Andy Martin - All you expect and less

Given we only have to beat teams from Oceania to get to a playoff, that is pretty much the situation at the start of our qualifying campaign...

Also, if your campaign comes down to winning away, or a score draw, and you lose two nil and are well beatne, you have not "nearly" qualified.

Honestly, what planet are these idiots on

How inscure is Hudson though!  Paranoid that Martin wanted to get rid of him, when he himself, got rid of two world cup bound U17s coaches. 

Er, when your boss asks your assistant if he'd be keen on your job its not paranoia, its common sense.

Sounds like contingency planning than trying to flick the coach.

Dag & Redbridge currently joint bottom of National League. Taylor and Hudson sure are alike alright.

And that situation only came up because Huddo and his management were linking him with almost every job that came up.

Yeah but easily taken the other way when its your livelihood. There was chat about Anfony's performance back then as well so Hudson's position there is more than reasonable - especially since Martin's talking to a man that Hudson bought in and has no other ties to NZ football. Its an unprofessional way to make a contingency plan anyway, but that's no surprise from Martin.

Perhaps/probably but ill advised given he didn't know the guy from a bar of soap and knew that he was Hudson's man. Certainly an error in judgement don't you think?

That was my thought too.  Maybe more to it though?  Dunno, all very strange including what the hell Peter Taylor's job actually was and why it is considered some sort of badge of honour worth repeating that he gave David Beckham his debut as captain.  He was caretaker for ONE GAME!  

Sure. They are both moron and useless. 

Hudson is neither a moron or useless. Martin questionable on every perceivable human quality.

Martins management style judging by his actions which are slowly coming out appears to be that of  divide and conquer

And then when it all fudges up and you get found out, retire from the throne rather than being guillotined 

The unfortunate thing is that he probably now has residence of our country by conning certain people in offering him a job  plus a nice payout to have a holiday for a year and reinvent himself again as a banker once again here in NZ

That's how it will play out

I reckon he's back here in the UK already working in the city.

So it turns out Andy nearly sold the streaming rights to a betting syndicate or something.

A company who would have onsold to betting sites for streaming. Struggling to have a problem with this. There is already nonsense betting offshore on the National League, better we bring in funds.

yeah I say so the fudge what? if the money went to nz football then all good. NZ police looking at the deal as it may have opened us up to match fixing is a stretch.

Having read that article, I think it would have been a good thing for Kiwi football.  Poor journalism from the Herald here at the way then have spun it.  Almost reads like a "The Sun" article.

I'm surprised people don't really see the implications of streaming an amateur competition overseas, which appears to be for the sole reason of providing coverage for overseas betting markets. Reckon it's pretty naive not to think that players in those competitions, who most don't earn a lot of money from football, would be approached from such betting markets. 

and you get threatening messages from some random overseas via facebook messenger to your club account when you concede a late goal in a game covered by sport365

Also it's a super backwards arse way of doing it. 

NZ Football doesn't have a streaming platform, or a streaming deal, in place. But Martin was trying to sell the streams that he doesn't have yet, for an amateur competition, to a company who'd on-sell to betting companies.

Not sure many streaming platforms, MyCujoo being one of them and the most obvious choice given their role in OFC tournaments, would be amenable to that.

Or when you get tweeted at by random accounts asking how many corners there were in an Handy Prem game you are covering. And them getting angry when replying with an obviusly fake number.

We had FOUR postponed games this season. Two cup, two league. Each time I spent 24 hours with a pinging inbox from every bugger who'd bet on the game.

I get what you're saying, but there is already nonsense money being bet on the national league from Asian betting markets. We'd be better to take the money from streaming and use it to fund NZF than the current state.

I all but guarantee that players are being approached about it now, given the sums being bet in Asia on the national league. ($30m annually)

As a Charlton supporter I'll always remember the time in the 1990's when the floodlights at the Valley suddenly went dark during the second half of a game.

Turned out that the groundsman had been bribed by an Asian betting syndicate to pull the plug on the lights when a result wasn't going their way...

The groundsman wouldn't have been on big money (Charlton had been struggling to keep afloat and were saved by community support).

Clearly amateur clubs in the Handa Premiership have to be careful about attempted influencing of games.

Me and my mates have noticed an Asian chap at English Park in the past seemingly relaying results on his cellphone throughout a game.

Yup, have seen this at Chatham cup matches as well.

Relaying results to an Asian betting organisation isn't a crime, betting on sport isn't either. It only gets sticky when players are bribed to cheat and influence results which clearly happens. However, having the money coming into the league would surely mean better money for players, better organisation and infrastructure - so can't be a bad thing.

Actually relaying betting results over the phone in order for people to place bets before odds get updated is pretty illegal. At least I was told that when I worked for the TAB. Not exactly an unbiased source.

TAB - protecting their own patch......

Isn't it called pitch siding in cricket, and banned by the ICC? 

Haven't some obvious 'pitch siders' been removed from cricket games in NZ?

All national league and NYL players get a talk on match-fixing every season, and if I remember the one I attended last year correctly, they bring this exact example up but they said it isn't exactly a crime if the bookie is outside Australasia. It's still something NZF is keen on preventing, but it's tough to do.

I imagine the TAB send someone to every Handa game, but how quickly do they get the results for things like the Central League or NRFL?

The problem with the proposed deal is that it makes that particular type of cheating harder, but it makes the league as a whole even more attractive to bet on, thus raising the risk of match fixing of all kinds. Having said that, even getting a more traditional broadcast deal in Asia would lead to the same result. I just don't buy that it's inherently grubbier to sell the streams to betting sites.

The unfortunate thing is that it is the gambling-heavy cultures in Asia and the Middle East where NZF would have to get the money from for the league to go pro. Sky isn't forking out tens of millions of dollars for the rights anytime soon, so it is going to be online gambling outfits and Asian TV where the initial funding will likely come from, followed by Asian firms paying for advertising space (Huawei Premiership, anyone?). It will never be enough money to insulate the players though, and as we've seen in Italy even earning hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars a year won't be enough to insulate some people. I think that on balance, these are the deals we will have to make to grow the game, even with the risks they pose and how grubby they might make some people feel.

Sounds like the Police have a problem with it as it is illegal and they are investigating Martin. 

I can't see how it is illegal for the CEO of a business that owns the rights to the league to explore a commerical deal to sell those rights. 

It was on the Sky programme " The Press Box" . It clearly states that the Police are investigating Martin for illegally trying to sell off the rights.

This would be typical of Martin not bothering to check out the Law.

As much as I dislike the guy - don't forget that NZP investigating does not equal that a criminal act has been committed.

It is certainly interesting that his activities have ended up on the coppers' radar but until charges are laid and upheld in court we can't and shouldn't make up our mind.

it's very interesting and I would say if the NZ police are involved where there is smoke there is fire

Important to note he was a British banker in a previous life

Quite a few of you are overstating and misrepresenting a few things. The deal isn't currently under any investigation and the concerns expressed by both Police and the PFA in the Herald article suggest the concern was more about who the other party was and the potential for organised crime to be/become involved rather than any concern that the deal itself was illegal. I'm struggling to find an angle that would suggest a crime, other than fraud on the part of the Swiss company or Martin skimming money, which hasn't been suggested by anyone.

"NZF Report finds recruitment of Andy Martin in 2014 was robust, but subsequent staff and coaching appointments were not. Some candidates describe the recruitment process as "a sham". Heraf's appointment as Football Ferns coach "did not follow best practise."

NZF say sorry:

http://www.nzfootball.co.nz/newsarticle/68801