Luton Town goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski has conceded 20 goals in ten games. A clean sheet has proved elusive.
“It was a tough day at the office,” he recognised after Luton’s seventh loss. It is unlikely to be the last time he says that.
However, despite the fact he has yet to earn a first shutout, Kaminski is statistically the league’s best-performing shot-stopper in terms of the number of goals prevented (3.82) this season (as of October 31).
He will need another brilliant performance today if Luton are to pull off a shock result.
Earlier this year, a report shone a light on football and match-fixing. It went slightly under the radar. But it’s a genuinely big problem in world football, and the statistics in the report prove it.
The International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) says football and tennis accounted for over half of suspicious sporting incidents in the third quarter of 2023.
It tallies with incidents over the last few seasons — even at the highest levels of the game. Last year, an Arsenal player was investigated for suspicious betting patterns around a Premier League yellow card but the case was ultimately dropped.
Earlier this year, The Athletic revealed that two Europa League games had been flagged to UEFA because of suspicious betting patterns.
The Athletic spoke to three experts to explain how match-fixing works, how widespread it is, whether fans should be worried, and why football is a sport that is susceptible to itThe Liverpool superfan who has been to 1,000 consecutive matches
Tage Herstad is trying to put his devotion to Liverpool Football Club into words.
“I guess some people will think ‘what a f***ing lunatic,’” the Kop season-ticket holder laughs. But this is my passion. This is what I love to do. I can’t imagine not going to the match.”
Weddings, baptisms and confirmations are among the events which have been missed over the past 19 years in order to maintain his proud record. “Family and friends know if they invite me and it clashes with a match, then I won’t be there,” he adds.
Today will (almost certainly) be his 1,002nd game. Fair play.
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