Customer Reviews

The Fix: Soccer and Organized Crime

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I started reading this book on Sunday night, and I finished it on Monday night. I ate this book up like a hungry lover of the most beautiful game in the world; hungry for information, hungry for nostalgia but most of all, hungry for the truth. Declan Hill has written a book which is astounding in all its parts; the meticulous research, skill in following leads, tying up various and diverse pieces of information, a thorough and intelligent analysis of the game, the power structures of corruption, the legal obstacles and the people. Not only is his writing fluid and his reasoning logical, it is also accessible. He presents a highly complex subject in plain English which allows the reader to follow him on a journey around the world in concrete, rational and credible steps, to reach his or her own conclusion. This book does not tell you what to think, it gives you the information, and the freedom to do so.

'The Fix: Soccer & Organized Crime' by Declan Hill***

To anybody who really follows the game of football/soccer, this book is no surprise. Historically, Hill, normally an investigative television producer/journo, gives the reader a good sense as to how lowly-paid players (before worldwide broadcasting brought hundreds of millions in cash to the game) were always susceptible to bribery from bookmakers and various gangsters. Nowadays, Hill shows, in a pretty much indisputable way, that match fixing in soccer is even more widespread, including matches at the World Cup level.

The fixers Hill discusses come from Asia, where betting on all sports is almost a fanatical religion. The vulnerable teams he discusses are from poor nations, usually in Africa, where player salaries are low. They are soft targets. Hill concentrates on Ghana's Jekyll and Hyde performance at the 2006 World Cup. This part of the book is very disturbing and definitely effective. Hill names, Stephen Appiah, a former midfielder for Italy's Juventus and Turkey's Fenerbahce clubs. Appiah, a young player in his pomp, once touted to be Patrick Veiera's successor at English powerhouse club, Arsenal, was freed from his contract by Fenerbahce as a result of his snitching. Indeed, since talking to Hill and the release of this book, Appiah's hopes of catching on with another big European club have thus far disappeared. It seems that both Hill and Appiah are high on FIFA President Sepp Blatter's mierda list.

Hopefully, this should help Hill sell lots of books. Hill surely had Blatter tearing what little hair he has left when describing contacts between fixers and players beginning at FIFA youth tournaments which theoretically 'promote' the ever developing game. FIFA, which is the ruling body for the professional game, a worldwide organization that rules with a kind of heavy-handed greed and secrecy that can't help but remind you of the mafia, does not come off well in this book. Hill nails the organization bang to rights. Unfortunately, Hill, who took on the Russian Vor ve Zakonye (a worldwide gangster organization) when he exposed their corruption of the NHL in some sterling work for the CBC, stops short here. A vague threat from ethnic Chinese gangsters to hurt or kill him is stated implicitly, but the full story hinted at is never quite told.

At the same time Italian football has always been corrupt. Massive scandals involving players, club directors, general managers, organized crime figures and even the prime-minister, Silvio Berlusconi, who owns A.C. Milan and the lion's share of Scudetto (Italian League) television rights. German Bundesliga games have also been fixed. A certain English striker, once a star for a top four English premiership team and a major Spanish club, has been banished from the England national squad for making and taking bets recently. With the hundreds of millions in laundered oil and drug cash floating around the game in Europe and hard rumors of Interpol catching the 2008 EUFA Cup Final, one gets the sense that Mr. Hill knows a lot more than he lots on!

One problem Hill has here is the narrative first-person stylings he uses spasmodically to move things along and make himself into the hero investigative journo. Hill is repeatedly 'shocked' to find gambling going on around him, so that it gets silly after a while. I'm reminded of Claude Rains' policeman raiding Rick's mini-casino in 'Casablanca.' Hill plays up his narrator/self as a mirror of the naïve boy who used to watch Arsenal games at Highbury as a teenager with his dad and stops to cry for himself. Nevertheless, he seems to have forgotten that the Arsenal team which featured the beautiful trickery of Liam Brady also played Spiv thugs like Peter Storey, Peter Simpson and Frank McClintock. 'The Fix' is a good read, but Hill has barely scratched the surface. Be sure to read it, but follow it up with a far, far better book on the way corruption in the game actually works, "Broken Dreams' by Tom Bower. Hill concentrates on soft targets in Asia and Africa. Next time, perhaps, he'll go after the Big Game.

Declan Hill is a distinguished Canadian investigative journalist, film maker, academic scholar, and television news anchor. Dr. Hill specializes in organized crime and international issues. He was a Chevening Scholar at Green College, University of Oxford, where his doctoral dissertation was on match-fixing in professional football (soccer).

Dr. Hill spent four years on this highly acclaimed, compelling, and well-researched book that has already been translated into several languages. No doubt, many more will follow in the future. For this project, he interviewed over two hundred people: Professional gamblers, Mafia hitmen, undercover policemen, top-level international soccer players, referees, and officials.

"I met men who claim they have bribed their way into changing the results of some of the biggest games in the sport."

In my opinion, this is a very entertaining and informative book. Part travel guide, instructional manual, and study into human nature, it is full of interesting characters and anecdotes. Dr. Hill, in great detail and with an engaging writing style, takes us around the world of match fixing.

Whether or not you appreciate the global sport of soccer, if you have an interest to learn about the influence of sports betting in professional sports, you will find this a very enlightening read.

I'm betting not many people will enjoy this book either because of the message it delivers or because it reads like a term paper crossed with a sloppy magazine article. "The Fix" is an investigation into how the Asian underworld is corrupting soccer leagues with its efforts to profit from sports betting. Underworld...Gambling...Soccer. Sounds like it should be interesting...but it is not.

This book has the feel of a bunch of magazine articles that have been spliced together. Repetition abounds. Mr. Hill travels all over the world without ever finding the focus of his own story. His writing jumps from topic to topic and back again without ever locking on to an aspect that the reader can latch onto.

The message of "The Fix" comes through loud and clear, though: all levels of the beautiful game are in danger because of the temptations faced by referees, players, former players, managers, boards, and even ownership. Apparently anybody can be bought by thugs from Asian sports betting syndicates. The fix may be in on any game you watch.

Maybe my high expectations are partially to blame for the fact that I was relieved to turn the last page of "The Fix."

Unfortunately, the writer doesn't know d*ck about writing. Wow, what an incredibly interesting topic, but the author completely blows it with tedious, and at times strange, descriptions of himself and his experiences, instead of providing a well-thought out analysis of the role corruption plays in professional sports. One of the other reviewers put it best: this book is a poorly executed compilation of magazines articles and term papers.

If you love watching FIFA sanctioned football as it is now, then please do not read this book. You will be unable to un-read the conscious altering case presented by Declan Hill. Once you start reading this book, all viewings of your beloved footie will change. How you watch and what you watch for will definitely have new categories. This change will distract you from the actual joy you may have once derived from watching matches prior to reading 'The Fix'. Excellent use of journalistic skill, definitely not sensationalized. I applaud Mr. Hill for his daring efforts and what he's put at risk pursuing his findings. If you were the sort of kid who had to know the contents of your gift boxes prior to the event, this is the book for you. Think before you read, your childhood naivete is on the line.

Okay, we all know FIFA is a very corrupt place. However, Hill takes a look at the growing influence of gambling on the beautiful game. There is no master scheme to be revealed but he does show how gamblers use former players to gain access and then bribe their way into results they can manipulate. All the "evidence" is told to us about former games and Hill has never correctly explained any future results so at best it is just hearsay evidence that games have been fixed. It is very well written and a good read, but not something that is going to cause a revolution in the game.

One thing is for certain: after reading this book you will see the game in a different light. The author takes the readers on a world journey and discusses various methods of fixing football matches; from the motivations of the players to the fixer to how modern technology such as internet gaming sites contribute to this underground culture. If you do not have any insights into this topic then please pick up the book, its fairly fascinating, but if you want to leave the mental image of the beautiful game untainted then skip this.

I gave it three stars because I had some insights into sports gambling and match fixing in other sports so the book never revealed anything groundbreaking. Also for his own personal safety the author never truly exposed the major fixers, simply stating this is a problem plaguing the sport. The book builds up to WC06 game between Brasil v Ghana where he stated his suspicions, but no solid proof was provided, so the book interesting but left me a bit unsatisfied.

"The Fix" is an exceptional reading that opens your eyes to reality of any professional sport in any country in the World. The book is well organized, very easy to read, extremely insightful, and keeps you interested cover to cover. The author provides significant proof and detailed description of how match fixing is done, how people (players, referees, officials, gamblers...) are involved and certain results are achieved. The book is a real eye opener for those who believe that soccer is "pure and clean" sport without outside influence. Sadly enough FIFA, knowing that the problem of match fixing exists, does not apply any actions toward investigating the exisitng and even growing threat in sport corruption. It's very simple - too much money involved; TV contracts; sponsors; stadium tickets.... And this books shows it all! "The Fix" is a must read for any fan of Beautiful Game or a fan of any professional sport, since the concepts are the same. Yes, it's possible that you will not look at the sport the same way as before, and that you might be sceptical about some matches and team performances. I am. Bit, I still love soccer. And i still love watching it! The book opened my eyes on the sports corruption since i had no idea it was on a such a huge scale. Most of us know that these problems exist in South America and that some World Cup matches were fixed and certain teams were "guided" to the play-offs and even Finals, but the problems in Asia and Europe were new to me. I strongly recommend this book to all sports fans - read it, you'll be shocked by revelations!

I'm not an avid follower of soccer but nevertheless I found the book very interesting. Mr. Hill's detailed and exhaustive research into the fixing of international soccer matches at the highest levels makes an amazing and suspenseful story involving covert meetings, secret tape recordings and interesting but deadly characters. Unfortunately for the sport it's all true! It's actually a frightening read, especially as one can only wonder to what degree other high level sporting competitions are fixed.