Former Wimbledon striker Marcus Gayle believes at least TWO matches at the height of the ‘Crazy Gang’ era may have been influenced by Far East match fixers.
The subject of criminal organisations influencing professional football matches is one that has popped up in recent times across all levels of football in both England and abroad, with some claiming that betting syndicates have attempted to fix games for a profit.
Although the high wages on offer at the very top of the game is thought to have made such instances rare, if present at all, the salaries players earn now and the money swilling around the biggest clubs was not present in the Gayle’s era at Wimbledon.
Nicknamed the ‘Crazy Gang’ the London side were famed for their boisterous playing style and wild antics, and now the 44-year-old has opened up on what he thinks may have been match fixing during those days, with games in 1997 at Derby’s Pride Park and his own side’s Selhurst Park when the lights failed suspicious:
“As a player and the lights go out, the game is abandoned, you think that they haven’t paid the gas or electric bill!” he told Zapsportz.com.
“The lads joked about betting syndicates, but you laughed it all off as being implausible.
“Now I look back I am not so sure. All those rumours about match fixing might well have been true.
“I can recall certain situations in the past where I shrugged my shoulders, but now when I cast my mind back I can see there must have been more to it.
“I am now thinking ‘what really went on, there?” The lights go out, they said the floodlights failed At the time you are oblivious to what really might have been going on. I never imagined these sort of things went on in the game.
“We all knew there were punters putting money on the games, but no one dreamed there was match fixing going on.
“Now it appears to have been going on all over the place. I look back and wonder.
“Did the goalkeeper really let that one in? You thought at the time, that was a soft goal, he should easily have saved it. The lights went out more than once when we played, was that really coincidence?
“You can imagine what I might be thinking now.”
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