I don't wanna (go to The) Rock - DJ

What is so sickening is that the likes of DJC have more money than sense already, earned legitimately, so why on earth would they need to fiddle any more for themselves?
Call me naive but there we are.

^
Yes, it would seem that having money doesn't seem to stop someone from wanting more.

It's a bit of a puzzle about a lot of footballers, frankly. Such as when Ashley Cole "almost drove off the road" at the news he was only being offered a mere £55k a week. And more than that, do these top bankers who get massive bonuses actually /need/ them? Only if they haven't been prudent with their money previously. Yet they still collect them and deliberately go for the jobs that offer them. It appears that, for some people at least, it's in their nature.

Greed makes people fall for conman and fake sheiks and Journalists

After Jimmy Savile, Dave Lee Travis, Mike Osman and Paul Gambaccini, I thought that perhaps the police's interest in DJs was waning…

Nice one, fat fox. Very nimble.

This worries me, I confess. If evidence emerges that this sort of thing is at all widespread, the game is in big big trouble. The money swilling around, in the Pren at least, makes it very attractive, and vulnerable, to this kind of chicanery.

I'm one of those who have always believed that while some players "simulate", and some referees may be crumbled by crowd pressure into making decisions they know in their heart are wrong, the game as played on the pitch is intrinsically honest. I'd be sick to my stomach think there is organised cheating going on, on any sizeable scale.

Our best hope may lie in the utter gormlessness of most footballers, and their probable inability to pull this sort of thing off without getting caught.They may of course have clever friends, though.

Fingers firmly crossed.

Malling, I suppose the bright side (if there is one) is that you don't have to orchestrate winning a losing a match these days in order to do this. Both Sam Sodje and DJ Campbell are alleged to have been tasked with picking up cards - Campbell a yellow while Sodje inexplicably lamped a couple of opponents and got sent off. (He threw a punch at the first and the ref missed it, then he did it again. Go figure!)

However, we do know for certain that this kind of thing has happened in the past - such as Matt Le Tissier admitting that he once deliberately tried to put the ball out for a throw in from the kick off. Unfortunately for him, he missed (!) and, fearing he was going to get his legs broken, managed to scramble it out of play in the second minute of the game, whereupon the bet was null and void. Needless to say, he states that he never did anything like that again!

So I suppose this kind of thing has been happening for a while. Does it affect the result of a game? It think it's a big ask to find a player who could actually do this as it can't be said for sure that an individual will have an opportunity to do it (maybe goalkeepers aside, but even then you can't be sure). So little things like throw-ins and yellow cards probably don't affect the result of the game that much. It's still dishonest of course, and if Campbell's found guilty then he should never play professional football again. However, I still believe that what we've watched over recent years is, in the bigger picture at least, generally honest.


One footnote to this, apparently Sam Sodje and DJ Campbell played under Martin Allen at Brentford. Later, of course, Allen was the one who brought Campbell to Leicester for a ridiculously inflated fee. Milan Mandaric has never given the reason for Allen's sacking but has been quoted as saying something like: "If you knew the full reason I sacked him, you'd all see things in a different light." It may be 2 and 2 making 5, but it makes you wonder...

Goodness me yes, I had forgotton about that, we were never told the real reason for Allen being sacked so early. Perhaps it will come out one day.

I heard a report on the radio this morning about a future match fixing enquiry, the guy said that it was important that betting experts were asked to help in it. He went into some detail as to how certain things in games affected other things which affected odds, all very complicated and above my head. He didn't think the practice was widespread, rather that there are bad apples in all walks of life, be it sport, the police, even judges.

In a way it's quite heartening that it's DJ Campbell in the dock, because we already know what an odious little toad he is. If it was someone like Andy King I think my faith in football would drop through the floor.

"Blackburn Rovers striker DJ Campbell has been given permission to spend this weekend with his family and will not feature in Saturday's home game with Millwall, according to Sky Sports News."

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On the BBC website today. No deciding to give it all for his teammates and the Blackburn fans then, to show some determination to prove his innocence, show some character and play on through the inevitable jeers.

Why am I even surprised any more?

Gardening leave. I do hope he doesn't step on a rake.