The court is currently investigating whether Sporting Charleroi paid some of St-Truidens (St-Trond) players to win against Antwerp. St-Trond didn't need this win, because they were already on a safe spot, but Charleroi couldn't allow Antwerp to win because this would bring them close to relegation. St-Truiden won this match 2-1 and Charleroi was able to stay in the jupiler league. After the match there was talking about fraud and the investigation has led to further questioning of some St-Truiden players and the coach from Charleroi (former coach from St-Truiden) Jacky Matthijsen. The court has some concrete evidence in recorded telephone calls and has now asked for the match tapes. The players that were questioned are Desiré Mbonabucya, Peter Delorge, Dusan Belic, Patrick Goots (Antwerp) and Thomas Caers.
It's funny....how can being paid to win be a bribe, even in this case?.....That means salary and win bonuses are to be considered bribes as well. In fact, that would make the entire concept of professional football an illegal affair...
Not if the money was paid by another club. You can compare it to the last group games of the CL, where a lot of teams let their players rest because they're already qualified. Unfair, but allowed. What if another team would make huge expenses to let them play with their best team? Salary and win bonuses are paid by the club who owns the player, so quite frankly I don't get your point.
My point is: you are supposed to try to win. Doesn't matter who pays you and for what reason, trying to win is the sportsmanlike thing to do. A bribe is when you are paid to do something you normally wouldn't do. ...I agree with you that it's still dodgy, but this is a really stupid way to 'bribe' someone. Would have made more sense if they payed players of the other team to lose on purpose......