The Ulf Rönnmark saga

The Ulf Rönnmark saga has taken another odd turn. This time Ulf Rönnmark himself feels he will be completely vindicated from taking a job with expect.com, a sports betting firm. He may in fact be right, since who knows what information he hasö he claims he has certain information that he cannot reveal at this time which will get him his job back immediately.

The odd thing is Ulf Rönnmark see nothing wrong with what he has done and claims it is impossible for him to influence the outcome of games. This I find remarkable. First of all, the appearance of a conflict of interest should obviously be seen by Rönnmark. I am incredulous at his claim that he cannot influence the outcome of games, as if it was beyond his control. This is just not true. Calling two hooking penalties in a row will most likely result in a goal with the current parity in the league, so he could easily effect the outcome of games. The officiating is somewhat inconsistent in the Elitserien anyway and a poorly officiated game would not raise eyebrows.

Still, even if Rönnmark does not come back, there is so much gambling in European sports that this should be considered a wake-up call. Recently an entire Finnish soccer team was essentially under Chinese bookmaker's control since they bought the team and changed management then crafted the team to loose by a wide margin. There have been gambling scandals involving officials from France and Germany and anyone who thinks that the Swedes have some "probity" gene is smoking crack, look at their reliance on assuarances against torture from the Egyptians.

The sad thing about this all is that it diminishes the players acheivement and ruins the integrity of the game. The Swedish authorities ought to start looking into this to protect the sport in Sweden.