An open letter to Europol: extend your investigation to West Ham United

Dear Europol

Having read about your investigations into match fixing, I have some information that may be of interest to you. I understand that the allegations do not currently involve any English teams, but I have reason to believe that during the 2010/11 season, West Ham United deliberately tried to lose matches.

My suspicions were first aroused when the board appointed Avram Grant as manager. Grant’s previous club Portsmouth had just been relegated and while in charge at Chelsea, who at that time were winning trophies for fun, he won nothing. Only a club with a strong desire to lose football matches would have made such an appointment.

At Christmas, the plan seemed to be working perfectly. The team had only won two league games, thanks largely to Grant’s knack of selecting very bad players: Herita Ilunga, Radsolav Kovac, Luis Boa Morte, Tal Ben Haim and Benni McCarthy amongst others. Players such as James Tomkins who began to show potential were quickly removed from the team.

On New Years Day, the unthinkable happened, when West Ham beat Wolverhampton Wanderers by two clear goals. Panic set in. West Ham needed to start losing again – and fast. They did what anyone else in this situation would have done: they signed Wayne Bridge.

The genius behind this deal was that West Ham paid Bridge’s £90,000 a week wages, so from the outside it appeared as though the club were recruiting a genuinely good player. In reality, Bridge was a very bad footballer, to whom marking was an alien concept. This acquisition quickly paid dividends. On his debut, he was instrumental in a 3-1 defeat to Arsenal.

Another seemingly clever signing was that of Demba Ba, who had a history of knee problems to the point where Stoke City had turned down the chance to sign him. It was a strange signing, given that Carlton Cole was already playing an important role in the club’s strategy, but even he was prone to scoring every now and then.

Presumably the hope was that Ba’s dodgy knees would prevent him from scoring at all. But the signing backfired spectacularly. Ba scored in every other game. In a match against Wigan in May he scored both goals to put West Ham two nil up. There would have been some serious concern at half time, but there needn’t have been. With Jonathan Spector and Zavon Hines in the team defeat was never far away. West Ham lost 3-2.

I think the evidence is pretty damning, but naturally you will want to watch some of the matches yourself to see just how pathetically the team played. I would particularly recommend the 5-0 defeat to Newcastle in which Leon Best scored a hat-trick. I repeat: Leon Best scored a hat-trick. You may also want to look at the 3-0 home defeat to Sunderland, the 3-1 home defeat to Bolton Wanderers and the first half of the 3-0 defeat to Liverpool.

Matches in which leads were surrendered - Birmingham City (away), Manchester United (home), Aston Villa (home), Everton (away), West Brom (home), Wigan (away), Newcastle United (home) - illustrate clearly that this was a team that was made to lose.

Please let me know if you need anything further.

Yours faithfully

@OnWestHam