Many blame the betting industry, which offers wagers on not just the outcomes of contests, but also on virtually random events within them, such as the number of yellow cards issued in a football match, or the number of no-balls bowled during an innings in cricket.
New Zealand skipper Ryan Nelsen, who plays for Blackburn, paid tribute to the 35, 100 fans in Wellington - a record for a football match in the country.
Dozens of people were arrested after police in riot gear were deployed ahead of a football match in Nuneaton.
The potential uses are mind-boggling: in one notorious example, viewers of a football match in Greece saw giant spray-cans of deodorant hovering over the pitch.
Content and information on all aspects of the game and players involved will be housed in a new 'Football Match Centre' area within the Sky Sports for iPad app, which is available at no extra cost to Sky Sports customers.
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Once the action is underway the crowd is kept in darkness, similar to watching a football match under floodlights, but they are kept in touch with match statistics and disputed line call replays on a giant four-sided screen above the court.
This Saturday's crowd at the Westpac Stadium in Wellington will easily break the record for a football match in New Zealand.
In August, a memorial football match was held in Cardiff in his honour when his old team, Llanrumney FC, reunited and his brother took his captain role.
In Zimbabwe , 13 people died in a stampede at a football match against South Africa after police fired tear gas into the stadium.
Ill-feeling between Egypt and Algeria rose in the aftermath of the Algerian football team's victory in a qualification match for next year's World Cup.
No longer would fans go to a football match in fear of their lives.
More than 80 people arrested for violent disorder before a football match in Nuneaton have been released on bail.
The most recent cause was a football match in October between the bitter Glasgow rivals, Rangers (mainly Protestant) and Celtic (mainly Catholic).
In football games or a boxing match, it's usually pretty obvious.
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Mr Kidwai was one of a number of Aamir's friends who organised a football match in honour of the sport-mad teenager in the period after his death.
Mr Thomson told jurors Mr Lock accepted he had caused the woman harm, but compared the situation to a football match in which all parties have agreed to take part.
Kommersant (a liberal daily newspaper) says it will be a stimulus for modernising football facilities in a culture characterised by toleration of match fixing.
Defence Minister Andrew Murrison said a football match was "a no-brainer in terms of an event that is going to reach part of the community that perhaps might not get terribly entrenched into this".
The three men were in Singapore to referee a match organized by the Asian Football Confederation when they were brought in for questioning, and "are currently assisting" investigations, the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau said in a statement on Wednesday.
Both the BBC and the website of the Guardian newspaper in the UK soon picked up the baton, and the Guardian in particular cultivated a unique tone and community among its sportswriters and readers, who pore over every minute of a football match or cricket games in over-by-over mini-reports.
They are in Azerbaijan to watch a Europa League football match - and happily pose for photos with Iran as their backdrop.
Meanwhile, Mrs Buffet has lost face by her embarrassing inability at a recent football match in Paris between France and Algeria to silence the whistles that greeted the French national anthem.
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Galeano, perhaps writing as a native of a country whose World Cup glories belong in a distant golden age, would surely appreciate the therapeutic qualities of a great football match.
But the gung-ho 33-year-old appears undeterred as she takes 'My Africa Is' to a Nigeria vs Argentina football match in the capital Abuja.
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The day's events kicked off on Monday afternoon with a pro-celebrity football match in the Blanchflower Stadium on the Holywood Road in Belfast.
His comments come the day after Abad was shot dead while on his way to a football match with his son in the city of Zaragoza on Sunday.
He could also receive a retrospective punishment from the English Football Association for a dangerous tackle on Alex Song earlier in the game which match officials failed to see.
Founded in 1994, China's first professional football league boomed in its early years until fans fell away after a match-fixing and gambling scandal.
The Turin club were demoted for their part in a match-fixing scandal that rocked Italian football.
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The Belgium-based forward was asked to pick up his visa and ticket for a match in Asia yet felt the Ghana Football Association (GFA) could have done more to help.
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