World Cup 2018: El Salvador 'refuse bribe to fix match'

[davieG]

El Salvador's national football team say they have refused a bribe to fix Tuesday's World Cup 2018 qualifying game against Canada.

At a news conference, team members played an audio recording of the person allegedly offering various incentives.

Canada must beat El Salvador in Vancouver and hope Mexico defeat Honduras in the final round of Group A games to stand a chance of progressing.

El Salvador cannot progress to the final round of qualifying.

"It's the most dramatic thing in football I've seen for some time now," investigative journalist Declan Hill told the BBC World Service.

The most they would have got for allegedly fixing the match would have been about $3,000 per player

Declan HillInvestigative journalist and author of The Fix

"The entire team came in with their coaches and said they had been approached on Saturday. They played an 11-minute conversation with the attempted match-fixer.

"He was offering each player a variety of money per minute depending on the result they could get. The most they would have got for allegedly fixing the match would have been about $3,000 per player."

Hill said the offer was allegedly made by an El Salvadorian who knew some of the players, but who wanted to aid the Honduras national team.

The BBC has approached the Honduras football association for comment.

Canada, El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico are members of the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf).

Three Concacaf nations will qualify for the 2018 World Cup automatically, with a fourth entering a play-off against a team from the Asian Football Confederation.

[StanSP]

rejected this bribe.

 

took loads of others 

[foxy boxing]

clearly weren't being offered enough? those cheap match fixers?

[Alf Bentley]

So, if the match fixers were allegedly trying to help Honduras qualify at Canada's expense, they were seeking to bribe El Salvador to get a draw or win against Canada....not to lose, given that Honduras are quite likely to lose in Mexico?

 

Mind you, there's a long and bitter rivalry between Honduras and El Salvador - they once had a war triggered by football (though really about deeper issues): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_War

[Captain...]

22 minutes ago, Alf Bentley said:

So, if the match fixers were allegedly trying to help Honduras qualify at Canada's expense, they were seeking to bribe El Salvador to get a draw or win against Canada....not to lose, given that Honduras are quite likely to lose in Mexico?

 

Mind you, there's a long and bitter rivalry between Honduras and El Salvador - they once had a war triggered by football (though really about deeper issues): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_War

That's how I read it, it seems it was more of an incentive to win, rather than an attempt to fix the match, but it leaves it ambiguous.

 

This source makes it clearer:

 

http://www.cbssports.com/soccer/news/world-cup-qualifying-el-salvador-players-share-audio-of-match-fixing-bribe-vs-canada/

 

Quote

the players claim the voice from the recording is that of Salvadoran businessman Ricardo Padilla, who is allegedly relaying what a Honduran businessman offered them for Tuesday's game. The El Salvador players were reportedly promised $30 for each minute played in a win, $20 for each minute played in a draw, $15 for each minute played in a 1-0 loss, and nothing if the team loses by two goals or more.

That isn't match fixing, it is incentivising. It is probably illegal, but nobody was trying to get them to throw the match, just give them an incentive to win it, when they currently have none.

 

If  they are rivals with Honduras then could well not be that arsed knowing it would knock out their rivals.

[The Railway Man]

27 minutes ago, Alf Bentley said:

So, if the match fixers were allegedly trying to help Honduras qualify at Canada's expense, they were seeking to bribe El Salvador to get a draw or win against Canada....not to lose, given that Honduras are quite likely to lose in Mexico?

 

Mind you, there's a long and bitter rivalry between Honduras and El Salvador - they once had a war triggered by football (though really about deeper issues): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_War

There is a tremendous documentary on this match somewhere, I'll try and find it on youtube. I watched it a few years back.

[Dan]

I read that the bribe was from a Salvadorian businessman, it was to make sure they get absolutely hammered so that Canada finish above Honduras on goal difference.