Yet another article on match fixing in the CSL

[shermanator]

Just in case there is anyone left who think this is a viable league.

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/12/12/semi-pro-canadian-soccer-league-a-hotspot-of-match-fixing.html

“The Canadian Soccer League is a disaster,” says Baranca. “Many bookmakers will not touch the league but when they do allow betting, the games are suspicious. In 2016, we still see crazy odds movements that makes us think that a lot of games are fixed.”

In 2013, Sports Radar, another gambling monitoring company, issued a report, obtained by the Star, claiming that there had been 14 suspicious matches in the CSL out of the hundred matches played that year.

Last year, Sports Radar and the Qatar-based International Centre for Sports Security claimed there had been as many as 60 fixed matches in just one season in the CSL. An ICSS senior official called it a “rogue league.”

During the CSL season that ended on Oct. 30, fixing continued, says Baranca.

“They had two games in September that were absolutely fixed. They received a lot of bets from Russia and the market went crazy. They are still fixing games in Canada yet no one does anything. Why not?”

...

In April 2015, the Canadian Soccer Association, the organization that oversees all Canadian soccer, held a meeting to discuss match-fixing. The goal was to “further enhance Canada’s capacity to protect the integrity of sport and engage in international prevention efforts against match-fixing.” 

In attendance were representatives from international agencies such as FIFA (soccer’s world governing body), Interpol and the RCMP, the OPP, the Canada Border Services Agency and the Canadian Gaming Association. The Star has obtained confidential documents from this meeting.

An international observer at the meeting was astounded by the Canadian attitude: “It was extraordinary. We went around the table and most of the people said, ‘It’s a problem, but there is nothing we can do.’ It is like there is an open season for corruption in Canada.”

Perhaps more extraordinary was the report by the OPP that there was no due diligence for club ownership in the CSL and that “one potential target now owns a (CSL) team.”

[Gopherbashi]

To be fair, the CSA has already exhausted all power it has against the CSL.  Anything else is left to law enforcement.

[Complete Homer]

I suspect the fact that they use the name of a prior legit league helps them get away with it. The odd person that just skims the wrong wiki article could come away with the impression that it is legit

[-Hammer-]

I seriously want to know....who in their right mind is betting on unsanctioned, semi-pro soccer in Canada, and that this is somehow big enough to make the Toronto Star?!

More importantly, who the heck is bankrolling this leauge, I don't know anyone who goes to or cares about CSL games. Do they have fraudlet academies that are taking funds? How and why does this league still exsist?

More importantly, how can the Star gloss over the fact that this league is completely unsanctioned by the CSA at the bottom of the article.

[ted]

2 hours ago, Gopherbashi said:

To be fair, the CSA has already exhausted all power it has against the CSL.  Anything else is left to law enforcement.

Have they? Have any players or officials been sanctioned?

[matty]

Think dunfield has taken a bribe while there?

[Zem]

4 minutes ago, matty said:

Think dunfield has taken a bribe while there?

Or Adrian Cann. It's kinda frustrating how notables actually play in this league, besides the fact it's holding back other talented players from L1O. I guess it's not totally unexpected given that the CSL must have more financial clout than L1O at the moment, but you'd think players like Dunfield and Cann would know better than to take part in a league which is a known betting scam.

[matty]

1 minute ago, Zem said:

Or Adrian Cann. It's kinda frustrating how notables actually play in this league, besides the fact it's holding back other talented players from L1O. I guess it's not totally unexpected given that the CSL must have more financial clout than L1O at the moment, but you'd think players like Dunfield and Cann would know better than to take part in a league which is a known betting scam.

I partly think dunfield only went because he loves the game and wanted to play part time while working for tsn.

[-Hammer-]

15 hours ago, ted said:

Have they? Have any players or officials been sanctioned?

That is a good question, the problem is how do you gauge that? I mean, I don't recall any CSL player getting pulled into another CSA sanctioned league on his own merits, or being blacklisted because they played in the CSL, because quite honestly...who gives a shit about the CSL?

I'm consistently shocked whenever one of these articles comes up, because I don't even know or care to know any of the teams in the CSL. I mean, this "league" has a smaller media presence then the Kenyan Ice hockey team. I mean, lets take even a cursory glance at their website.

http://canadiansoccerleague.ca/serbian-eagles-hamilton-city-in-csl-championship-final/

That picture alone to me, just screams big league. We're playing the league final in an open feild with Football lines and pegs, with no crowd. This, is what I'm going to bet my hard earned money on. Even better, one of the team links on their website, apart from mirroring the league logo, literally goes to a domain about London England tourism.

I mean, how? How do you, as a Canadian bet on this league? Have you been living under a rock for the last two decades to have never heard of MLS or TFC. How do you even concieve of betting for a team if you are outside the country? I mean, they have no television presence or connections to FIFA, so how the heck did you even find out about them? Maybe you came across and stream, and went to their god awful website? It doesn't even have a working store! How the heck are you being convinced to bet on this league. I don't understand!

It even has links to Canada's other (and clearly more successful) leagues.

http://canadiansoccerleague.ca/links/

Which also brings up, perhaps the CSA should issue a cease and desist about their logo and FIFA's logo being on their website? Regardless though. How and why, when you could easily bet on any other country's far more stable and publicly know league, or even any of the better, more well know leagues in Canada (soccer or otherwise), that you would opt to bet on division...unknown soccer in Canada? It's mindboggling how this league somehow manages to

a ) Attract people to bet on it due to it's non-posistion on our pyramid

b ) Attract people to bet on it due to it's CLEAR bush and minor league appearance

c) Attract people to bet on it after several publish match fixing scandals over the past 3 years

d ) Somehow have the funds to attract players from across the pond to fix matches

e ) Continue exsisting at all

It's honestly mind boggling how the CSL is still a thing.

[Kent]

On 13/12/2016 at 0:16 AM, -Hammer- said:

That is a good question, the problem is how do you gauge that? I mean, I don't recall any CSL player getting pulled into another CSA sanctioned league on his own merits, or being blacklisted because they played in the CSL, because quite honestly...who gives a shit about the CSL?

I'm consistently shocked whenever one of these articles comes up, because I don't even know or care to know any of the teams in the CSL. I mean, this "league" has a smaller media presence then the Kenyan Ice hockey team. I mean, lets take even a cursory glance at their website.

http://canadiansoccerleague.ca/serbian-eagles-hamilton-city-in-csl-championship-final/

That picture alone to me, just screams big league. We're playing the league final in an open feild with Football lines and pegs, with no crowd. This, is what I'm going to bet my hard earned money on. Even better, one of the team links on their website, apart from mirroring the league logo, literally goes to a domain about London England tourism.

I mean, how? How do you, as a Canadian bet on this league? Have you been living under a rock for the last two decades to have never heard of MLS or TFC. How do you even concieve of betting for a team if you are outside the country? I mean, they have no television presence or connections to FIFA, so how the heck did you even find out about them? Maybe you came across and stream, and went to their god awful website? It doesn't even have a working store! How the heck are you being convinced to bet on this league. I don't understand!

It even has links to Canada's other (and clearly more successful) leagues.

http://canadiansoccerleague.ca/links/

Which also brings up, perhaps the CSA should issue a cease and desist about their logo and FIFA's logo being on their website? Regardless though. How and why, when you could easily bet on any other country's far more stable and publicly know league, or even any of the better, more well know leagues in Canada (soccer or otherwise), that you would opt to bet on division...unknown soccer in Canada? It's mindboggling how this league somehow manages to

a ) Attract people to bet on it due to it's non-posistion on our pyramid

b ) Attract people to bet on it due to it's CLEAR bush and minor league appearance

c) Attract people to bet on it after several publish match fixing scandals over the past 3 years

d ) Somehow have the funds to attract players from across the pond to fix matches

e ) Continue exsisting at all

It's honestly mind boggling how the CSL is still a thing.

A few points. First off, about sanctioning players. I don't know of any examples of CSL players attempting to join other leagues (aside from Jonathan Osorio, but I believe that was before the CSA pulled sanctioning of the CSL), but I would be incredibly shocked if there aren't refs doing games in the CSL as well as sanctioned leagues. They could be sanctioned, and that would hurt the league. It sends a message that it's not OK to be involved in this league, and it also reduces the quality of refs (ideally it could only be non-licensed refs, so basically coaches or people that came to watch, or maybe self referreed), which would make it a less desirable league for the competitive type of players that the league attracts.

As for who in their right mind would bet on this league. Gambling addicts, and match fixers. Whether they are from Canada or not. Some (corrupt) betting agencies even take bets on games that don't even exist. Gamblers don't necessarily watch every game they bet on, or even have any sense of what a league is like that they are betting on. If some addict is on the other side of the world, up in the middle of the night and needs their gambling fix, they just might put money down on this "Canadian Soccer League" which sounds like it should be the top league in Canada. If you saw matches for a Tanzanian Soccer League on a betting site, you would probably assume that's the top level league in Tanzania, regardless of whether you know anything about that league or not (I don't know if such a league exists, just a random example). Canadians barely know anything about our soccer "pyramid", for sure people across the world don't know.

I really am disappointed that the mentioned former TFC players would play in CSL. There are over age players allowed on L1O teams. I'm sure they could find a L1O team that would like to have them to mentor their younger players and help them up the table, and be a net benefit to soccer in Canada as opposed to a net detriment by being in and thereby endorsing this corrupt rogue league.

[Rintaran]

It's even worse than you may think. I was in the local bookstore the other day and found a nice, fat book that promised to work as a great warm-up for leagues across the world. Sadly, for Canada, they have the CSL as our top-flight league. There isn't even mention of our MLS teams. Publication year was 2014, so not ancient enough for that information to be accurate. Basically, some shitty research, and now if anyone picks up the book, CSL is top-flight.

If it was the only book I saw with that info, it wouldn't be too bad. Sadly, it's the fourth or fifth. All different "authors," titles, and years of publication. The CSA & CPL are going to need to do a lot of work to promote the CPL as our actual 1st-division league, and they're going to need to pursue more emphatic legal means in order to shutter the CSL, pull logos, and straighten things out with media outlets so "mistakes" like reporting on the CSL can become a thing of the past.

[Kent]

12 hours ago, Rintaran said:

It's even worse than you may think. I was in the local bookstore the other day and found a nice, fat book that promised to work as a great warm-up for leagues across the world. Sadly, for Canada, they have the CSL as our top-flight league. There isn't even mention of our MLS teams. Publication year was 2014, so not ancient enough for that information to be accurate. Basically, some shitty research, and now if anyone picks up the book, CSL is top-flight.

If it was the only book I saw with that info, it wouldn't be too bad. Sadly, it's the fourth or fifth. All different "authors," titles, and years of publication. The CSA & CPL are going to need to do a lot of work to promote the CPL as our actual 1st-division league, and they're going to need to pursue more emphatic legal means in order to shutter the CSL, pull logos, and straighten things out with media outlets so "mistakes" like reporting on the CSL can become a thing of the past.

Heck, even this very site for Canadian soccer fans lists the CSL champion as the "B League" champions, with no mention of the Inter Provincial Cup (L1O vs PLSQ) champions. So in a small way, we are feeding this a bit too. Otherwise the below thread would be a useful resource.

 

[-Hammer-]

On 14/12/2016 at 10:18 AM, Kent said:

A few points. First off, about sanctioning players. I don't know of any examples of CSL players attempting to join other leagues (aside from Jonathan Osorio, but I believe that was before the CSA pulled sanctioning of the CSL), but I would be incredibly shocked if there aren't refs doing games in the CSL as well as sanctioned leagues. They could be sanctioned, and that would hurt the league. It sends a message that it's not OK to be involved in this league, and it also reduces the quality of refs (ideally it could only be non-licensed refs, so basically coaches or people that came to watch, or maybe self referreed), which would make it a less desirable league for the competitive type of players that the league attracts.

As for who in their right mind would bet on this league. Gambling addicts, and match fixers. Whether they are from Canada or not. Some (corrupt) betting agencies even take bets on games that don't even exist. Gamblers don't necessarily watch every game they bet on, or even have any sense of what a league is like that they are betting on. If some addict is on the other side of the world, up in the middle of the night and needs their gambling fix, they just might put money down on this "Canadian Soccer League" which sounds like it should be the top league in Canada. If you saw matches for a Tanzanian Soccer League on a betting site, you would probably assume that's the top level league in Tanzania, regardless of whether you know anything about that league or not (I don't know if such a league exists, just a random example). Canadians barely know anything about our soccer "pyramid", for sure people across the world don't know.

I really am disappointed that the mentioned former TFC players would play in CSL. There are over age players allowed on L1O teams. I'm sure they could find a L1O team that would like to have them to mentor their younger players and help them up the table, and be a net benefit to soccer in Canada as opposed to a net detriment by being in and thereby endorsing this corrupt rogue league.

To the first, I can understand the CSA not caring enough to Blacklist players or refs who are involved in this league, because...well that apathy is the symptom of a greater problem. The lack of our own pro-league and lack of solid development paths for players. That said, we can hope that League 1 Ontario and the CPL can pay players and refs enough to make CSL players and officials jump ship for good.

To the second, even still....I get being a problem gambler...but even as a sports gambler you are going to try to better your odds by at least having a cursory knowledge of the players and teams you are betting on. Outside of the CSL website, what actual analysis is going on it that league to make this attractive to bet on. Even more so when I literally have every other soccer league in the world, all of the UEFA leagues, my own local league and MLS and then I'm still going to pick Canada? Additionally, if I'm a gambling addict and I'm getting reports (and this isn't the first one) that the league is fixing matches, I just don't get how you could bet on it? I mean, I don't even know a single person here who bets on the EPL or MLS, yet alone the Australian leauge.

To the last, yeah...it is sad but that's the price of not having proper teams to put players in. Hopefully we can all fix that.

[Pqhbv]

CSL has its own sports program on TV to provide analysis of games and players for the gamblers. CSL does pay some players unlike most of L1O. The attractiveness of the bets are the fixes...

L1O will win out in the end, CSL is more than a lame duck right. It can't happen soon enough IMO.

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

11 hours ago, -Hammer- said:

To the first, I can understand the CSA not caring enough to Blacklist players or refs who are involved in this league, because...well that apathy is the symptom of a greater problem. The lack of our own pro-league and lack of solid development paths for players... 

Think you'll find the real reason is that any such move wouldn't stand up to a legal challenge.

[-Hammer-]

1 hour ago, BringBackTheBlizzard said:

Think you'll find the real reason is that any such move wouldn't stand up to a legal challenge.

Who any business hires is very difficult to challenge in court, unless you have clear evidence of racism or unfair discrimination. It's even harder in sports, and the simple reason is, you can always say "Oh well, we didn't think he'd mesh well with our team's strategy" or "We felt these players had more to offer" or "He lacks experience having not played in a valid FIFA sanctioned league for X number of years" and realistically, unless a potential player is a prodigy (which, lets be honest if they were, they wouldn't be playing in the CSL) or simply put "He doesn't have these credentials" you can't really make an easy case against discrimination.
 

Now that said, I think more likely then blacklisting, simple poaching of the good is the more likely course of action. If the CPL has the money behind it, it appears to have, I don't think CSL rosters are going to be competitive in comparison. 

 

2 hours ago, Pqhbv said:

CSL has its own sports program on TV to provide analysis of games and players for the gamblers. CSL does pay some players unlike most of L1O. The attractiveness of the bets are the fixes...

L1O will win out in the end, CSL is more than a lame duck right. It can't happen soon enough IMO.

They do? On television? Really? I'm utter floored.

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

On 19/12/2016 at 0:40 PM, -Hammer- said:

Now that said, I think more likely then blacklisting, simple poaching of the good is the more likely course of action. If the CPL has the money behind it, it appears to have, I don't think CSL rosters are going to be competitive in comparison. 

The CSL is a joke. Most of you would walk away after a couple of games if there was any similarity.

[Rocket Robin]

On ‎12‎/‎14‎/‎2016 at 10:18 AM, Kent said:

A few points. First off, about sanctioning players. I don't know of any examples of CSL players attempting to join other leagues (aside from Jonathan Osorio, but I believe that was before the CSA pulled sanctioning of the CSL), but I would be incredibly shocked if there aren't refs doing games in the CSL as well as sanctioned leagues. They could be sanctioned, and that would hurt the league. It sends a message that it's not OK to be involved in this league, and it also reduces the quality of refs (ideally it could only be non-licensed refs, so basically coaches or people that came to watch, or maybe self referreed), which would make it a less desirable league for the competitive type of players that the league attracts.

 

ex-TFC player Oscar Cordon started with TFC Academy when they were in CSL

In 2014 he played for Woodbridge Strikers in the first year of the new L1O.

In 2015 he scored the winning goal for Toronto Croatia in the championship game in the CSL.

In 2016 he was back to being a star with Woodbridge Strikers in L1O.  All I remember saying to him this year was "Hey welcome back!" 

[CanadianSoccerFan]

In the context of wider society, tax dollars, and limited police resources it is understandable that this is not a priority for law enforcement.  The victims of these crimes are stupid overseas gamblers and bookmakers.  It's a de-sanctioned league nobody watches or cares about.  There's no disillusioned fans losing faith in the sport because of some glorified kickabout nobody's heard of.  Even if there were, there are rackets that cause infinitely more harm to Canadian society than this.  

 

Think of all the crimes that impact Canadians and place this on a priority list.  If it's not near the bottom you need a reality check.

 

 

[Tuscan]

IMO the CSL continues to exist as a fixable league for betting purposes. I'm sure there are only a small percentage of players who are in it for fixing purposes, but that blight alone is enough that this league needs to be destroyed somehow. A key question is, how can this league be destroyed?

[Rintaran]

5 minutes ago, Tuscan said:

IMO the CSL continues to exist as a fixable league for betting purposes. I'm sure there are only a small percentage of players who are in it for fixing purposes, but that blight alone is enough that this league needs to be destroyed somehow. A key question is, how can this league be destroyed?

Get some high-profile betting sites to start making odds & taking bets on what day they close shop? Fix the odds to make it very profitable for the closure to happy earlier rather than later & inform some corrupt Russian gamblers of the fix?

[Tuscan]

That doesn't seem feasible. I'm looking more for an answer where legal action could be taken.

[Gopherbashi]

Use some fancy legal footwork to claim that the name "Canadian Soccer League" is tied to formal sanctioning and therefore should revert to the CSA.

I don't think it would (or should) hold water, but I don't think there's other legal framework to stop people from willingly playing soccer with each other.

[Tuscan]

Is there any good use for the CSL now that L1O has arrived?

[Zem]

16 minutes ago, Tuscan said:

Is there any good use for the CSL now that L1O has arrived?

Aside from the fact that the CSL organization is horribly corrupt, no not really because L1O serves the same purpose in the pyramid in the same region. Basically all the CSL is doing at this point is holding back L1O and making Canadian soccer look bad.

4 hours ago, Gopherbashi said:

Use some fancy legal footwork to claim that the name "Canadian Soccer League" is tied to formal sanctioning and therefore should revert to the CSA.

I don't think it would (or should) hold water, but I don't think there's other legal framework to stop people from willingly playing soccer with each other.

The CSL is a private organization, so there's no way the CSA would be able to just take it over. The situation is frustrating because the CSL has been exiled from FIFA and the CSA, but that also means the CSA has no regulatory control over it, not that it's really any different than before.

The CSL seems to be doing okay without sanctioning, although the CSA might not care too much as long as it isn't interfereing with L1O. But clearly the CSL is poaching potential players and there aren't many new Kingston FC situations with clubs jumping ship and trying to make it into League1, so the whole de-sanctioning gambit hasn't accomplished much aside from taking the issue off the CSA's hands.

The best we can hope for is some new report of illegal CSL-related gambling activity that actually falls within Canadian legal jurisdiction so that it can be forcefully shut down, or the ship sinks on its own which could take a while.