Now, EPL in a spot of bother

A chapter was added to fixing in top-flight football on Wednesday when former Southampton captain Claus Lundekvam revealed that that he, teammates and opposing captains were involved in betting fraud in the English Premier League (EPL). Cobwebs form the past

A chapter was added to fixing in top-flight football on Wednesday when former Southampton captain Claus Lundekvam revealed that that he, teammates and opposing captains were involved in betting fraud in the English Premier League (EPL). Hitherto, such reports had emerged from Italy and other parts of Europe but this is the first time the EPL, the world's most-watched domestic league, has come under the scanner.

Denial followed swiftly through Francis Benali, another former Southampton skipper and teammate, claiming that the culture of spot-fixing, as alleged by Lundekvam, didn’t exist in the EPL. Fifa has said they are monitoring the issue.

Lundekvam, a former Norway international, was quoted as saying the Norweigian media that “it’s not something I’m proud of. For a while, we did this almost every week. We made a fair bit of money. We could make deals with the opposing captain about, for example, betting on the first throw, the first corner, who started with the ball, a yellow card or a penalty. Those were the sorts of thing we had influence over… The match results were never on the agenda.”

In 1964, a huge betting scandal had hit English football with eight players jailed for match-fixing.

Betting is legal in England and many other major football countries and the football betting industry is huge globally.

There have been rumours of players putting their money in matches they are involved in but very few have admitted to it. In 2009, Southampton legend Matt Le Tissier spoke in his autobiography about betting on the timing of a first throw-in and attempting to kick the ball out of play deliberately in a game against Wimbledon in 1995 — a year before Lundekvam’s arrival.