The Murdoch goons at the Super Soaraway Currant Bun are once again in the spotlight, and, not for the first time, for all the wrong reasons, after a sponsorship and betting stunt involving Sutton United FC and their stand-in goalkeeper Wayne Shaw not only went horribly wrong, but was seen to go horribly wrong. Alleged editor Tony Gallagher once again showed that he was exercising little control over his unprincipled rabble.
There was rather more than just today’s front page splash proclaiming “Sutton Roly-Poly Goalie Axed … Fury as keeper sacked over snack … Cup novelty bet sparks OTT probe … HUNG OUT TO PIE”. Laugh? I thought I’d never start. The reality is more prosaic.
Sutton United had reached the last 16 of the FA Cup. For their match against Premier League Arsenal, Sun Bet sponsored them, and then the cheap and nasty stories about Shaw began, starting with “Sutton goalkeeper Wayne Shaw is famed for his red hot ‘Roly-Poly Goalie’ chilli sauce and has had offers to do a NAKED PHOTOSHOOT” which also mentioned “Shaw’s been given odds of 8/1 with Sun Bets to be seen on TV eating a pie!”
Just remember that line: after the match, which Sutton sadly lost, Sun readers were then told “Sutton reserve keeper Wayne Shaw chomps a pie gives two fingers up to the modern footballer’s lean diet”. But then Shaw departed the club, with the Sun admitting “A betting row erupted as a result of the incident and manager Paul Doswell confirmed Shaw’s departure on Tuesday afternoon”. It seems Shaw’s pals bet on him. Whoops!
Guess who's empathising with pie-eating?
And there is an investigation going on into the whole affair, prompting the Sun to demand that everyone Look Over There: “Celebs lead fans demanding Sutton keeper Wayne Shaw get his job back as he’s SACKED by club for eating a pie in the dugout thanks to OTT novelty bet probe after club’s Arsenal heroics”. But FA rules BAN players betting.
The Murdoch mafiosi are adamant, though, and have signposted a “Piegate Petition”. So who is the enterprising person starting this one? To no surprise at all, it has been started by the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog, just to showcase (a) Staines’ sheer shamelessness - nobody embodies the phrase “who ate all the pies” quite like The Great Guido - and (b) the still very close relationship between the Fawkes gang and the inmates of the Baby Shard bunker.
Also not told by the Fawkes rabble, but put directly by the Tweeter known as Sun Apology, is “That footage of Sutton Utd sub Wayne Shaw eating a pie wasn't all it seemed. It was a grubby PR stunt set up by The Sun. Shame on them both”. And MediaWatch has put it yet more directly: “If Mediawatch weren’t so disgusted by The Sun’s deliberate obfuscation of the facts, we would be amused by their use of the words ‘novelty bet’ on the front page. Because of course ‘novelty bets’ are placed by ‘novelty gamblers’ who can win or lose ‘novelty money’ … The Sun are right to say that Shaw has been ‘HUNG OUT TO PIE’. They’re just wrong about the identity of the executioners”.
The Great Guido is so desperate to be thrown a biscuit by the Murdoch mafiosi that he and his rabble are willing to participate in this sham. As for some of those well-known faces who have also been pitching in, well, I’ll deal with you later. Another fine mess.
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S*nbets is Rebekah’s baby as The Australian Business review reported:
News Corporation’s United Kingdom division will partner with ASX-listed Tabcorp Holdings in a new online wagering and gaming business. The new group, known as Sun Bets, will launch in 2016 and focus on the UK and Irish markets.
“This deal with Tabcorp marks a pivotal moment in the digital transformation of the company, creating a world-class online sports book that will engage and entertain the betting public in the inimitable style of The Sun,” News UK chief executive Rebekah Brooks said.
If this stunt was ‘world class’ it just shows how utterly devoid of ideas this vacuous creature really is. As usual with the Murdoch snakes it is the little people who ultimately pay the price.
"But FA rules BAN players betting"
Agree with the general tone of the article, and certainly Sunbets don't come out of it well. But neither does a lot of other organizations! The club have sacked a loyal servant (who slept at the club for 3 nights a week in order to help out for crying out loud!) for the tiniest of indiscretions, which caused nobody any harm or damaged the game in any shape whatsoever. The Gambling Commission (a contender for the most clueless organization ever) have launched an investigation, not into who was laying the Gold Cup favourite for huge sums of risk free cash shortly before it was announced that it wouldn't take part!) but into an incident where the bookmaker involved was quite happy to pay out a relatively small amount of money in return for a lot of publicity and people won as a result. Now which do you think merits their attention?
Herein lies the whole ludicrousness of the episode:
Once Wayne Shaw was informed of the bet, he would have been in breach of these ridiculous rules WHETHER OR NOT he ate the pie! As his decision on eating the said snack would have "influenced" the outcome of the bets (obviously positively or negatively!)
And never mind the fact that his club were quite happy to take the sponsorship money off the bookie in question!
To take an even more ridiculous example, let us say a penalty is awarded. If I am at the game and shout before it's taken "Please score this, I've got £20 on it" then if the player scores, (or even if he doesn't!) he again has "influenced" the bet one way or the other, and is in breach of the rules!
It's such an abysmally stupid rule that I'm in the unusual position of actually defending the Sun on this, which I am absolutely loathe to do :-(
You would have thought Sutton United FC would have had more discretion than to accept sponsorship from any part of the Murdoch Fake News organisation and its tory clerks, given football and other events elsewhere.
But truth (let alone "discretion") isn't something identified with anything Murdoch related.
As for the fat goalie, it looks like he's had more than pies from Murdoch and co. Which means I haven't the slightest sympathy for him or his type. I hope the next pie sticks in his Sarf Lahndan gullet.
So this is an 'OTT probe' yet the very same organisation famously ran stings on snooker and cricket players. Sure, a fat geezer eating a pie is a million miles from (alleged) spot/match fixing but at the end of the day both involve deliberate manipulation of betting markets so in that respect there is no difference. But then we all know The Sun's stance on hypocrisy.
Get it right, Clifford. It's 'Saaaf Landin', chook, loov, hinny, wack, pal (continue until all regional clichés are exhausted).
Alan Clifford, he's from Southampton.
I quite enjoyed reading the comments on this blog when you previously fucked off, Clifford - how about you crawl back under your rock and fuck off again? Only this time make it permanent, eh? There's a good troll.
He did not eat a "pie" but a oggie (pasty to those over the border from Cornwall) so does that make the bet null and void?
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