The Big Fix : The Hunt for the Match Fixers Bringing down Soccer by Brett Forrest ebook MOBI
9780062308078 English 0062308076 Can the most beloved sport in the world beat the corruption that threatens to tear it apart?Known as the "beautiful game," soccer is the world's most popular sport, crossing borders and language barriers to entertain billions. But underneath it all the raucous fans in the stadiums; the beloved players; and FIFA, the international governing body with a membership of 209 national associations is a scandal that threatens to make soccer the ugliest sport in the world. An underworld of international gambling rings, corrupt players and officials, and shadowy figures preys on the far-flung edges of the game, making match-fixing in soccer one of organized crime's new, profitable businesses. Now, for the first time, journalist Brett Forrest takes us inside the $700 billion international soccer betting market. In 2013 Europol revealed that more than 700 international matches have been fixed since 2008. Forrest pulls back the curtain, exposing a web of nefarious dealings across the world, even on U.S. soil, with opportunistic fixers bribing players, influencing officials, and staging fake matchups, while Asian criminal syndicates pull the strings. No match is safe not even the World Cup tournament especially while local law enforcement officials lack the resources and the will to investigate. But one man has taken on this criminal enterprise: Chris Eaton, a hardheaded Australian, longtime Interpol director, and the former head of security for FIFA. Forrest follows Eaton's journey from local beat cop to FIFA's security chief for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. It was at this competition that Eaton first grasped the extent of match-fixing and the threat it posed to the game. From that point on, Eaton made it his mission to track down the elusive perpetrators: fixers who shed identities, crisscross borders, and target players and clubs on behalf of international criminal syndicates. Filled with headline-making revelations, The Big Fix is a must-read for soccer fans and true crime aficionados. The story brings us inside Chris Eaton's hunt for the world's biggest fixers and their backers from the roots of fixing in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, to FIFA headquarters in Zurich and World Cup preparation in South Africa and Qatar, to fixing's expansion into nearly every country in the world and the fight to save the beautiful game.", Game of Shadows meets Among the Thugs in this revelatory true-to-life crime thriller and expose involving greed, corruption, an Asian crime syndicate, and the fixing of international soccer matches at the highest levels of the game, including the UEFA Champions League and the World Cup.In February 2013, the director of Europol, the European Union's law enforcement agency, made the shocking announcement that 700 international soccer matches had been fixed since 2008, including World Cup qualifying and exhibition matches, with a Chinese criminal syndicate pulling the strings. For the first time, investigative journalist Brett Forrest takes us inside the underworld of one of organized crime's most profitable businesses--a $1 trillion annual international betting market, of which soccer comprises 70 percent. Forrest uncovered a web of nefarious dealings across the world, even on U.S. soil. As he found, no match is safe--not even the World Cup tournament--and law enforcement officials lack the resources to stop it. But one man has taken this criminal enterprise on: Chris Eaton, former head of security for FIFA. Now with the International Center for Sports Security in Qatar, this rough and tumble Australian and longtime Interpol cop has tracked down some of the biggest fixers and their financial backers and continues his mission to clean up the world's most popular sport.Filled with headline making revelations, The Big Fix is must reading for soccer fans and true crime aficionados., Game of Shadows meets Among the Thugs in this true-to-life crime thriller about the fixing of international soccer matches, which will shock the reader in its scope and granular detail of this $15 billion industry, while breaking news about match fixing's connection to the highest levels of the game including the English Premiership, UEFA Champions League, and the World Cup--with which publication of The Dark Game will be coinciding in 2014. In February the director of Europol, the European Union's law enforcement agency, shocked the world when he announced that 700 international soccer matches had been fixed since 2008, including World Cup games and several in the UK, with an Asian criminal syndicate pulling the strings of a $15 billion/year industry. The announcement was unprecedented in the history of team sports, let alone the world's most popular sport; but last year government authorities in 50 countries--representing nearly a quarter of FIFA's 209 members--opened match-fixing investigations, and immediately banned 51 players, officials, and referees from all over the world. The Dark Game is poised to bring us into the underworld of one of organized crime's most profitable businesses. One year ago, on assignment for ESPN The Magazine , investigative journalist Brett Forrest sat across the table in a Singapore café from one of the biggest match fixers in the world. He explained to Brett how easily he and his colleagues have arranged the outcomes of soccer matches in every corner of the world. He described "ghost matches," games that never took place, but were listed by international betting agencies; how he had arranged matches between phony national teams comprised of players taken off the street; andcorrupted stadium technicians who turned off the game lights once the desired result had been achieved. The fixer planned to arrange this summer's Gold Cup, on U.S. soil, and hinted that the World Cup final match itself was not immune to manipulation. Although it has never been implicated, even the U.S. men's national team has been involved in questionable games. Backed by Chinese organized crime in a transnational web of target cultivation, payouts, intimidation, and the gaming of online betting parlors, the match fixers and their associates rig what investigators have determined is a $1 trillion annual soccer betting market. For more than 15 years, fixers operated without any threat of being apprehended, as law enforcement was ill informed about the problem and lacked the resources to combat it. Enter Chris Eaton-a rough-and-tumble Australian and longtime Interpol cop who took over as the head of security for FIFA, soccer's leading international governing body, in 2010. His first task was to secure the World Cup, held in South Africa that year. Eaton would learn that FIFA itself was aware of the depth of the problem but loathe to do much to prevent match fixing, more concerned with profits than the integrity of the sport. Eaton would take the problem more seriously than FIFA expected, becoming the first official in the highest ranks of international soccer to mount a global investigation. Eventually leaving FIFA for the International Center for Sports Security in Qatar, he would kick off an investigation to track down the biggest fixers and their financial backers, putting the syndicate on its heels, and revealing a fundamental sickness in a game that netted FIFA, the international "non-profit" organization, $1 billion per year. With Eaton's enthusiastic participation, The Dark Game will not only paint a vivid picture of the technique of international match fixing and the leading characters involved, but will report groundbreaking news, including the toxic culture's infiltration in England's Premiership, UEFA's Champions League, and even the World Cup., The Dark Game by Brett Forrest has descriptive copy which is not yet available from the Publisher.
9780062308078 English 0062308076 Can the most beloved sport in the world beat the corruption that threatens to tear it apart?Known as the "beautiful game," soccer is the world's most popular sport, crossing borders and language barriers to entertain billions. But underneath it all the raucous fans in the stadiums; the beloved players; and FIFA, the international governing body with a membership of 209 national associations is a scandal that threatens to make soccer the ugliest sport in the world. An underworld of international gambling rings, corrupt players and officials, and shadowy figures preys on the far-flung edges of the game, making match-fixing in soccer one of organized crime's new, profitable businesses. Now, for the first time, journalist Brett Forrest takes us inside the $700 billion international soccer betting market. In 2013 Europol revealed that more than 700 international matches have been fixed since 2008. Forrest pulls back the curtain, exposing a web of nefarious dealings across the world, even on U.S. soil, with opportunistic fixers bribing players, influencing officials, and staging fake matchups, while Asian criminal syndicates pull the strings. No match is safe not even the World Cup tournament especially while local law enforcement officials lack the resources and the will to investigate. But one man has taken on this criminal enterprise: Chris Eaton, a hardheaded Australian, longtime Interpol director, and the former head of security for FIFA. Forrest follows Eaton's journey from local beat cop to FIFA's security chief for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. It was at this competition that Eaton first grasped the extent of match-fixing and the threat it posed to the game. From that point on, Eaton made it his mission to track down the elusive perpetrators: fixers who shed identities, crisscross borders, and target players and clubs on behalf of international criminal syndicates. Filled with headline-making revelations, The Big Fix is a must-read for soccer fans and true crime aficionados. The story brings us inside Chris Eaton's hunt for the world's biggest fixers and their backers from the roots of fixing in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, to FIFA headquarters in Zurich and World Cup preparation in South Africa and Qatar, to fixing's expansion into nearly every country in the world and the fight to save the beautiful game.", Game of Shadows meets Among the Thugs in this revelatory true-to-life crime thriller and expose involving greed, corruption, an Asian crime syndicate, and the fixing of international soccer matches at the highest levels of the game, including the UEFA Champions League and the World Cup.In February 2013, the director of Europol, the European Union's law enforcement agency, made the shocking announcement that 700 international soccer matches had been fixed since 2008, including World Cup qualifying and exhibition matches, with a Chinese criminal syndicate pulling the strings. For the first time, investigative journalist Brett Forrest takes us inside the underworld of one of organized crime's most profitable businesses--a $1 trillion annual international betting market, of which soccer comprises 70 percent. Forrest uncovered a web of nefarious dealings across the world, even on U.S. soil. As he found, no match is safe--not even the World Cup tournament--and law enforcement officials lack the resources to stop it. But one man has taken this criminal enterprise on: Chris Eaton, former head of security for FIFA. Now with the International Center for Sports Security in Qatar, this rough and tumble Australian and longtime Interpol cop has tracked down some of the biggest fixers and their financial backers and continues his mission to clean up the world's most popular sport.Filled with headline making revelations, The Big Fix is must reading for soccer fans and true crime aficionados., Game of Shadows meets Among the Thugs in this true-to-life crime thriller about the fixing of international soccer matches, which will shock the reader in its scope and granular detail of this $15 billion industry, while breaking news about match fixing's connection to the highest levels of the game including the English Premiership, UEFA Champions League, and the World Cup--with which publication of The Dark Game will be coinciding in 2014. In February the director of Europol, the European Union's law enforcement agency, shocked the world when he announced that 700 international soccer matches had been fixed since 2008, including World Cup games and several in the UK, with an Asian criminal syndicate pulling the strings of a $15 billion/year industry. The announcement was unprecedented in the history of team sports, let alone the world's most popular sport; but last year government authorities in 50 countries--representing nearly a quarter of FIFA's 209 members--opened match-fixing investigations, and immediately banned 51 players, officials, and referees from all over the world. The Dark Game is poised to bring us into the underworld of one of organized crime's most profitable businesses. One year ago, on assignment for ESPN The Magazine , investigative journalist Brett Forrest sat across the table in a Singapore café from one of the biggest match fixers in the world. He explained to Brett how easily he and his colleagues have arranged the outcomes of soccer matches in every corner of the world. He described "ghost matches," games that never took place, but were listed by international betting agencies; how he had arranged matches between phony national teams comprised of players taken off the street; andcorrupted stadium technicians who turned off the game lights once the desired result had been achieved. The fixer planned to arrange this summer's Gold Cup, on U.S. soil, and hinted that the World Cup final match itself was not immune to manipulation. Although it has never been implicated, even the U.S. men's national team has been involved in questionable games. Backed by Chinese organized crime in a transnational web of target cultivation, payouts, intimidation, and the gaming of online betting parlors, the match fixers and their associates rig what investigators have determined is a $1 trillion annual soccer betting market. For more than 15 years, fixers operated without any threat of being apprehended, as law enforcement was ill informed about the problem and lacked the resources to combat it. Enter Chris Eaton-a rough-and-tumble Australian and longtime Interpol cop who took over as the head of security for FIFA, soccer's leading international governing body, in 2010. His first task was to secure the World Cup, held in South Africa that year. Eaton would learn that FIFA itself was aware of the depth of the problem but loathe to do much to prevent match fixing, more concerned with profits than the integrity of the sport. Eaton would take the problem more seriously than FIFA expected, becoming the first official in the highest ranks of international soccer to mount a global investigation. Eventually leaving FIFA for the International Center for Sports Security in Qatar, he would kick off an investigation to track down the biggest fixers and their financial backers, putting the syndicate on its heels, and revealing a fundamental sickness in a game that netted FIFA, the international "non-profit" organization, $1 billion per year. With Eaton's enthusiastic participation, The Dark Game will not only paint a vivid picture of the technique of international match fixing and the leading characters involved, but will report groundbreaking news, including the toxic culture's infiltration in England's Premiership, UEFA's Champions League, and even the World Cup., The Dark Game by Brett Forrest has descriptive copy which is not yet available from the Publisher.