By now a lot of people have read, seen or overheard about the pie eating goalkeeper from Sutton United, who helped himself to pastry treat whilst sitting on the bench in the big game against Arsenal on Monday night UK time.
First of all, we won’t call it Pie-Gate. That’s a stupid f***ing name, and why on earth people put gate at the end of a controversy is beyond us. The Watergate scandal was about the Watergate Hotel, not about water. F***wits.
But back to the pie eating goalkeeper Wayne Shaw. He’s a clubman who worked his arse off for the club, yet after the pie eating goalkeeper stunt, he has been sacked. It was unfortunate, as without the FA Cup run no one would normally give a stuff about a side in mid table in the National League.
It was all for a bit of fun, and something clearly going missing in modern sports. English footballing and broadcasting legend Gary Lineker shared his thoughts via his Twitter remarking “Day by Day football is losing its heart and sense of humour”, he’s not wrong.
A shame that on a weekend where a Non League side caused one of the greatest upsets in recent memory and becoming the first Non League in the quarter finals in a century that the pie eating goalkeeper is one of Football’s biggest talking points.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fWeHC20aos
The controversy about it was that the pie eating goalkeeper was in response to a betting option being available on the outcome. As much as we love a novelty bet (we successfully bet on the correct amount of Hear Hears in the 2016 Budget speech) betting companies shouldn’t offer up a market that can be so easily abused. And it should be taken on the chin like in this situation where it was a good natured stunt. Or don’t offer them at all.
But was the pie eating goalkeeper the best spot fixing scandal of all time. Hardly. Whilst Wayne Shaw will be forever known as the pie eating goalkeeper, the incident has a lot of competition for best of the Great Spot Fixing Moments.
Laurie Oakes – Election Night 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEYKOD994Hk
Sportsbet offered a market for what colour tie Laurie Oakes would wear. With numerous wardrobe changes and two fingers directed to the betting company, he wore every betting option giving all punters some extra cash in their pocket. Made him even more likeable in our opinion.
Pakistan No Ballers No Brainers
Three Pakistan cricketers were convicted of under performing on purpose in a Test v England in 2010, with the worst of the offences some deliberate No Balls. They were told by the bookie which over and ball to step over the line for a big payday.
Mohammed Asif made quite sure of one of his no balls by clearing the line by a good half a metre. Nothing like being sure of a pay day.
Strange that someone would go to such length to get a Pakistani cricketer to underperform. Normally you would just have to send them on a tour to Australia.
Hansie Cronje
The original and best. The former South African cricket captain added “disgraced” to his official title when caught match fixing in 2000 for South Africa. They were mostly meaningless One Day games, but he was banned for life anyway and died a few years later in a plane crash.
The 12th Man had quite a lot of fun at his expense in his Final Dig recording.
Hansie wasn’t the only one, with allegations of Australians giving betting information, and a wave of spot fixing tarnishing the IPL’s previous editions.
But with a game competing only with Golf and Winter Olympics for boredom, who could blame those playing and watching if they didn’t want to make a little extra.
Ryan Tandy’s Penalty Miss
Proving Cricket isn’t the only sport capable of dishonesty, then Bulldogs players Ryan Tandy was involved in a betting sting to have the first scoring play as a penalty.
He did his part, dropping the ball from the kick off, and then giving the penalty away. Unfortunately for him and the punters, the Cowboys took a quick tap and grabbed themselves 4 points instead of two.
Like Hansie Cronje he was banned for life from his sport, and an even sadder comparison was he also passed away a few years later.
Plenty more do it too
Every sport that can be bet is under threat. A young Australian Open Boys champion found out that the money isn’t always good when you’re caught. There’s also plenty of stories from the world of Football in the UK, Europe, Asia and even lower division Victorian Football.
One wonders with the amount of tanking Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic do, they could also have a sniff of spot fix about them. But given they’re are already filthy rich for their age and probably not smart enough to work out an agreement it is unlikely.
Maybe their win in our February 2017 Jerk of the Month award is enough.
