AFL has clean sheet for match fixing.

You could write off most professions because of a few bad eggs if you wanted.

People still pay to go to the wrestling, don't they?

Where ever there is greed people will be tempted to sell themselves to the highest bidder.

The NBA case only involved ONE referee.

Gold Isaac...Gold!

I agree with the few bad eggs, but the fact that it is occuring on an ongoing basis at the very highest level leaves a bitter taste, and im sure we are all aware that the proven issues must be but the tip of the iceberg?

And the wrestling, well, lets be fair that is not sport (yes athletic..yes need to be fit) but it isnt sport, its soap opera for the male population.

Do we really want our sports to reach the wrestling level of match fixing and entertainment?

"AFL has a clean sheet for match fixing"

That is true so far, although there have been a number of players proven to have been betting on games, which whilst not proving anything must cast a question over the results?

Isaac,
Wrestling is interesting in the fact that there was a court case a few years ago where they were forced to admit that they were entertainers and that matches were choreographed (to a degree) and results orchestrated. I believe that all the wrestlers are now required to belong to the USA equivalent of Actors Equity.

It's all entertainment and people will keep going as long as they're being entertained. I think "trust" in honest competition is a much smaller part of why people attend or watch on TV. Sure, it'd be nice not to worry about match fixing and so on, but isolated cases flare up from time to time.

You mention drug cheats at the Olympics, but that's a completely separate issue. And a single ref was found to be compromised in the NBA.

I take it that you'll be throwing a donkey vote this weekend through lack of trust and then voting seriously for the new minute-taker at the local knitting club instead? ;)

I find that AFL players betting on AFL games could lead to someone questioning the result a little hard to believe.

36 players play a game of AFL. If one player from each side bets on their side to win and their performance is questionable then there are still 17 players pulling for the team. Throwing an AFL game unless the whole team was involved would be next to near impossible, and in that case, too many people would know about it.

I'd see more chance of a better scandal in the AFL being some player bet for his team to lose and then spiking the teams gatorade with a laxative...

I'd be more inclinded to say insider information being supplied to bookies in the AFL would be more of an issue than betting on games.

TR, i raised the question of AFL..not neccessarily about fixing the game..but..possibly about the scores, need only to pay a full fwd to affect that.

Isaac, I will be taking my vote most seriously this weekend, in the hope that it might help us to a better society, however i have resigned my position at the knitting club following the outcry over Ethels use of size 12 needles in last years knitoff. :)

Not in todays game of AFL me.

10 years ago without a doubt, but in todays game there isn't (outside of Lloyd) a full forward in the game that can kick 8-10 goals consistently and win a game of his own boot.

Yes, in the hay-day of Lockett, Sumich, Dunstall and Ablett where 8-10 goal days were not uncommon then most definitely. Today a team is happy if they can get 2-4 goals out of their full forward. The full forward position isn't like it use to be. It's been years since we had a 100 goal a season full forward.

I'd stay with drinking spiking the gatorade.

me, that's good to hear. Just surprised you're not equally as put off by trust issues in politics. Certainly enough of them and across all parties and levels.

Big Bertha is going to romp in as minute-taker by the way. Ethel stands no chance!

The AFL betting issues of recent times seemed to be players betting (mostly) on other games, probably leveraging info they'd heard through various contacts in the league. Not great, but not a massive problem given they were able to identify and penalise those involved.

Isaac, oh yes MAJOR trust issues in the election and as has been said before..no matter who you vote for, you end up with a politician..so :(

Bertha is certainly the popular choice,however... the rumours of her out of season drug use (apparently its not only knitting needles she is handy with ;) ) has seen her odds drop dramatically, i have heard that a number of young 36ers players are in with a big chance, given that most of them have so much spare time spent sitting on the bench, knitting could be a real option :)

Hah, nice.

As Brockman said, everyone has their price and there will always be trust issues in sport as well. Can we count murmurs of salary cap busting as a problem in the NBL for fans and the league? Those frustrate me, but not enough to prevent me from following the league and a couple of teams.

BTW Vince McMahon (owner of wwe) openly stated that the wrestling was not real so that its earnings would be taxed differently to that of a sports team.

I read somewhere that he actually gets taxed as if it was an artistic performance as there are scripts and lines for the actors to follow.

Not to mention Tour de farce... how many drug cheats have won that in the last decade..
It's not about just match fixing ruining professional sport, it's drug use, big money, bad role models.
AFL might have a clean sheet on match fixing, but there is drugs, West Coke Eagles, etc.
I prefer watching NBL games over the NBA now, at least everyone appears to be giving 100% and it is a contest every game.

a contest every game? Didnt like 6ers lose by 30 like 2 weeks ago

You can find faults and issues in every sport, just like you can in every part of society. You know why? Because they all involve humans, and humans make 'errors of judgement' and will sometimes hurt the whole to benefit themselves. That's just the way it is and the way it will always be.

In your title, what is the emphasis? professional sport or the 'professionalism' of sport - i.e integrity etc. If you're talking about sportsmanship, integrity etc, those parts of the game are slowly going out the window but if you mean the end of professional sports in general, consider the fact that an organisation like th NBA pulls in roughly 3 billion a year, and over 700 mill in TV fees alone. people pay to watch sport regardless of what they know. Most people get pretty upset about what they hear on the news but quicky forget about it once the media finds a better story.

(Mod: Good point.)

The emphasis is on the "end" of professional sport, granted the big dollars are still coming through, however i believe the viewer numbers are beginning to decline across the world. These fluctuations are blamed on loss of "big names", outside events, time differences etc etc. but the numbers are dropping.

Whether it is due to the cheating (which it is for me) or just the fact that more and more options are becoming available for the viewing public or whether our lifestyle reduces time spent in front of the TV i cannot say.

I do not put myself up as an expert on these areas, however the limited info i have suggests the figures are dropping, whilst sponsors are paying more..go figure?

the table below is from Wiki, so no guarantees, but it does reflect my thoughts..of course i could just be suffering a 36ers induced depression.


Regular season NBA ratings on network TV since 1996[1] Net. Year Rating
NBC 1996 5.0
NBC 1997 4.7
NBC 1998 4.6
NBC 1999 4.3
NBC 2000 3.3
NBC 2001 3.0
NBC 2002 N/A
ABC 2003 2.6
ABC 2004 2.4
ABC 2005 2.2
ABC 2006 2.2

oh and btw,

TR.. you are probably right, very hard to influence the outcome of an AFL game by using the players.

Isaac... Yes to me the salary cap breaching in the NBL is akin to match fixing.

MDizzle...errors of judgement will occur, just seems to me that with the greater influnce of the mighty $$ those errors will increase, which is why it will (IMO ) affect professional sport as that is where the dollars and the gambling is.

David..lol..tour de fArce is beyond discussion so very sad.