Pie - gate ....(Sutton style ).

[Kevlar]

What is the FA's problem ?

Nobody has bet on anything concerning the outcome of a match.

No one has made or lost much money , bookies ain't that stupid . They don't leave themselves open to any betting scam. As soon as any serious money is involved , the warning flags go up.


So I doubt if any Malaysian syndicate involved lol.


It's no different to Wayne Shaw having a bet on the snow landing on Xmas day, which I assume he is allowed to do.

FA ..........get a life and sort the football out.

[yoda]

It's no different to Wayne Shaw having a bet on the snow landing on Xmas day, which I assume he is allowed to do.

I disagree. The difference between this and him betting on snow falling is that he used his position as a Sutton player to influence the outcome. Perhaps it is a bit of fun but it's easy to see how this isn't a great leap to spot fixing.

I can see why people would think this is the FA being spoilsports, but there's a decent amount of evidence he knew what he was doing. As loveable as a character he is, you have to keep the games integrity and betting as far away as possible and have to show that gaming the system cannot be tolerated even in the spirit of ' a bit of fun'. History has shown if people think a sport is compromised in terms of outcome, they'll very quickly lose interest and the FA need to been seen to stop this.

[yoda]

No one has made or lost much money , bookies ain't that stupid . They don't leave themselves open to any betting scam. As soon as any serious money is involved , the warning flags go up.
.

There's data that suggests (but to be fair, doesn't prove) that Sun Bet (who sponsor Sutton) took a hefty loss on this bet for the publicity the novelty bet brought.

The implications are horrific. Did Wayne eat it at their request? If so, we've got a betting company giving instructions to a player. Surely you can see a problem with the path this opens?

[chunkster]

It's no different to Wayne Shaw having a bet on the snow landing on Xmas day, which I assume he is allowed to do.

I disagree. The difference between this and him betting on snow falling is that he used his position as a Sutton player to influence the outcome. Perhaps it is a bit of fun but it's easy to see how this isn't a great leap to spot fixing.

I can see why people would think this is the FA being spoilsports, but there's a decent amount of evidence he knew what he was doing. As loveable as a character he is, you have to keep the games integrity and betting as far away as possible and have to show that gaming the system cannot be tolerated even in the spirit of ' a bit of fun'. History has shown if people think a sport is compromised in terms of outcome, they'll very quickly lose interest and the FA need to been seen to stop this.

I can see what you mean and to a certain degree i do agree.But in his defense i don't think there were thousands paid out.it was more of a joke than anything. on the other hand i was in a car with one of my mates a few years ago going to a race meet, and he was rung by a well known jockey asking him to put a few grand on another horse on the race he was favorite to win, now that is what you call cheating, and they call it the sport of gentlemen :shock:

[saddla]

Once he knew about the bet being offered by the bookies he was damned. Whatever he did he could be said to be influenced in his actions by that knowledge.
What if he deliberately did not eat a pie? Is that not exactly the same as him eating a pie as far as the betting was concerned?
The fault lies completely with the betting company. Have Sutton now refused their sponsorship money? I doubt it somehow.

[yoda]

Indeed, I initially thought the same thing. It's not quite the same thing as first goalscorer or first booking that players would struggle to deliberately impose themselves on.

However by not eating a pie he'd at least have the defence of being professional and not doing anything out of the ordinary. I guess it would be a lot tougher to make the case against that. By eating the pie during the game he's doing something exceptional AND it's linked to a bet he knew about. It wasn't some bovrill or a sausage roll or some chips (at a football ground? imagine that!), it was specifically the item he knew the bookies had laid bets on. He's given the FA far more ammunition by indulging.

[Exile]

He's 46 years old and 23 stone. Besides the ethical dilemma I doubt he'd be keeping much longer...

[boringteacher]

He's 46 years old and 23 stone. Besides the ethical dilemma I doubt he'd be keeping much longer...

I can think of a former walsall legend who bears comparisson on the pie eating front in his last spell at the club. Put him together with some twerp off sky who pretends to have once been a manager, then we'd have an identikit of the Sutton star.