Michael Laudrup's comments this morning

[The Godfather]

"If Swansea play the last game against a team and a third team pays Swansea to win the game, I really don't see anything bad about that."

In my view, this is an outrageous comment. Hypothetically speaking, let's say Southampton and Reading are in a relegation battle and it goes down to the last day of the campaign. Swansea play Southampton, whilst Stoke play Reading. Reading agree to pay Swansea a huge bonus if they win, but Southampton can't afford to pay Stoke anywhere near that amount of money. Surely this gives Reading a huge advantage?

[MattyRangers]

In the petulant world we now live in surely he will be facing some kinda of FA action for such comments?

[The Godfather]

You'd think so, but I've always thought that the media and football governing bodies seem biased in favour of Welsh teams. Can you imagine if Hughes had said this? There'd be an uproar. But I've only seen this story reported on the BBC so far and it's not even the top headline.

[QPRWEBBIE]

Am i right in saying that Gianni joined them last week as an advisor

[Will M]

What if the third team pay Swansea to win and they lost though? Would Laudrup get his legs broken?

[Kimimar0]

I actually think he is talking a lot of sense, a lot of teams go into last game with nothing to play for against a team who has everything to play for, you talk about it being unfair but you can put a cap on the maximum bonus.

Scrap that idea, league wide win bonuses on the last day of the season, so every team has at least some money to play for, and make it reasonally sizeable like £1M for winning team.

[Del]

I think the point he was making is that any team should be doing everything in their power to win matches anyway, they are professional and have an obligation to paying fans and sponsors. Therefore, he can't see anything wrong wiht a team offering them money to win, as it shouldn't change their approach to the game at all.

If they offered them money to lose, thats'a whole different ball game, obviously....

[Bigears]

As soon as you start allowing any kind of payment to help determine the result of a match the game is finished. As you will breach the integratiy of football, the players, owners and coaches because it will open the gates for corruption at the highest order.

With clever defence lawyers it will be impossible to prove a payment was made to lose a match, when is all they need to say is the money was to win.

The day they do this will be the day the football dies .............

To me this is a comment that someone has not thought through.

[Kit]

I think the point he was making is that any team should be doing everything in their power to win matches anyway, they are professional and have an obligation to paying fans and sponsors. Therefore, he can't see anything wrong wiht a team offering them money to win, as it shouldn't change their approach to the game at all.

If they offered them money to lose, thats'a whole different ball game, obviously....

Its bribery whatever way you look at it.......and highlights everything that is wrong in football these days.

[Hove Ranger]

been going on in Spain for years. Dont have a problem with it personally but i can see how others disagree with it. It gives the team with not much to play for an incentive to win. Instead of maybe playing a couple of youngsters to get them ready for next season, it ensures that team puts out their strongest side!!

[DeepcutHoop]

I think the point he was making is that any team should be doing everything in their power to win matches anyway, they are professional and have an obligation to paying fans and sponsors. Therefore, he can't see anything wrong wiht a team offering them money to win, as it shouldn't change their approach to the game at all.

If they offered them money to lose, thats'a whole different ball game, obviously....

Agreed. Ill-judged comment to make though, as it will be pounced on.

As it has been here.