The pandemics of coronavirus reduced the football to Belarus, Angola, Nikaragua and recently also Sweden. The Swedish government however ruled out all professional leagues and only the amateur clubs with no more than 50 fans are allowed to play (latest news suggest even this will change in a few hours).
Since there is not much to bet on, some so-called bookmakers are trying to take whatever is available. It is not usual to find odds offer fixtures for Russian ping-pong or Swedish 7th division. Actually quite impossible up until now…
The team Skabersjö IF was before the Monday’s match against Ingelstad contacted over emails and social media by people, most likely from the betting community, trying to find out some insider information about their “style of the game, weaknesses and more”.
According to club manager Mattias Andersson, these could have been betting gangs from Asia, Hungary but also from the UK. First the players were happy to receive some publicity but later they realized what all that was about.
“When the match ended with a 1:1 draw, those people were back, but they’ve already switched the tone into threats and death threats” added Andersson.
The Swedish Football Association has advised clubs to ignore messages from anybody asking for information about the team. Andersson hasn’t reported the case to the police yet.
Skabersjö IF is not the only case of attempts to fix the results of football matches in Sweden. Eskilstuna FC and Nashulta GoIF teams from the Seventh and Eighth Divisions canceled their friendly match on Monday after recommendations from the Swedish Football Association. And there is for sure more that has not gone public yet.
