Poland to win the World Cup.

Are you a betting man or woman?

Are most top football matches fixed?

Has the result of the World Cup been fixed?

The Ancient Olympics dealt with many allegations concerning athletes accepting bribes to lose a competition.

In November 2006, the German referee Robert Hoyzer was sentenced to more than two years in prison. He admitted that he had accepted money to fix the outcome of matches for a Croatian gambling syndicate.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/12/sports/soccer/12soccer.html

Referees in Brazil and players in Vietnam have also recently been accused of fixing matches.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/12/sports/soccer/12soccer.html

In Italy, recent investigations suggest the possibility that Juventus has been receiving favorable treatment from referees.

A two-year-old conversation between the general director of Juventus and a soccer official has now appeared in the media.

Transcripts show Juventus's Luciano Moggi discussing the assignment of referees for league games with Pierluigi Pairetto, the refereeing official for Italy's soccer federation.

Other transcripts show: players and managers being threatened and blackmailed; discussions over refereeing assignments before games; the alleged collusion of coaches, federation officials and a soccer talk-show host; the blacklisting of people who challenged the corruption; and bribery.

Juventus's entire board of directors has now resigned (May 2006).

In 1999 a Malaysian betting syndicate was caught attempting to install a remote-control device to sabotage the floodlights at Charlton Athletic's ground. If the match had been abandoned after half-time, then the result and bets would have stood. The gang had been responsible for "floodlight failures" at West Ham's ground in November 1997, and a month later at Crystal Palace's ground during a home match of Palace's groundsharing tenant Wimbledon.

Tottenham Hotspur recently lost a vital football match after suffering from 'food poisoning'.

Ten Spurs players were struck down with suspected food poisoning on the morning of their final game of the season, against West Ham, after eating lasagne at the team’s hotel. Although Spurs tried to get the Premier League to delay the start of the game, the club fulfilled the fixture even though players were vomiting in the dressing room right up to kick-off.

So, who is going to win the World Cup?

Group A Germany Poland Ecuador Costa Rica

We fancy Poland.

Group B England Sweden Paraguay Trinidad and Tobago

We fancy Sweden

Group C Argentina Netherlands Ivory Coast Serbia and Montenegro

We fancy Netherlands

Group D Portugal Mexico Iran Angola

We fancy Mexico

Group E Italy Czech Republic USA Ghana

We fancy Italy

Group F Brazil Croatia Australia Japan

We fancy Brazil

Group G France Switzerland South Korea Togo

We fancy France

Group H Spain Ukraine Tunisia Saudi Arabia

We fancy Spain

Who will win the World Cup?

We reckon it will be Poland.

We have a 100% record of wrong predictions when it comes to the World Cup.

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