Sports

Major Rumors Of A Match-Fixing Scandal Hit Qatar World Cup As FIFA Worries About Over $100B Worth Of Bets

#Soccer
by Last Updated

Getty Image


The 2022 FIFA World Cup begins on Sunday and unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know that the leadup has been a complete and utter disaster. That’s because FIFA, in its infinite wi$dom, granted the 2022 tournament to Qatar. Beyond the blatant disgusting human rights violations, the tournament also had to be moved from the summer to the winter due to the often-unbearable summer heat in Qatar.

What’s come since has been nothing short of shambolic. Qatar hired paid actors to represent fans. Reporters from other countries have been harassed and had equipment destroyed. And the Qatari government has paid for fans to attend the event in return for positive reviews. It is the textbook definition of sportswashing.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. FIFA’s Qatar is on the verge of getting much, much worse.

Rumors Of Major Match-Fixing Put Yet Another Dark Cloud Over The 2022 FIFA World Cup In Qatar

Amjad Taha, the regional director of the British Middle East Center for Studies and Research, shared what may turn out to be a massive story on Thursday.

https://twitter.com/amjadt25/status/1593271354803032064?s=20&t=KGWOA3LzVm3d5KILYqR7Dw

 

Taha claims that Qatar bribed eight Ecuadorian national team members $7.4 million to throw the tournament’s opening match. More specifically, Taha claims that the bribe was for Ecuador to lose 1-0 with the lone goal coming in the second half of the match. The rumor absolutely rocked soccer fans on Twitter.

Though Taha’s report has since been disputed by Marc Owen Jones. Jones is an associate professor at Haman Bin Khalifa University in Qatar. He claims that Taha is an unreliable source and is intentionally spreading disinformation.

Nobody has corroborated Taha’s report to this point. But Front Office Sports reports that FIFA is increasingly wary about match-fixing and expects over $100 billion in bets on the tournament.

Soccer’s global governing body is working with sports data and technology company Sportradar to identify any signs of unfair play.

  • Sportradar monitors both the betting markets and the games themselves. The company says it tracks 30 billion data sets from 600 global bookmakers.
  • It identified 600 suspicious soccer matches in the first nine months of 2022 alone, mostly in leagues with relatively low pay for players and officials.
  • Global bets on the World Cup are expected to top $100 billion, making suspicious wagers potentially harder to identify. – via Front Office Sports

The 2022 FIFA World Cup is already under a dark cloud. Rumors of match-fixing will only make that cloud even larger.