fulham's bobby zamora: found his feet and found the net to completely change their europa cup tie at wolfsburg

Is there anything that can be done about the constant lying of managers – it is really starting to infringe on the betting public’s decision making.

Last night, Roy Hodgson’s little white lie about the state of readiness of his striker, Bobby Zamora, became the second time in a week that a manager in Europe has directly lied about who will be in the team for any given match. Hodgson directly stated that bobby Zamora was unlikely to play, and then went about explaining how his side would play in a pre-match conference.

Zamora than promptly played and, more tellingly, scored after just 21 seconds, effectively rendering the tie which was in the balance a huge uphill struggle for Wolfsburg. Admittedly, it was an uphill struggle they could not manage, but their game plan (and those that backed the Germans) was in tatters.

A similar bit of kidology cost Man Utd dear during the week. Sir Alex Ferguson was suggesting that Wayne Rooney was out for at least a couple of weeks after his ankle damage in the first leg against Bayern Munich. But, lo and behold, there he was (gloves and all) in the starting line-up.

Many punters would have been shocked to find him there. Millions was punted on the Germans (correctly or incorrectly) on the basis that Rooney’s non-appearance was a severe handicap. Can you imagine a horse race just about to start and a Derby winner appears in the stalls?

A silly idea, maybe, but football must start to address the fact that, like horse racing it is now enthrall to gambling money. A number of football teams across the world, but particularly in the biggest football market, the Premier League, are sponsored by betting companies.

Football talks about the corrupt practises of gamblers, but while it holds the industry at arms length it will find it has very little control over it. And when punters lose money because it is unable or unwilling to censure managers of its football club, it makes a very influential enemy indeed.

What I would like to see is a more formal arrangement between the betting industry and football. If a betting company wants to carry bets on a competition, it should be sold a licence. Obviously the Premier League will be worth much more than the Unibond Leagues, but every league will have its price.

Then, in return, the betting industry, gets guarantees about the accuracies of results, any football club (or its employees) found to have been coerced into cheating will have to pay remuneration to the bookies (which will pass it on to punters). And, team sheets must be posted (similar to rugby union) at least 24 hours before kick-off.

As we have seen, tactically, it can go both ways so the advantage of keeping your team quiet is minimal (especially when you see the general lack of intelligence of football managers). Changes can be made for late injuries (like rugby and horse racing) but you cannot include anyone who has already been discounted from punters plans at the last minute.

That way we may just have a level playing field.