OT: 680 Soccer matches FIXED by organized crime

[Kellogs]

Seniority.

2008 vs 2010.

 

[DrEasy]

I think a fix would be of a different nature in pro North American leagues. In soccer (at least as far as I understood it years ago, and things may have changed since I stopped following), you have a federation that's just organizing a competition between clubs. The individual clubs might go too far in making sure they win (or lose) but the federation doesn't stand to gain from one team winning rather than another (as long as the federation is a not for profit, and/or that the TV rights are simply redistributed to the clubs). Here, the league (NHL, MLB, NBA, you name it) is a business, and it is its (conflict of) interest to see the biggest markets win, since it is making money off of that. So it is not overly paranoid to think the league prefers certain teams to win over others, and it wouldn't be above them to do something about it. I don't think something like this would make sense in the case a soccer federation (federation vs pro league, that's the difference).