Laudrup supports match fixing rules

21 September 2012 18:48

Swansea manager Michael Laudrup has denied advocating clubs paying their rivals to win matches.

Laudrup was questioned about his views on match fixing during his press conference previewing Saturday's Premier League fixture against Everton.

The Dane clearly stated his opposition to the offence, but felt hypothetically that paying clubs to lose games was worse than paying clubs to win games as the natural goal of any side would be to secure victory.

Laudrup said on Thursday: "If Swansea play the last game against a team, and a third team pays Swansea to win the game, I really don't see anything bad about that."

He added: "It's just a bonus. For me, match-fixing is somebody pays someone to lose a game."

But Laudrup has strongly denied condoning any form of match-fixing and, in a statement released to Press Association Sport, he said: "I am well aware that it is against the rules to accept or receive money to influence the outcome of a football match. I am in full support of these match-fixing rules and certainly do not advocate any payments of any kind.

"The point I was trying to make was that the term match-fixing needs to be defined because there are different levels.

"If two teams playing each other both needed a draw and the scores are level with 20 minutes to go, then I wouldn't expect either team to throw men forward looking for the winner. That to me is not match-fixing.

"The worst case of match-fixing I heard was in Italy in the early 80s, before I went there, when three or four players were paid to lose a game. Can you imagine what the other players felt when they got to know about that after they went out to win?

"People like that should be banned for life, not a few years. They should be out of the game forever."

Source: PA