Belgian teams stop playing and shake hands on a draw before final whistle: Players fined, captains suspended, manager sacked.

[V.O.]

Westerlo and Genk each needed a point to qualify for their respective sections of the wacky playoff system in the Belgian league. After Genk equalise late in the game, both teams stop playing, knock the ball around, and there are players shaking hands and asking for the ref to blow up early while the game is still ongoing.

Every player on the pitch has been fined €1,000, the two captains have been suspended, Westerlo have sacked their manager and prosecutors are getting involved.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/genk-westerlo-belgian-pro-league-32465918

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I feel like this kind of thing happens pretty regularly late in the season when a certain result is convenient for both teams... but they just had to take the absolute piss with it for some reason.

 

[BeforeKeanetherewasRobson]

The Belgian FA should chuck them both out and give their places to the next best teams.

I get teams being cautious in certain games but there’s a difference between not over committing and shaking hands while a couple of players practice 1-2s.

(I’m still not over West Germany Austria ….)

 

[SilentWitness]

It's extremely bad sportsmanship but it's not cheating.

 

[Hugh Jass]

I recall something similar in a world cup group stage years ago. They both knew that a draw would get them through given the results in the other match in the group, so they just passed it around. Not as bad as this though.

 

[Sandikan]

It's extremely bad sportsmanship but it's not cheating.

Cheating is acting unfairly or dishonestly.

Not even pretending to attempt to play properly is definitely within that definition.

 

[TsuWave]

Yeah they’re taking the piss. I’d be furious if United did that

 

[yumtum]

A big "f*ck you' to the fans too - clubs should be made to pay back every supporter in that ground.

 

[InfiniteBoredom]

Yeah they’re taking the piss. I’d be furious if United did that

We did, Blackburn away 2011.

Making it blatant like they did is stupid though.

 

[horsechoker]

I recall something similar in a world cup group stage years ago. They both knew that a draw would get them through given the results in the other match in the group, so they just passed it around. Not as bad as this though.

Germany and Austria. Worst thing they've ever done

 

[simonhch]

What would’ve been hilarious, and deserved, is if one players went rogue and harmlessly dribbled it while everyone is thinking nothing will happen, then just suddenly turned it on for a few seconds with a burst of pace and a clinical finish to knock the other team out. Would’ve been riots in response, but it would’ve been better than this unsporting debacle.

Bottom line is that we all know this sort of thing happens. Teams will stop taking any risks at all if a draw suits both, but they still make a show of vaguely competing. To do what they did here is to be completely transparent about what’s been happening for years, and what will continue to happen; but their crime is doing it in a way that is a complete pisstake to the competition as a whole and to the other teams competing for those spots.

It’s effectively open collusion to secure a result, which is antithetical to the entire idea of competitive sport. The only reason teams get away with this is that they make a mild show of competing and thus people can grumble but you can’t really complain about the aversion to risk. In this case, however, they’ve done away with convention completely and just openly displayed that they weren’t competing on any level at all. There was zero intent to do anything.

I am not sure the people involved thought this through at all. Everyone doing this sort of thing could always say “yes we didn’t attack but you can still see we are trying to keep the ball and do the basics of the game”, there’s no provable evidence that the teams colluded. Here though, they’ve put it on display for the world; and I suspect they could and should be severely punished. Both teams being thrown out from the playoffs would be apt.

 

[Semper Fudge]

It's extremely bad sportsmanship but it's not cheating.

It might as well be.

 

[Cee90]

What would’ve been hilarious, and deserved, is if one players went rogue and harmlessly dribbled it while everyone is thinking nothing will happen, then just suddenly turned it on for a few seconds with a burst of pace and a clinical finish to knock the other team out. Would’ve been riots in response, but it would’ve been better than this unsporting debacle.

Ah that would have been absolutely glorious. A real Slytherin move.

Completely agree though, this makes a mockery of a competitive sport - if anything, their punishment is not severe enough.

 

[Shake Jism]

I recall something similar in a world cup group stage years ago. They both knew that a draw would get them through given the results in the other match in the group, so they just passed it around. Not as bad as this though.

Might've been Germany.

I also remember something slightly similar in cricket with Somerset declaring in a One Day game after an over or something to preserve net run rate. They were subsequently disqualified from the competition.

 

[Sunny Jim]

Does anybody remember our 1:1 game away to Blackburn? A point each sealed our title and them staying up. Nothing of note took place in the last 10 minutes

 

[1988]

Denmark and Sweden did something similar years ago. Both secured their spot with a draw whilst giving Italy the boot. They didn't do it as obvious as the OP, but close enough.

 

[hasanejaz88]

There seemed to be less than a minute left in the game. Don't get these points off the fans being cheated etc when there are less than 60 seconds left. Also, the one shot of the fans showed them happy.

 

[King Eric 7]

If the reward for both teams drawing is so high, no wonder this type of stuff happens. Can't blame them really.

 

[rcoobc]

Blackburn 1-1 Man Utd 2011. Neither team had any interest in attacking for the last 10 minutes. Literally nothing happened for the last 10 minutes

The Utd players passed in around in their half, and the Blackburn players stayed in their half. United only needed 1 point to win the league, and Blackburn felt like 1 point was going to be enough to keep them up.

You can see a bit of it here


Fergie talks about it here 0:46


Amazed we never got fined for that. Shades of Dijon

 

[Red00012]

A big "f*ck you' to the fans too - clubs should be made to pay back every supporter in that ground.

There was 60 seconds left , both teams needed that result so I’m pretty sure both fans were delighted.

 

[rcoobc]

We did, Blackburn away 2011.

Making it blatant like they did is stupid though.

And I'm late to say it

 

[Shane88]

Blackburn 1-1 Man Utd 2011. Neither team had any interest in attacking for the last 10 minutes. Literally nothing happened for the last 10 minutes

The Utd players passed in around in their half, and the Blackburn players stayed in their half. United only needed 1 point to win the league, and Blackburn felt like 1 point was going to be enough to keep them up.

You can see a bit of it here


Fergie talks about it here 0:46


Amazed we never got fined for that. Shades of Dijon

The whole thing is here, played at double speed and set to Benny Hill.


The "You're next, Messi!" banner aged well .

 

[rcoobc]

The whole thing is here, played at double speed and set to Benny Hill.


The "You're next, Messi!" banner aged well .

Amazing

Reminds me of the Simpsons

 

[fps]

Why should they have to pretend to go hammer and tong for the last few minutes if they’ve all got the result they need? This is crazy.

 

[SilentWitness]

Cheating is acting unfairly or dishonestly.

Not even pretending to attempt to play properly is definitely within that definition.

They were quite honest in what they were doing.

 

[Irwin99]

Does anybody remember our 1:1 game away to Blackburn? A point each sealed our title and them staying up. Nothing of note took place in the last 10 minutes

I'm sure i remember Scholes coming on and just passing it around squarely and running down the clock.

Edit- just seen the video

This kind of dodgy stuff happens in football, it's not nice but it's understandable in some ways. I don't believe for one moment that Gerrard didn't mean to pass the ball to Drogba in that game vs Chelsea all those years ago. I know it's wrong but if Arsenal are top of the league against us and we have nothing to play for, i'd be quite happy for McTominay to score an own goal or two if it meant denying City or Liverpool. Feck 'em.

 

[Berbasbullet]

The whole thing is here, played at double speed and set to Benny Hill.


The "You're next, Messi!" banner aged well .

Scholesy! I miss him so much.

 

[Mb194dc]

The system is the problem exactly as with the Disgrace of Gijón.

 

[Cloud7]

The reaction to this seems a bit overblown, no? Could prosecutors have gotten involved when we did something like this Vs Blackburn?

 

[Withnail]

Westerlo and Genk each needed a point to qualify for their respective sections of the wacky playoff system in the Belgian league. After Genk equalise late in the game, both teams stop playing, knock the ball around, and there are players shaking hands and asking for the ref to blow up early while the game is still ongoing.

Every player on the pitch has been fined €1,000, the two captains have been suspended, Westerlo have sacked their manager and prosecutors are getting involved.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/genk-westerlo-belgian-pro-league-32465918

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— Twitter API (@user) date

I feel like this kind of thing happens pretty regularly late in the season when a certain result is convenient for both teams... but they just had to take the absolute piss with it for some reason.

Jesus Christ. You can do an Ireland/Holland from 88 without making it so feckin obvious

 

[Plant0x84]

That’s disgraceful. The way they are all so blatant about it. It’s not sporting in the slightest. They deserve to be made an example of, but probably won’t be.

 

[Big Ben Foster]

Not sure why people are bringing up the Blackburn game as a comparison. We played until the final whistle - there's no rule that says you have to go on the attack and try to score.

If these two teams had played on and at least allowed for a pretense of plausible deniability, some fans may be upset but there would be no grounds to punish anyone.

 

[RedRocket9908]

I recall something similar in a world cup group stage years ago. They both knew that a draw would get them through given the results in the other match in the group, so they just passed it around. Not as bad as this though.

That was what led to the change in the rules to the current rule where the final group games are played at the same time.

 

[Chipper]

Might've been Germany.

I also remember something slightly similar in cricket with Somerset declaring in a One Day game after an over or something to preserve net run rate. They were subsequently disqualified from the competition.

There was another similar one in the London 2012 Olympics in the badminton event. You can't have draws of course, but in the women's doubles event there were 2 matches where both teams were trying to lose their final group stage match to try and avoid certain matchups in the next round. They all got booted out of the competition.

The weirdest one ever was in the 1994 Carribbean Cup between Barbados and Grenada. They had no draws in the group stage, golden goal extra time, and the golden goal counting as 2 goals for some eason. Ended up with a situation where Barbados were 2-1 up late on but needed to win by 2. They scored an own goal on purpose to make it 2-2 before scoring once in extra time to win 4-2.

 

[RedRocket9908]

Blackburn 1-1 Man Utd 2011. Neither team had any interest in attacking for the last 10 minutes. Literally nothing happened for the last 10 minutes

The Utd players passed in around in their half, and the Blackburn players stayed in their half. United only needed 1 point to win the league, and Blackburn felt like 1 point was going to be enough to keep them up.

You can see a bit of it here


Fergie talks about it here 0:46


Amazed we never got fined for that. Shades of Dijon

I was suprised how there was no backlash from that and if it wasnt for the fact that Blackburn finished 4 points clear of relegation there might have been.

 

[tenpoless]

Americanism is coming to football. There are going to be fake matches soon. WWE.

 

[TheBatman]

This used to happen in the group stages of the European Championships and the World Cup. Till the authorises made all the final matches in the group be played simultaneously as teams were colluding to arrange specific results.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Blackburn 1-1 Man Utd 2011. Neither team had any interest in attacking for the last 10 minutes. Literally nothing happened for the last 10 minutes

The Utd players passed in around in their half, and the Blackburn players stayed in their half. United only needed 1 point to win the league, and Blackburn felt like 1 point was going to be enough to keep them up.

You can see a bit of it here


Fergie talks about it here 0:46


Amazed we never got fined for that. Shades of Dijon

Nothing wrong with that

 

[justboy68]

QPR against City is still the worst one. Once they knew they were safe they even stopped playing and just let City win the fecking league. Can we all remember how they literally gave the ball right back to them immediately from the kickoff. It was ridiculous.

 

[AfonsoAlves]

Is this any different to Evans, Vidic and Rio making 70 passes to each other in the last 10 minutes vs Blackburn to secure the title as the Blackburn players showed 0 interest in closing down or winning the ball?

 

[AfonsoAlves]

In fact, i found the redcafe matchday thread.

https://www.redcafe.net/threads/blackburn-vs-manchester-united.328647/page-33

Pretty funny read