting his time between blowing smoke rings out of his ears and gorging on Gummy Haggis and I’m working on my registration form for Soccerex Dubai (while blowing smoke rings from my ears), so time is short.

Liverpool + Match Fixing = WTF?

On the face of it, Liverpool’s 8-0 thrashing of Besiktas should not make too many headlines – a team boasting of Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard should be able to do nothing less than 8 goals against a team of Besiktas’s calibre, and when you add to this what Liverpool had at stake and the fact that this was played at Anfield, a thrashing was a foregone conclusion.

Some dimwitted Liverpool fans thought that it was an historical achievement – pretty much like those Australian fans who called a matter of history when Jason Gillespie racked up a double century against Bangladesh – but more or less the win was morale-boosting and helped Liverpool get back on track in Europe.

Now, there are ‘reports’ that the Liverpool v Besiktas game is being investigated. Since I haven’t read the sources yet myself but I have looked into the whole betting / match fixing issue beforehand, my view so far is that any rumours of match-fixing are bollocks. Uefa have been focusing on lower-level qualification matches, not high-profile group games (and certainly not Champions League group games).

Sorry Scott, this sounds like bull to me.

FA Cup 3rd Round Draw

Good story, nothing much to it. There’s a story going around that the Villa – United draw was a mistake, that Villa were supposed to get Boro and United were to get Bristol, but when you look at those close up shots (admittedly crap and made crappier by the poor YouTube resolution), it seems like 24 (United’s number), NOT 25 (Boro’s number).

See the video for yourself.

More News

Ronaldo wins some simple manutd.com awards that his mum would be proud off (he’s probably focused on the Christmas party, and hey, has anyone noticed how uninteresting GA has become once she’s publicised her relationship with Marcus Bent or some other runt – or is it just me wondering about the wrong things? too many sex tapes, I tell you…), and Fergie thinks that Anderson is the best youngster in the world (nothing like a little pressure).

Off you go…