UEFA Champions League draw pits Chelsea against Galatasaray, as predicted
Any wonder that people think these things are fixed?
A few days ago I posted this to Facebook and one of my sports lists:
“Chelsea’s possible round of 16 opponents are Bayer, Zenit, Olympiakos, Milan, and Galatasaray. Anybody want to bet me a million dollars the completely random draw slots us with Gala and former Blues icon Didier Drogba?”
Not only did nobody want to bet me, nobody so much as suggested that nah, it was only a 1-in-5 chance, and therefore unlikely to happen.
Today’s UCL draw, of course, gave us this:
Why do people think these draws are fixed? Well, when you can confidently bet the farm on a “1-in-5 chance,” people are gonna talk.
I am still trying to figure out the mechanism, though. Could be using the NBA’s old Patrick Ewing frozen ping-pong ball trick, I guess.
In any event, if Arsenal somehow make it past Bayern – big “if” there, I know – and Real take care of business with Schalke, we can commence taking bets on Mesut Özil’s triumphant return to the Bernabéu.The early line here says it’s a 100% chance.
What’s more likely, though, is that the Arse get a mudhole stomped in them, setting up a quarterfinal match between the last two UCL champions, Chelsea and Bayern. What a story, huh? What drama.
Oh well. Fixed or not we’ll have some great matches to watch. And that’s what the sports entertainment industry is all about, no?
lullaby pit 
Most things are fixed these days. This is what happens under socialism/communism. Matches get fixed, people get silenced, most look the other way and shrug their shoulders. Very sad that real success counts for nothing these days.