7 Infamous Football Matches That Were FIXED 

Shoutout to that art teacher that sent Alfie to detention during that Bibs FC vs Non-Bibs FC game. I made a fortune betting on that outcome that day 😀

To be fair Alfie, if I heard that a referee for a football match was in fact an art teacher, I'd also assume something suspicious going on.

Alfie, you are not a mere 'content creator'. You are a football journalist par excellence and let no one ever tell you differently. Your dedication to researching topics and creating pieces that capture the interest of football fans around the world are a testament to your abilities; not to mention the grueling hours of work you pour into your research & production. May your light never dim!

Sunday of Miracles: it is quite important to set the scene of matches. Coaches and mangers of both teams were on the phone constantly. When Łodź scored Legia very soon scored too and every goal in one match resulted in goal just a minute later in the other game. Even commentators stopped commenting during those games because of obvious fraud. Wisła fans screamed: "Wisła share some money with us!". When Polish Federation poorly investigated this situation one of investigators said one of the most famous words in polish football. "Whole Poland saw, yet you [federation] are bilnd." This ended his career.

Here in Serbia there are few storied about 1991 UCL final and how Marseille tried to bribe Red Star players and staff into losing the game. Goalkeeper Stojanovic basically got approached by some shady men with a bag full of money and advice to "sell the game or else", while Savicevic who would later play for AC Milan said few other players were offered 500.000 deutsche mark each to sell the game. While these accounts still aren't 100% confirmed as truth, considering Marseille would get busted for match fixing just two years later and the fact that stories came directly from the mouths of players and staff who were in the club at that time, not some fan forum or tabloid gossip, there's a decent chance I would say of them being accurate.

Alfie, how about making a video about how much time Premier League teams gave last season to playing players who'd come up through their youth ranks or from the ages of 17/18 upwards? Then we'd see who really values their young players, or teams with an excellent youth system.

The amount of research you put into these videos is seriously second to none, keep up the great work.

Following yesterdays result, there have only ever been 7 results worse than England 0-4 Hungary in Englands entire history, would be cool to see a video on that

10:12 Fact about Henry Kissinger, he actually won Nobel Prize for Peace in 1973 for negotiating peace between Vietnam (my country) and USA, the prize was shared by him and Vietnamese politician Le Duc Tho, but Mr. Le declined the prize beacause he felt peace wasn't anywhere visible in Vietnam in 1973, also mostly because he and Henry were always on bad terms, especially after their negotiation in late 1972 the USA bombed North Vietnam harder, which was quite near my home. I don't know if Henry had any influence on Argentina at that time but from Vietnamese perspective he is not a peacemaker at all. #myopiniontbf

I was actually expecting to see Barcelona vs Chelsea 2009 semi final considering it was in the thumbnail lol

Fixed matches are real, I paid for a match and I got what I paid for, it came out positive

Alfie’s rant about match fixing and dodgy reffing in school footy hit home 😂😂 Still remember a teaching assistant refereeing a tournament we were having and saying before the first match that “football is a non-contact sport”. Even now that memory annoys me 🤬😂

1:21 “Without further ADU then...” Alfie, I’m usually hate bad puns, but that one came to me out of nowhere. Here’s a gold star as a token of appreciation: ⭐️

Given the news about Barcelona, a whole new video is in the making.

It happened to Brian Clough in European competition twice once with Forest but once before with Derby county

Day 41: Considering that the last player who played in the miracle of Bern died about 7 months ago, I would really like to see a video about the whole story between Germany and Hungary, especially because it meant so much to at least the German population

Hoyzer fixing the "Paderborn - Hamburger SV" first round DFB Cup match in 2004 should be on this list... He awarded to questionable penalties for the lower league team, which advanced 4:2. Hoyzer manipulated more games, but that was the only one including a Bundesliga team. It also had quite big implications, since the coach Klaus Topmöller never really recovered from this loss and got sacked a couple of months later... just to never ever get another job in Germany... which is quite insane, considering that he led Bayer Leverkusen into the Champions League final in 2002...

Arsenal, Manchester United and Manchester City are the Premier League's lapdogs. These teams can get away with anything from penalties to financial fair play rules.

Bristol Rovers vs Scunthorpe last year was allegedly a fix. Scunthorpe recieved a cash injection a few days before the match and Rovers won 7 - 0. Exactly the amount they needed for promotion. But we choose to ignore it because match fixing couldn't possibly happen in England

If youre doing a second part you have to see the case of union magdalena and fortaleza in the colombian second division. It happened last year and is really an obvious case of matchfixing if you watch the last minutes of the game between llaneros and union, literally llaneros players stoped moving it was like they had their remote disconected.

Best German players in the premier league of all time. (Day 337) I will not give up until the video is made or Alfie himself tells me to stop. Everyone else telling me that will be ignored. If you don't believe my number, just go back to the previous videos. I'm at the bottom most of the time, but I'm there.

Alfie...1974 world cup qualifier between Trinidad and Tobago and Haiti.T and T scored 4 goals and got 3 disallowed to lose 2-1. Referee banned for life

An unusually clickbaity title for HITC Sevens? Alright, you got my attention

How can you not mention South Korea - Italy in 2002....

Sadly, just 7 examples doesn't seem anywhere near enough. Great vid.

Honorable mention : possibly every single game in Bulgaria for the past 30 years...

Just a brilliant piece of work as always. Love the humor you put into your works. Pure excellence!

Thank you for another interesting video. Other channels only focus on mainstream football (with boring and obvious insight). You provide stories from around time and space that I rarely have a clue about.

We need more video topics like this Alfie. Amazing as always

Alfie I have to say, as a Pole, I'm impressed with your Polish pronounciation, especially with the way you said ŁKS. Other Englishmen should take Polish lessons from you

In the build-up to the Argentina and The Netherlands final in 1978 the host decided to move a concert/festival into the square in front the hotel where the Dutch squad was staying and have the band playing throughout the night underneath the players windows. The Argentine worldcup hosts used every dirty trick to make sure the Dutch squad would get no sleep ahead of the final.

Great video Alfie! Appreciate all the work that goes in to producing these deep dives.

Anyone who also knows cycling as well as footy knows that Bernard Tapie always had form for being dodgy. When he ran Marseille, it was essentially business as usual x

I know us Everton fans have a hatred for a certain ref who came out of retirement for one game

Alfie! What about some "unnoficial" uses of technology (specially stadiums giant screens) to aid refereeing decisions before the VAR was implemented. I remember Elizondo (the referee of the World Cup 2006 final) said he saw the Zidane headbutt on the stadium screens, but I'm not sure if it was the only evidence he had, I think a lineman saw it too.

Roma bribed the referee against Dundee United in second leg of the 1984 European Cup semi-final after losing the away leg 0-2. The details of that game in Rome still sickens me.

The World cuo Quarter Final of South Korea v Spain was fixed. I've never met a person who isn't Korean who thinks it wasn't fixed. I was watching that match on a bus in Thailand. I was the only nnon Thai on the bus. Everyone thought it was fixed. Spain scored 2 perfectly good goals that were ruled out for Offside.

Leeds vs Bayern Munich 1975? My dad hasn’t shut up about since I was born (he’s a Leeds fan if that wasn’t clear). And great vid btw 👍🏻

Should have included the Leeds Bayern 1975 final in this.

The Netherlands still remember Spain - Malta in 1983

You should do a video on rise and fall of football in Australia. Don't let us making the World Cup fool you. We've barely scraped into the tournament with luck falling our way (again) and we will probably have zero impact considering how average our sqaud is. The game is in poor shape and being at the World Cup is just papering over some massive holes.

Bristol Rovers might have been worth a mention for their 7-0 final day win over Scunthorpe to pip Northampton Town to promotion from League 2 in 2021/22. There was probably nothing underhand about the result but it does make you think.

Love your videos dude, currently off work with almost a broken back. Keeping me entertained 😊

1975 European Cup Final- The ref denyef Leeds two penalty appeals as Franz Beckenbauer first handled the ball in the box and then brought down Allan Clarke in a tackle and a goal by Peter Lorimer was also disallowed. Leeds were by far the better team on the day, yet the referee clearly was in favour of Bayern Munich. The official was rated incredibly poorly by FIFA officials observing the game but was not formally investigated.

It's worth mentioning that the World Cup with 48 teams will make fixing the result of the last match a thing again since it's rumored to feature 3-team groups.

HITC Sevens has hit a new low.

I can't believe that you suggest that Argentina cheats at football 😳

Entire 34 World Cup was fixed for Italy. They should only have 3 stars.

I wondered if you'd mention the 1973 European Cup winners cup final - I guess whilst referee Christos Michas was later banned for match fixing, this game wasn't referenced by UEFA. I know Leeds fans feel the game was thrown in Milan's favour by the ref.

Weren't Leeds the victims of a dodgy ref in the SF or Final of the European Cup in the early 70s?

Look into the 1983/84 European Cup Semi Final between Dundee United and Roma. United won 2-0 at Tannadice, for the Italians (again) to bribe the referee so they can play in the final, held at, of all places... Rome. The only time I'm glad Liverpool won the European Cup.

Hope you do a video on the Argentinian world cup in general cause it's just sooo controversial and interesting aswell

Keep the good work going... Have been watching your video for 3 years plus now.

Cruijff did not go to the 1978 world cup, because of threats against his family. I'm willing to bet it was Argentines.

I'd add two of Barca semi finals to the list (one vs Chelsea, other vs Arsenal) - no one will convince me these games weren't rigged; although I understand you only talk about games that were proven to be rigged

Super video!! I was waiting for the Genoa v Bologna match of the 1930s. The league was decided by play off and coincidence or not, Mussolini had a soft spot for Bologna, when Genoa scored a goal (I believe to make it 3-2 to them) the ref said it went through a hole in the side netting into the back of the net and disallowed it. The match went to a reply and Bologna won. That would have been Genoa's 10th league title therefore qualifying them to display a star on their shirts.

What about Barcelona cheating Chelsea in the 2009 Champions League semi final second leg?

Chelsea v Barcelona 2009 UCL was literally, "...a fucking disgrace". How Tom Henning Ovrebo managed to referee a game after that still boggles my mind

Rise and fall of Charlton Athletic. Had some very interesting owners.....

And then we have 'Qatar', when the location of a whole tournament was fixed.

Researchers are estimating that there are 3000+ football match fixing in Europe every year. My personal opinion is, it is more than that. Thanks!

well if you call the gijon game fixed, then you could say the same about the 0-0 between denmark and france at the 2018 world cup. it was the result that guaranteed both teams would qualify from their group, no matter how the other game in the group (peru vs australia) ended. I don't see why gijon is seen as a scandal while the 2018 situation was similar and tbh it is an understandable thing to do. I remember during the world cup qualifiers in 2018 colombia and peru were drawing 1-1 when news broke in halftime that both would qualify for the world cup at chlie's expense if they drew the game. and of course nothing happened in the 2nd half. these things aren't scandalous

The Disgrace of Gijon drew some REALLY strong reactions from fans and commentators. Fans in the stands waved paper money at the players and chanted "Let them kiss! Let them kiss!" German and Austrian fans jeered, while one West German was so upset he burned the West German flag in protest. The TV commentator for West Germany at one point said, "This is a farce. That is all I will say." And sure enough, he kept silent the rest of the game. The TV commentator for Austria outright said, "Viewers, please watch something else. Anything else deserves your attention more than this." Even the local newspaper in Gijon had a strong reaction: The match report was printed in the paper's crime section.

The craziest part of the Genoa one is that due to other teams financial problems Genoa would have been promoted even with a loss

Who would have guessed 🤔 football being corrupt?

Chelsea v Barca was a definite fix.

I understand why it’s not on the list because as far as I know, it’s never been proven but Derby County’s 1973 European Cup semi final against Juventus deserves a mention. The first leg in Turin was marked by decidedly terrible decision being given against Derby which ultimately cost them a spot in what would have been their first and only Champions League final. Brian Clough believe until his dying breath that the game had been fixed. Assistant manager Peter Taylor was informed that Juventus player Helmut Haller had been seen entering the referee’s dressing room before the game and when he saw it again at half time he tried to gain entry, an attempt that was greeted with an elbow in the ribs by Haller. This is to say nothing of the game with Juventus continually kicking Derby out of the game with no response from the referee. Furthermore Derby’s Archie Gemmil and Roy McFarland we’re both in yellow cards from prebiotics rounds meaning a booking in this game would mean they missed the return leg, by some strange coincidence, both players just happened to receive bookings, with McFarlands being particularly egregious. This match is often not talked about when it comes to fixed games but in my own opinion this is the 1970s version of the 2009 semi final between Chelsea and Barcelona. Finally it should also be said that the possibility of a fix becomes ever more likely when considering Juve’s track record with match fixing. All this contributed to preventing perhaps and earlier run of success and another footballing miracle for the great Brian Clough.

What about the European cup game between Dundee utd.and Roma (or Barcelona I can't remember) were Dundee utd won 2-0 in the first leg. Meaning Roma had to score 3 goals or more without conceding a goal .and They did exactly that. The game was clearly fixed and the president of Roma admitted he had fixed the match when he was about to die.

I was at Luigi Ferraris Stadium the day Genoa won against Venezia...Were the days in wich a young Diego Milito was rising in Italy...

It may be controversial, but in my opinion tournaments hosted by authoritarian dictatorships that were "conveniently" won by the home teams that had never been favourites up to that point, should be far more contested and doubted than they actually are. For example Mussolini's Italy hosting and winning the world cup in 1934, Argentina doing so in 1978, or Franco's Spain winning the Euros in 1964. I believe that, in acts of honesty, we should probably revise those competitions to (probably) find they were completely rigged or at least heavily altered. Leaving exacerbated nationalism aside, those countries should for the sake of democracy and sport consider tose trophies as illegitimate. I should clarify that I am Spaniard, but would have no problem recognizing 1964 Euros were fixed by the fascist government of my country if it were the case. I have no evidence, but honestly, I would be amazed if Franco's regime didn't at least try to heavily influence that competition.

Fun, informative and in your own style!

Everton v Wimbledon deserves a mention in dispatches

I think more games are fixed than we realise.

New Zealand vs Costa Rica 15/06/2022

A video about the success story of Port Vale since Carol Shanahan took over, considering we just won the playoff final.Her charity work, bringing in Darrell Clark, then the things he went through this season. Plus we were on a winning streak and 1 point off the playoffs and she voted to end the first covid season early....

Brilliant as always

I always love when I start watching a video and already know that my home country of Austria will be mentioned. Let me just pass the ball back to my keeper before I can continue watching.

Good video but clickbait thumbnail. That Chelsea-Barcelona game from 2009 isn't in the list of 7 in the video so shouldn't be in the thumbnail.

Great video. You should do a video about all penalties awarded to Argentina in the Qatar World Cup, most of them, if not all, were controversial to say the least.

You forgot AS Roma V Dundee Utd in the European Cup Semi-Final (1983-84) season (2nd Leg). That was pretty major. Dundee Utd won the first leg 2-0 and lost the 2nd leg 0-3. The referee was later convicted of having been bribed by Roma. Dundee Utd would have played Liverpool in the final. Given the dizzy heights of Scottish football at the time (Bayern Munich 2 V Aberdeen 3, Cup Winner's Cup Semi-Final and Real Madrid 1 V Aberdeen 2 (Cup Winners Cup final), Dundee Utd may well have defeated Liverpool.

Pretty much the entire 2002 World Cup was fixed, including all South Korea’s games. A very average team made the semi finals thanks to doping and referee corruption

City Vs Aston villa on the last day of the season

1:08 I, for one, am going to miss the Angry Neil Warnock Face.

The 2014 EL final in Turin. There's no way that match wasn't rigged. Sevilla's keeper Beto has recently admitted that he saved all the penaltis ahead of the line. The referee was terrible the whole match, and UEFA never punished him, so they must've been happy with it, their favourite team winning another EL.

Speaking of match fixing, what about a video on "Golden Whistle" Case in Portugal?

Why do people assume bad reffing = fixed match? Just because a ref was terrible, doesn't mean the match was fixed.

Congrats to 500k

Leeds v Bayern Munich, 1975

Alfie can you make a video on how a draft system would and could work in football as I was thinking about it the other day and would love a more in depth and detailed opinion on it

Definitely an unusual amount of draws in the Polish Ekstraklasa that season, would love to know that happened.

another great video

That scandal of 1982 still lives in every Algerian's mind, it destroyed a generation of talented footballers and what could've been an inspiring world cup to the future generations.

Even more tellingly, the Spanish see Guruceta as one of the greatest referees ever existed. In fact, the weekly league table of the best referees in the country, is called the Guruceta, and the winning referee at the end of the season is awarded the Guruceta Prize. They still deny he could have been involved in such a scandal. :D

Why show Drogba on the cover if there’s nothing on him?? Embarrassing.

Add New Zealand vs Costa Rica world cup play off to the list now Aflie

Your "Adu" references never get old. 😂🙌

One of the most shameful thing about Marseille is that they also sent prostitutes to the referees' changing room (or so I've heard from football journalists) and they proudly display that year on their list of champion titles (last I checked).

This channel is consistently more insightful than Tifo

I remember in 1983 when Spain needed to win their match against Malta with a difference of plus 11 goals to make it to the European Cup. They won with 12 - 1. Spain made it, the Netherlands could stay at home. Now, what are the odds?

Leeds, surely? Beckenbauer admitted that Munich paid the ref in the European cup final