Heineken Cup Semi-Final Draw

redmca2

Did anyone else see the Heineken Cup Semi-Final Draw live yesterday?

Maybe it's just me but of the 12 possible outcomes of the draw, lo and behold the one that best suits France, the sponsors and the ERC just happened to emerge from a closed (i.e we couldn't see inside it) tombola box!!! There were 4 yellow balls inside with the names but there was no way of being sure that they were all radomly mixing about out of our sight. I wish I could have bet on the outcome at 12 to 1.

I have little doubt that the organisers were determined to avoid having 2 Irish teams in the final, a bit like Murrayfield a few years ago where 2 French teams met in the final. And I have little doubt that they rigged the whole charade.


The least they could have done is make that box fully transparent so we could see the draw was above board. To me the outcome is simply too convenient the organisers.

Podge_irl

The final is already sold out and besides, having two Irish teams in the final would be nowhere near as bad as two French teams supporter wise.

On top of that, it's slightly debatable that this is the best outcome. Its still possible for there to be no French teams in the final for example. An all French semi would conceivably have been a better idea - which would have left Clermont on the other side of the draw who are well capable of going all the way anyway.

I guess my point is - It wasn't rigged.

Riskymove

Constructive first post:pac:

1.

I have little doubt that the organisers were determined to avoid having 2 Irish teams in the final

they did a bad job of the "rigging" so


2.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Conspiracy Theory Forum

Sangre

Heineken can't advertise on French TV. Certainly not in their interests to have an all French final.

buck65

Actually the 3 strongest French teams are on the same side of the draw. Biarritz would do well to beat the Ospreys and the winners of NH and Munster. Munster actually have the easier path to the final. Clermont are a serious team and Toulouse (who I expect to beat Stade) at home in a semi would be a tough one too for Leinster.
If the ERC were trying to fix it I reckon Toulouse and Clermont would have been seperated. No complaints from me.

Riskymove

see attached

Credit: Valencia at Munsterfans

Spiritoftheseventies

redmca2 wrote: »

Did anyone else see the Heineken Cup Semi-Final Draw live yesterday?

Maybe it's just me but of the 12 possible outcomes of the draw, lo and behold the one that best suits France, the sponsors and the ERC just happened to emerge from a closed (i.e we couldn't see inside it) tombola box!!! There were 4 yellow balls inside with the names but there was no way of being sure that they were all radomly mixing about out of our sight. I wish I could have bet on the outcome at 12 to 1.

I have little doubt that the organisers were determined to avoid having 2 Irish teams in the final, a bit like Murrayfield a few years ago where 2 French teams met in the final. And I have little doubt that they rigged the whole charade.


The least they could have done is make that box fully transparent so we could see the draw was above board. To me the outcome is simply too convenient the organisers.

wasnt that draw based on strength of group finishes?

redmca2

Spiritoftheseventies wrote: »

wasnt that draw based on strength of group finishes?

No .... the QF draw only is entirely on merit in the pool stages.
The Semis are based on a so-called random draw including home & away allocations. My point is that the outcome was a long way from random.

Podge_irl

redmca2 wrote: »

My point is that the outcome was a long way from random.

They did a **** job of rigging it so. The three strongest French teams are on the same side of the draw.

buck65

Podge_irl wrote: »

They did a **** job of rigging it so. The three strongest French teams are on the same side of the draw.

Along with the previous winner and strongest team in the tournament!
As a Munsterman I am delighted with our side of it. Sure there are 3 great teams but not as good as the other side.

Podge_irl

buck65 wrote: »

As a Munsterman I am delighted with our side of it. Sure there are 3 great teams but not as good as the other side.

I'd certainly be laying money on Munster a long, long time before I'd do so on Leinster. They'd want to improve to get past Biarritz away though.

Ciaran-Irl

redmca2 wrote: »

No .... the QF draw only is entirely on merit in the pool stages.
The Semis are based on a so-called random draw including home & away allocations. My point is that the outcome was a long way from random.

Argh. I keep hearing people say it was rigged and it is the stupidest thing ever. I swore I would stop dignifying this madness with a response, but I will anyway.

1. Heineken cannot advertise in France so this is the worst possible outcome that the sponsors could have hoped for.

2. If you want the Irish teams eliminated, they would be on one side.

3. Nothing happened in the draw that was statistically significant. "A long way from random" - what was??? Each of Leinster and Munster had a 50/50 chance of being away fro the semi. You can't possibly think that is "far from random".

That is the same as if I rolled two dice and I didn't want to see a 4, 5 or 6, and then being amazed that BOTH dice had a 4, 5 or 6. FIXED!!!

That's simply crazy.

On another forum someone was saying, "It is fixed. I guarantee the Irish teams will meet in the semi" or "It is fixed, the French teams will all be on one side". Then they were wrong but all exclaimed, "LOOK, I KNEW IT WOULD BE FIXED! (even though it was impossible to not be wrong on the second point).

Is the only evidence that you have that this isn't perfect for Leinster and Munster? Anything less than the perfect draw for the Irish teams means it must be fixed?! The other evidence is "the box they drew the balls from was not clear"? That is evidence now, is it?

On the other side of the fence, the evidence saying this is a stupid theory:

1. If the truth of match fixing got out, Heineken's brand would be damaged severely and they would sue for millions. Heiniken would pull out as sponsors and the competition would possibly fail forever.

2. The entire game would be brought into disrepute, and all the millions spent on marketing would be wasted. Again, the entire HEC would probably fail forever.

3. This would contravene the rules of the competition.

4. Sky would withhold money because match fixing breaks their contracts.

5. There are hundreds of thousands of vested parties, including thousands of journalists and media people who could find this out with just the slightest leak. The assumption is that the people on this thread have noticed something that all the journalists, players and staff employed by dozens of clubs missed. That the people on this thread are genius investigators and everyone else in EVERY club is blind to the obvious.

Nobody noticed this truth. Not one journalist. Just bloggers.

All the millions that are at stake, and they risk it all for what exactly?

THEY (whoever that might be) want to make the Irish teams lose.

Super theory.

thomond2006

Ciaran-Irl wrote: »

Argh. I keep hearing people say it was rigged and it is the stupidest thing ever. I swore I would stop dignifying this madness with a response, but I will anyway.

1. Heineken cannot advertise in France so this is the worst possible outcome that the sponsors could have hoped for.

2. If you want the Irish teams eliminated, they would be on one side.

3. Nothing happened in the draw that was statistically significant. "A long way from random" - what was??? Each of Leinster and Munster had a 50/50 chance of being away fro the semi. You can't possibly think that is "far from random".

That is the same as if I rolled two dice and I didn't want to see a 4, 5 or 6, and then being amazed that BOTH dice had a 4, 5 or 6. FIXED!!!

That's simply crazy.

On another forum someone was saying, "It is fixed. I guarantee the Irish teams will meet in the semi" or "It is fixed, the French teams will all be on one side". Then they were wrong but all exclaimed, "LOOK, I KNEW IT WOULD BE FIXED! (even though it was impossible to not be wrong on the second point).

Is the only evidence that you have that this isn't perfect for Leinster and Munster? Anything less than the perfect draw for the Irish teams means it must be fixed?! The other evidence is "the box they drew the balls from was not clear"? That is evidence now, is it?

On the other side of the fence, the evidence saying this is a stupid theory:

1. If the truth of match fixing got out, Heineken's brand would be damaged severely and they would sue for millions. Heiniken would pull out as sponsors and the competition would possibly fail forever.

2. The entire game would be brought into disrepute, and all the millions spent on marketing would be wasted. Again, the entire HEC would probably fail forever.

3. This would contravene the rules of the competition.

4. Sky would withhold money because match fixing breaks their contracts.

5. There are hundreds of thousands of vested parties, including thousands of journalists and media people who could find this out with just the slightest leak. The assumption is that the people on this thread have noticed something that all the journalists, players and staff employed by dozens of clubs missed. That the people on this thread are genius investigators and everyone else in EVERY club is blind to the obvious.

Nobody noticed this truth. Not one journalist. Just bloggers.

All the millions that are at stake, and they risk it all for what exactly?

THEY (whoever that might be) want to make the Irish teams lose.

Super theory.

I think Post of the Year 2010 has been settled.

PhatPiggins

Podge_irl wrote: »

They did a **** job of rigging it so. The three strongest French teams are on the same side of the draw.

I dont see how they could have made it any easier with two home semis. Put Clermont on the other side of the draw and Munster come over. Both Leinster and Munster can beat Toulouse in a neutral stadium.All speculation of course.

Biarritz are a stronger team then the current Stade model imo.

PhatPiggins

thomond2006 wrote: »

I think Post of the Year 2010 has been settled.

Yeah right, size=everything will no doubt nominate himself again for one of his 5,550 posts on why Sexton>ROG

siltirocker

PhatPiggins wrote: »

Yeah right, size=everything will no doubt nominate himself again for one of his 5,550 posts on why Sexton>ROG

haha! :pac:

Ciaran-Irl

thomond2006 wrote: »

I think Post of the Year 2010 has been settled.

Haha. That was a bit of a rant I guess.