18-Feb-07. An offer athletes simply can’t refuse. Edmonton Journal, C1.

Michael Franzese, a former captain in New York’s Colombo crime family explains how he and his associates fixed sporting events by demanding athletes with gambling debts ensure that their teams won by only a certain number of points. Franzese spent seven years in prison for racketeering but has now turned his life around and talks to athletes about the perils of gambling. Match-fixing is reportedly still going on at the U.S. college level and there have also been a number of recent high-profile scandals in professional Italian and Brazilian soccer leagues.