Doubt many on here would have heard of Athlone Town been bumping around the bottom of the League Of Ireland since its inception in 1922 (apart from one golden period in early 80's) and havent played in the top flight since 1996, last year with a part-time side they finished in the bottom half of the 2nd division in front of crowds of 200-300 people.
So people were a bit baffled to say the least when an anonymous Portuguese backer came in and bought the club wiping its €500,000 debt off in the process, things got a bit more weird as a Portuguese Manager and coach were brought in alongside players from Portugal, Latvia and Uruguay, nobody anyone would have heard off and again weirdly no better then what they already had. (I know it sounds like us and Mendes)
UEFA quickly notified FAI that the betting patterns of games involving Athlone since the start of the season (in March) were a bit odd, plus the amount of money placed on a second tier LOI games were a good bit more then you would expect. Things came out into the open this week, when they played Longford Town, usually late in the game the odds of another goal increase as time goes on as obviously there is less time to score one, but for this game the odds in the last 10 minutes (Longford were winning 2-1) of Longford scoring again plummeted with 6 figures sums being placed in the Asian markets on another goal being scored, well surprise surprise in the 87th Minute that's what happened.
That was the most blatant bet but also big money on Longford winning by at least 2 goals, 2 goals in the first half and at least 4 goals in the match.
Shit has hit the fan but doubt those who took a lot of time to put things in place will get caught.
