LOOK SHARPE: Football Flutter and Taking the Michael!

Sports betting PR legend GRAHAM SHARPE brings you his latest ‘LOOK SHARPE’ column…

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AS ALMOST ANYONE who enjoys a bet – including those who do so with their own money, and to a degree which they know full well they can comfortably afford – is well aware, there are plenty of killjoys out there who spend much of their lives endeavouring to come up with ways in which they can discourage others form having a flutter.

That this is no recent phenomenon was brought home to me vividly when I was recently looking back at a column I wrote in mid-1989, for what was then a glossyish magazine entitled BOS – the initials stood for Bookmakers’ Office Supplies – snappy title, huh?

I had discovered that as early as February, 1936, the Football Association and Football League were so concerned about what they considered to be the evils of gambling being associated with their pure-as-the-driven-snow sport, that they came up with a whizz of an idea via which they would prevent fixtures being announced each week in time for betting companies to compile lists of odds and distribute them to their clients.

This amazing and evidently ill-thought out move immediately resulted in a ludicrous situation on Friday, February 21, 1936, when the nation’s major soccer clubs had not the slightest idea where they were supposed to be playing the very next day!

The same thing happened the next week, but after just a fortnight of this fixture debacle, the Football League agreed to allow the use of fixtures for betting purposes – in return for a payment from those doing so for the use of their copyright. Usual example of hard cash somehow trumping so-called morals!

However, another threat to the gambling business then emerged as a Bill was introduced in the Commons, designed to make football-related bettng illlegal – probably unsurprisingly, it was supported by both the Church and the FA. It was debated on Friday April 3, 1936, but was thrown out by 287 votes to 24.

The most bizarre football betting I ever indulged in happened back in the 1980s. I had joined a group of journalists on a trip to Russia – and we were invited to attend a big match being played between the great, almost mythical Moscow Dynamo who, basically. NEVER lost at home back then – mainly, I think, because their players were given to understand that if they did, they might soon find themselves playing in some bleak outpost of the game in the Siberian league.

I knew this, but was confident that my non-football-following journalistic companions would not – so set about offering them huge odds about the away team managing to win the match. I accepted loads of roubles at odds of 10/1 upwards and sat back to enjoy my 90-minute wait for the rouble riches to fill my pockets to be spent on whatever food and drink could be found later in the day.

And, yes, of course, Dynamo were duly dynamited to a shock 1-2 defeat.

Fortunately, our guide was able to help me do some dodgy deals in the local black market to replenish my much depleted rouble rations! The most amazing experience that evening was our group being taken to a restaurant where a huge crowd of locals were waiting patiently outside, and being walked to the front of the queue then escorted into an empty restaurant where we were able to eat and drink in style – unlike the queuers, most of whom were still waiting patiently when we left.

Back home, and round about this time, an annual football Cup competition for bookmakers had been introduced, and I was charged with putting a side together for the company for which I was then working, which I duly did, naturally including myself in the squad.

We lined up confidently for our first match against, I seem to recall, The Tote. The game did not exactly go the way we had anticipated and we were struggling to impose ourselves against our opponents, and when the referee awarded a decision against us I was not best pleased – and went out of my way to ensure the referee was aware of this.

He was so aware of it that he sent me off for dissent. This was a disaster because any subsequent punishment via suspension would affect my availability for my usual club in a local Sunday league, so I had no option but to give the referee a false name to record in his little black book. I chose the name of the then Managing Director of the company I was working for, on the basis that as he was thirty years older than me he was unlikely to be too upset by being banned from playing football for the rest of the season. I also gave my office address – to which the resultant letter banning him for three games was sent, which I was able to intercept and dispose of.

Back in the day, just over 35 years ago, during August 1989 a 38 year old man sat in my office, telling me that he wanted to place a bet on himself to play in (what was then, this is pre-Prem) the First Division during the next season.

He was somewhat out of shape and overweight, but admitted that he had once been a promising youth player with a pro side, only for injury to prevent him making the grade.

We chatted, he was personable, and I said I’d drop him a line with some odds if he was really serious. I thought he was something of a time-waster just looking for some local publicity.

I checked out whether anyone of his name was signed to any Football League club. No one was.

But, as he seemed like the type who would be keen to promote himself with his local media if I offered him a bet, I decided to do just that.

I chatted to my company’s odd compilers and we agreed to offer him a bet of twenty five quid at 10,000/1. We might get a little bit of publicity in his local media, I reckoned, with no prospect of having to shell out quarter of a million quid.

On the day after my letter was posted to the man, the Sun newspaper ran a story revealing that a wealthy businessman was about to purchase Manchester United in a £20million takeover deal with an Isle of Man-based tycoon – whose photo revealed him to be the very man who’d been in my office negotiating the bet that he would play in the First Division.

My phone rang. It was the punter – asking me, ‘I suppose that bet’s out of the question now?’

I told him that, unsurprisingly, it was, to which he replied – ‘I’d have insisted on being registered as a player – and made (United boss at the time) Alex Ferguson bring me on as a sub in the last minute of a game to win the bet – and probably cost you your job.’

Ironically, as it transpired, Michael Knighton lost his job before me – as the United deal disintegrated and he ended up at Carlisle United rather than Old Trafford….we still stay infrequently in touch!

Finally, I find it somewhat ironic that the football club I have been (un)fortunate enough to choose to support for many a long season, should have been the first Football League club to be forward-looking enough permit a bookmaker to operate inside their ground, the legendary and now imminently doomed, Kenilworth Road. The Hatters welcomed this betting shop on board for the 1987-88 season.

However, I was very miffed when they later changed their views and went all ‘holier than thou’ by banning the betting shop. It was touch and go whether I’d continue to support them when they did that, but due to the lack of an alternative team to transfer to I continued to be a Hatter and I still hold a season ticket.

However, with the club now currently creating a new ground – albeit there are few firm public indications that it is anywhere near completion – I doubt I will be maintaining my season ticket when they move to the new, and probably atmosphere-free, ground, which will at least initally be just another modern but lookalike, identikit stadium.

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Views of authors do not necessarily represent views of Star Sports Bookmakers.

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