Nobody Enters League One Team's Raffle; Team Makes Up Fake Winner, Gets Caught

Chesterfield FC, a soccer team currently toiling away in England’s third tier, thought it would be a good idea to invite its fans to participate in a raffle, the winner of which would get to join the team on a preseason tour of Hungary. It turned out to be a very, very bad idea.

According to a statement released by the club’s director, only four people actually bothered to enter the raffle. An embarrassing turn of events, to be sure, but not exactly a scandal. In that very same statement, though, Chesterfield’s director made vague reference to chicanery:

Following a recent unsuccessful supporters’ competition and subsequent misleading outcome of the activity, a full review of communications and marketing procedures has been actioned.

I have discovered that a winning entry was not legitimate and the information supplied to the club’s communications department had clearly been falsified with regards to the winner of a place at the pre-season training camp.

Wait, so the raffle only had four entrants, and then somehow fraud was committed? What the hell is going on here? Luckily, a dedicated Chesterfield FC supporter has put together a convincing theory:

This is certainly one of the biggest sports scandals of the year, and will remain a black eye on the face of English football for decades to come.

Photo via AP

[ The Guardian]