A year ago this weekend a rave took place at Bloomfield Road as Blackpool FC fans returned en masse following decades of abuse from the Odious Oystons.
See The Mocking Muckers' Fuck Over The Fuckers
The last minute own-goal equaliser only added to the sense of theatre.
And the spectacle continued when the excellent Muckers Supporters Group cornered Shaun Harvey (then EFL chief executive) to persuade that it would be entirely unfair for the club to receive a 12-point deduction for the crimes of the Oystons and that they truly hoped that Harvey would accommodate this opinion particularly with he and his wife retiring to Lytham St Annes and no doubt wanting a leisurely and peaceful latter life.
If the 12 point deduction had been activated Blackpool would now be in 20th position in League One on the edge of relegation.
You can thank Paul Grimshaw and the Muckers for this reality being avoided.
Unfortunately, the optimism ends right there.
Fans had hoped that the new hierarchy at the club would not only move Blackpool forward to new heights but that they would also achieve this advancement with integrity.
But there has been no advancement and there are pockets where no or limited integrity resides.
The most alarming feature has seen the outcomes of Blackpool FC matches in the knowledge of underground bookmakers (initially in SE Asia and then closer to home).
Whenever the betting markets know match results prior to a game kicking off, you know that there are internal issues.
A further disappointment has been the transfer policy under the ill-equipped Simon Grayson - 4 players have been signed from the SKUBs fragmented cartel of corrupted agents while Jak Alnwick is associated with World In Motion who major in lower league goalkeeping shenanigans. While not all clients of Stellar, Key Sports, Unique Sports and Base are matchfixing operatives, some are and any club signing players from these intermediaries is risking the integrity of future matches.
Initially it was hoped that appointments at board level would be progressive but this has only been limited in scope and the club has allowed influence from the matchfixing operatives associated with █████ █████.
Furthermore, when an individual has demonstrated a previous lack of integrity, it is always of concern when a future employment is found for such people within the game.
Take Rob Heys.
When he was managing director (and former chief executive) of rogue League One side Accrington Stanley, he was banned from football for 21 months for betting on 735 games including 231 Accrington Stanley matches.
In 37 of these events he traded on his team to lose.
How on earth do the Blackpool hierarchy consider that this man warrants the position of Commercial Director at the club?
The fans deserve better than this.
It is an outrage that this famous old club has such a succession of intriguing appointments - even Valeri Belokon who eventually ousted the Oystons in the High Courts of the Land was backed by a Kyrgyzstani warlord on the run from Interpol and was convicted in absentia of money laundering in the central Asian country.
And he is our hero!
The one year anniversary match of the new regime is away to Fleetwood today and here too there are questions to be asked not least of which is how is Joey Barton still in football with the assault charge against Barnsley boss Daniel Stendel and all the betting infractions? Barton's agent is Willie McKay who astounded the football world with the illicit associations with Warnock and Cardiff City and a key role in the death/ manslaughter/ murder of Emiliano Sala.
In comparison, for example, take Mike Newell who in 2006 exposed bungs in football when manager of Luton Town and has had his career punished by having only one further season in management (Grimsby Town in 2008/09).
In 2004/05 Newell had taken Luton Town into the Championship as champions and had consolidated this performance with a 10th place finish in the following season.
Following his bung revelations on January 12th 2006, Luton were targeted by match officials for the remainder of the 2005/06 season and throughout 2006/07 and sank from the mid-table to bottom place and relegation.
Football keeps out whistleblowers like Newell while having to recycle rogue entities like Heys and Barton to ensure that there are no excluded grudge merchants outside the game who might leak realities to the media.
This is the template throughout football.
With numerous lower league clubs facing oblivion due to coronavirus once games are played behind closed doors or league seasons truncated, this will force more clubs into the hands of bookmakers and insider traders.Coronavirus ban existential threat to EFL clubs as sports industry insider predicts 'multiple Burys'https://t.co/1sG1cwywBq— Telegraph Football (@TeleFootball) March 6, 2020
As World Soccer magazine reports (in one of its more lucid moments): "Fragile finances are common in weaker European leagues... as UEFA acknowledges in its latest financial report."
UEFA Financial Report: "Many middle- and lower-income clubs are still reliant on donations and other types of income... The relatively large percentage of revenue coming from this source underlines the precarious nature of club finances."
This drives clubs to illegitimate matchfixing.
We have detected no insider trading on Blackpool matches since Simon Grayson was sacked.
But Blackpool fans deserve more than this and must be fervently hoping that Neil Critchley (despite his previous association with rogue entity Liverpool FC) will put football ahead of commercial decisions made to the benefit of those who do not have the best interests of the club or sport at heart.
The Football is Fixed Network spoke with Blackpool FC regarding a high level consultancy after the Oystons were exported but we pulled as soon as we realised what the brave new world at Bloomfield Road entailed.
Lower league football could, of course, do with guidance from higher in the football pyramid yet the FA, the EFL, the government and institutions are captured by the corruption and UEFA is head-burying over the full impacts of Covid-19 rather than guiding football through uncertain times.
The extensive corruptions surrounding Englsh football in 2020 extend way way way down the league ladder and these corruptions are about to become more robust.
.
Football is fucked...
... but at least the bookies and their spies are raking it in.
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