"Gentleman's Agreement"

[tongue_tied_danny]

There is talk on the Clyde v Berwick thread of the teams playing out a pre-arranged draw next week in order to f**k Cowdenbeath over. I'm aware that the chat is tongue in cheek but there have been examples of this kind of thing in the past. Most famously West Germany and Austria played out a 1-0 victory in the 1982 WC to ensure both teams progressed. I also recall a Champion's League match around 15 or so years ago where both teams took the foot off the gas in the second half for the same reason. I can't remember who it was though.

Are there any other examples in Scottish football or elsewhere of mutually beneficial collusion?

[tongue_tied_danny]

1 hour ago, tongue_tied_danny said:

There is talk on the Clyde v Berwick thread of the teams playing out a pre-arranged draw next week in order to f**k Cowdenbeath over. I'm aware that the chat is tongue in cheek but there have been examples of this kind of thing in the past. Most famously West Germany and Austria played out a 1-0 victory in the 1982 WC to ensure both teams progressed. I also recall a Champion's League match around 15 or so years ago where both teams took the foot off the gas in the second half for the same reason. I can't remember who it was though.

Are there any other examples in Scottish football or elsewhere of mutually beneficial collusion?

The Champions league match i'm thinking of was between Galatasaray and Sturm Graz in 2000 and our very own Rangers were the victims. 

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/draw-or-bust.aspx?pageID=438&n=draw-or-bust-2000-11-10

[Captain Carrot]

Not collusion but a good few seasons back when the old Rangers won the title at Easter Road both clubs didn't really put much effort in once a mutually beneficial scoreline was achieved.  http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_prem/4570627.stm

[LongTimeLurker]

Think the RoI and Holland effectively did that to Scotland and Austria at the 1990 World Cup when a draw turned out to be enough for both to qualify for the groups stages, but it's been a while.

[eindhovendee]

4 hours ago, tongue_tied_danny said:

There is talk on the Clyde v Berwick thread of the teams playing out a pre-arranged draw next week in order to f**k Cowdenbeath over. I'm aware that the chat is tongue in cheek but there have been examples of this kind of thing in the past. Most famously West Germany and Austria played out a 1-0 victory in the 1982 WC to ensure both teams progressed. I also recall a Champion's League match around 15 or so years ago where both teams took the foot off the gas in the second half for the same reason. I can't remember who it was though.

Are there any other examples in Scottish football or elsewhere of mutually beneficial collusion?

The WG v Austria game was refereed by Dundee ref Bob Valentine. I spoke to him about it about 15 years later and he said he was only thinking about his own performance, didn't seem to notice the obvious cheating.

[The Nightfly]

Think the RoI and Holland effectively did that to Scotland and Austria at the 1990 World Cup when a draw turned out to be enough for both to qualify for the groups stages, but it's been a while.

Egypt were affected also. Despite losing to England, they would have progressed had the ROI/Holland match not been drawn.

[HibeeJibee]

Again not a Scottish example but did Sweden & Denmark not play out a convenient highscoring draw at Euro 2008 which, using 3-way head-to-head not GD earnt thrashing Bulgaria, eliminated Italy?

[Dunning1874]

23 hours ago, HibeeJibee said:

Again not a Scottish example but did Sweden & Denmark not play out a convenient highscoring draw at Euro 2008 which, using 3-way head-to-head not GD earnt thrashing Bulgaria, eliminated Italy?

Euro 2004, it was a 2-2 draw which put Italy out despite having 5 points - all three of them defeating Bulgaria then drawing with each other. While the 3-way head to head was the decider and drawing 2-2 put Sweden and Denmark first and second, it's worth noting that had goal difference been used that would have put Italy out as well - Sweden beat Bulgaria 5-0, Denmark 2-0, Italy 2-1.

A 1-1 draw would have given Denmark an identical record in the three way head to head to Italy, but surely the way it would have worked is sending Sweden through for topping the 3-way then reverting to GD for the whole group to split Denmark and Italy and sending Denmark through anyway, so they can dry their eyes. The next step of the tie-breaker after that would have been using the coefficient from qualifying, which would have been dreadful.

In any case, Sweden scored an 88th minute equaliser to make it 2-2 after an excellent game where both teams were going full pelt, it was hardly like they went to 2-2 in the first half then didn't try once the score was convenient like that Galatasary v Sturm Graz game mentioned above. Which was absolutely hilarious by the way, I remember it fondly.

[Nightmare]

Now that we're nearing the end of the season, look out for this happening in leagues across Europe. We're generally an honest bunch in this country, but in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece in the next few weeks you'll see some short odds on draws, or very short odds on teams needing a win vs teams with nothing to play for.

[Fuctifano]

There was one in Italy last season (Spezia vs Ascoli) where a 0-0 draw suited both teams and it got to the stage the bookies withdrew the market.

Final score: 0-0.

[Dunning1874]

22 minutes ago, Nightmare said:

Now that we're nearing the end of the season, look out for this happening in leagues across Europe. We're generally an honest bunch in this country, but in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece in the next few weeks you'll see some short odds on draws, or very short odds on teams needing a win vs teams with nothing to play for.

I can't recall specific examples off the top of my head, but I'm fairly sure in Argentina in the past some clubs with nothing to play have been entirely open about the fact they'll down tools in games against clubs who can win leagues/stay up ahead of their rivals.

[tongue_tied_danny]

6 hours ago, Dunning1874 said:

Euro 2004, it was a 2-2 draw which put Italy out despite having 5 points - all three of them defeating Bulgaria then drawing with each other. While the 3-way head to head was the decider and drawing 2-2 put Sweden and Denmark first and second, it's worth noting that had goal difference been used that would have put Italy out as well - Sweden beat Bulgaria 5-0, Denmark 2-0, Italy 2-1.

A 1-1 draw would have given Denmark an identical record in the three way head to head to Italy, but surely the way it would have worked is sending Sweden through for topping the 3-way then reverting to GD for the whole group to split Denmark and Italy and sending Denmark through anyway, so they can dry their eyes. The next step of the tie-breaker after that would have been using the coefficient from qualifying, which would have been dreadful.

In any case, Sweden scored an 88th minute equaliser to make it 2-2 after an excellent game where both teams were going full pelt, it was hardly like they went to 2-2 in the first half then didn't try once the score was convenient like that Galatasary v Sturm Graz game mentioned above. Which was absolutely hilarious by the way, I remember it fondly.

Yeah, I was in pub watching it and a couple of Rangers fans at the bar were seething like f**k... 

[HibeeJibee]

In some of these Latin countries it's done pretty openly that clubs in trouble offer opponents big bonuses to beat rivals too, IIRC?

Did the Danish keeper not drop the ball for Sweden's equaliser?

[AsimButtHitsASix]

5 hours ago, Dunning1874 said:

In any case, Sweden scored an 88th minute equaliser to make it 2-2 after an excellent game where both teams were going full pelt, it was hardly like they went to 2-2 in the first half then didn't try once the score was convenient like that Galatasary v Sturm Graz game mentioned above.

It was quite clear both teams were going for it, there wasn't a fix on the cards, UNTIL it went 2-2 then you could tell both were happy to settle. Practically congratulating each other.

Didn't help the camera kept cutting to Danish and Swedish fans sitting next to each other with "2-2 NORDIC VICTORY" t-shirts and the like

[Fuctifano]

Italy scored to make it 2-1 just after Sweden had equalised in the 89th minute, Cassano (the goalscorer) was going mental and ran over to the bench in celebration who'd found out the score from the other game and it looked like he'd gatecrashed a funeral.

[vikingTON]

Pretty sure that the thinking in Italy and other countries as well is that if the club roles are reversed in later seasons then your favour gets repaid. It's more of an insurance against future relegation as opposed to financial reward.

[Dindeleux]

Pretty sure that the thinking in Italy and other countries as well is that if the club roles are reversed in later seasons then your favour gets repaid. It's more of an insurance against future relegation as opposed to financial reward.

Morten will be desperate for Hamilton to be relegated to repay the favour I would imagine.

[vikingTON]

Not as desperate as a thick racist like yourself is to somehow appear relevant to the forum. 

Better luck next time. 

[thisal]

Back in 1959 Dunfermline had to beat Thistle by 8 goals to be sure of avoiding relegation. They won 10-1! 

[harry94]

5 hours ago, thisal said:

Back in 1959 Dunfermline had to beat Thistle by 8 goals to be sure of avoiding relegation. They won 10-1! 

There was a bit of a scandal in our Sunday League a couple of years ago when our team were guaranteed promotion unless another won by something like 28 clear goals in their final game. A bit of humour was spread about the potential of a coalition against us (we were pretty hated by everyone) and a fake rumour was spread that the game had been won 28-0 which prompted outrage for us to be informed that it was a joke.

The score come through....31-0!

Can't remember what happened specifically but the head of the league was furious and I'm pretty sure it transpired that they'd basically got a team of ringers from the best team in the league and the team defeated arranged their night out before the game and only sent 8 or 9 players to play but managed to donate a few others to help out in a sort of reciprocal agreement a few hours later for the side they'd borrowed from. Pretty sure the game was replayed and we ended up in the top flight but it was quite an entertaining seethefest for a few days.