The Collapse Of The Berlin Wall And The Building Of A Hoff Haus

The pre-Christmas round of matches have been ripe for matchfixing for two decades - rogue referees, linked teams, agreed seasonal points distribution and teams with minimal motivation make for corruption in our non-regulated football family.

Yesterday's match in the German Bundesliga between Hertha BSC and Hoffenheim was economic with integrity.

In the three hours leading up to kick off there was a huge (and seemingly co-ordinated) global gamble on the Bavarians. The epicentre of this market landslide was South East Asia.

Hoffenheim won 5-0 after receiving two penalties and a crazy own goal in the opening 39 minutes.
John Anthony Brooks both gave away the first penalty and scored the opening own goal in a performance Kicker magazine termed "vorweihnachtlicher Albtraum" (a pre-Christmas nightmare).
While the same website suggests that referee Peter Sippel "machte eine unglückliche Figur" (made an unhappy figure).

And some teams are worthy of a Timeform squiggle in any case...

If the DFB and Europol do not investigate this 'match' then the English Disease is going to spread further into the German game as it will be seen that the historical checks and balances against matchfixing (post-Hoyzer) are no longer robust.