Download The Big Fix: The Hunt for the Match-Fixers Bringing Down Soccer AudioBook Free
Can the most favorite sport in the world beat the problem that threatens to rip it aside? Known as the "beautiful game", sports is the world's most popular sport, crossing edges and language obstacles to entertain billions. But beneath it all - the raucous supporters in the stadiums; the favorite players; and FIFA, the international governing body with a membership of 209 nationwide associations - is a scandal that threatens to make sports the ugliest sport in the world. An underworld of international playing wedding rings, corrupt players and officers, and shadowy information preys on the far-flung edges of the game, making match-fixing in sports one of sorted out crime's new, profitable businesses. Now, for the first time, journalist Brett Forrest takes us inside the $700 billion international sports bets market. Forrest pulls back the curtain, exposing an internet of nefarious dealings across the world, even on U.S. ground, with opportunistic fixers bribing players, influencing officers, and staging artificial matchups, while Asian criminal syndicates move the strings. No match is safe - not the World Glass competition - especially while local law-enforcement officers lack the resources and the will to research. But one man has taken on this criminal business: Chris Eaton, a hardheaded Australian, longtime Interpol director, and the past brain of security for FIFA. Forrest uses Eaton's voyage from local beat cop to FIFA's security chief for the 2010 World Glass in South Africa. Filled up with headline-making revelations, The Big Fix is a must-hear for sports supporters and true-crime aficionados. The storyline brings us inside Chris Eaton's hunt for the world's biggest fixers and their backers - from the roots of fixing in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, to FIFA headquarters in Zurich and World Glass preparation in South Africa and Qatar, to fixing's extension into nearly every country in the world - and the fight to save the stunning game.
