Corruption In Soccer

Introduction of Corruption in Soccer

Discuss about the Corruption in Soccer.

Football started its journey as a professional sport under the umbrella of FIFA. Fifa or The Fédération Internationale de Football Association, the international governing body of football started its journey on 21 May 1904.  Seven footballing associations signed up for the foundation act of FIFA. The authorized representatives were from France, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland (Gabbe, 2013). Today, the FIFA controls the world football and its entire tournament that is played around the world. Currently, FIFA has 211 members who are under the guidance of this governing body.

As money flooded in, so did corruption. In all the recent years the transparency of FIFA was under question in many occasions. In the past Fifa had already faced such rumors of misconduct. Presidents Blatter’s first election in 1998 and his consecutive rise in power for the second time had fuelled the allegations of corruption and bribery. In 2006, Jack Warner, the chairman of CONCACAF, was banned by Fifa’s ethical committee (McCormick, 2013). The Ernest and Young audit report declared that Warner had earned millions of dollars by selling World Cup tickets in Trinidad. In the following years, Fifa president Bin Hamam was suspended after he was alleged of bribing 40000 USD to buy the votes of the Caribbean officials.  The suspension was enacted on May 29 (Miller, 2014). Even, the voting session of selection of hosting nations of World Cup 2018 and 2022 were under question. Despite of poor weather and infrastructural facility Qatar was awarded the responsibility of hosting the 2022. Qatar is a small country and already has issues with labor and other such problems (Gabbe, 2013).

Football’s integrity as an international sport has under questions through various types of corruptions associated with it. There were corrupt officials trying to sell their valuable votes in FIFA (Cleland, 2016). The match officials or referees charged with allegation of match fixing. Players or officials were found to have connections with underworld or drug cartels. Added to them isnegligence of officials towards humanistic values which they overlooked many a times in order to make profit for the organization (Gabbe, 2013). The spirit of the game has been hurt in almost all the cases. The following sections would discuss various types of corruption associated with the game of football.

Football currently is a multi-million dollar sports event considering the World Cup and famous club competitions around the world. Though betting is illegal in some countries, there is easy gambling options available round the internet which any one can access. Friendly betting or mere gambling over football matches or between favorite teams means no harm (Guskiewicz, 2013). But, when influential people try to manipulate the officials or natural flow of the match it becomes a real menace. BBC’s report on gambling has revealed that the industry earns 70 percent of its turnover from football itself. The yearly outcome of gambling industry is currently around 500 billion pounds a year. It clearly indicates the degree of which the money is poured indirectly for any game or match of football (Homburg, 2010). Though only 70 percent of the total yearly outcome is from football, still the amount remains lump-sum.In past few incidents, gambling had affected player’s career (Smith, 2013).Eidur Gudjohnsen was one such top listed player who was addicted to gambling. He himself mentions that he had taken up the habit as a time-pass during the injury and recovery sessions. Later he became highly addicted to it .The Independent had brought out an interesting issue on players underperforming due gambling. In the report experts suggested that players gamble in order to get rid of the boredom, mostly in case of away games or training sessions. In the long run most people get addicted to it which affects their form in the pitch (Rose-Ackerman, 2015). This situation increased more when gambling was available on line through any mobile devices including pc or laptop. A research was conducted on the issue on behalf of Professional Players Federation. The result shows that most of the players chose to gamble through online for sports, horse racing or at casinos. The other big name in the list was Michael Chopra who had been found to be betting since age of 17 (Wilson, 2014). He was even recorded to have received threats from the loan sharks in the business. His career was threatened by huge debts. The report suggested further that the huge burden of indebt money caused the players to lose concentration and hence the issue is shown in the game itself.

Types of Corruption

To bring a solution to the problem of gambling Interpol and FIFA announced a joint initiative of ten years. Its aim is to train people and arouse ideas about the risks involved and the ill-effects of gambling. The education would be imparted through conference, workshops and online tutorials.

Initially the question may arise, if football is really contaminated with doping? The answer might be a no, because there isn’t so much stir about this fact in the news or reports.But, the reality is different.The use of PED or performance enhancement drugs, growth hormones, etc. are all commonly used in the world of sports (Bean, 2015). Football is also not lacking behind. But there were reports of star players being spotted at doping clinics. In the past there were famous athletics and players from other games who were accused of doping from failed dope tests.  .This fire is yet to burn in football. The day it will start, it will consume the whole world of football (Preuss, 2014). A Sunday times report revealed that a study by UEFA had examined 4000 urine tests from Europe’s top level player’s pool. Among them the 7.7 percent were tested to have possible use of steroids of anabolic nature.  More stunning outcome of this incident is that zero players were facing any investigation or ban for use of dope. UEFA instead, just consumed the issue and shortened it. It is a clear fact that since use of dope is in practice in football the committees does not want to reveal this to the fans around the world.

In the past there were high profile players who were caught for use of illegal substances. To add to the PEDs and other boosting drugs, cocaine also was added to the list. Ex-Chelsea player Adrian Mutu was one such example. During his peak times in career he was tested with traces of cocaine. But no other name goes bigger than Maradona (McCormick, 2013).  Besides being tested positive with Cocaine, during the 94 world cup he was banned on use of ephedrine, a performance enhancer drug. The infamous doctor Dr. Luis Garcia De Moral worked as a medical advisor in different football team. The term ‘infamous’ is used as this was the person who caused the whole USA cycling team to be disqualified after positive dope test result. Lance Armstrong was a part of the teamed (Georgakis, 2016). Moral had exclaimed this fact to one of the members that they were taking nothing compared to the football players. Another doctor from Spain, Dr. Fuentes also holds the key to doping in the world of football. These both doctors were charged with possession of anabolic steroids. The former was banned by US Anti-doping Agency and the latter is still under trial.

Gambling

The problem of betting and gambling slowly invited another problem which would alter the very course of a normal game. In hunger to earn more money and fill the pocket had become more important than the game of football itself. Match-fixing refers to altering the result or outcome of the match by manipulating either the players or officials involved in the game (Holden, 2016). In football there are 22 players on field. There are staffs, managers, substitutes those are involved in the match. It is kind of tough to match-fix in football due to dynamic nature of the game itself. But forcing unwanted errors in key position often does the trick required. These chances created helps to aid a gamble and earning cash (Eberhardt, 2016). These actions vary from rash tackles inside the box to earn penalty, goalkeeping flaws leading to conceding of goals, or a same side goal costing an entire match. Referees are also targeted as they control the flow of the match. A controversial marching order or time manipulation etc. can be used by referees (Paradiso, 2015). All the mentioned instances were derived from suspected matches where possible fixing took place. The examples are plenty in the world of footballto produce as a fixed match, either through an official or any players.

The most recent and famous example of match fixing took place in Italy Seria A. In the year 2006 world famous Italian club Juventus was relegated from the Premier Division and was stripped of the last two titles. The Italian police had discovered taped conversation of manager Luciano Moggi which led to the decision (Halabi, 2012). In the tapes, Moggi was found speaking to officials to ensure the Turin outfit matches to be overseen by pro-Juventus referees. In the run, Ac Milan and Fiorentina also faced point deduction (ROSE, 2014).

The corruption in Poland covered as many as 117 people. These people included players, referees, coaches, players and officials who were charged in recent years with the crime of match fixing.29 clubs were marked to be the part of corruption. As a result of which seven clubs were demoted in the year 2007-08 (Szymanski, 2014). Among them were four times champion Widzew Lodz overturned the ban using a court of arbitration. PPF coordinator Michael Listview exclaimed that they wanted to save the federation and also the Polish Football. Later entire governing body of PPF was charged with scandal was banned in 2008 (Bean, 2015).

Doping

Besides the above mentioned issues, corruption is also seen in form of dictatorship in football. Fifa being the governing body is in the supreme position. They are often accused of overlooking humanistic issues which would have required careful analysis and proper action before the result declaration (Masters, 2015). These actions do not directly affect the fans and the game but puts abad example to the integrity of the sports and sometimes people suffer due to the recklessness. Brazil World Cup 2016, or upcoming Qatar world cup the humanistic ignorance of FIFA has raised several issues (Georgakis, 2016). FIFA has been alleged to overlook the financial conditions of Brazil yet enacting them with a million dollar tournament.

Qatar World Cup 2022 is already under controversy of being the host nation for next Fifa World Cup. The temperature in Qatar in summer reaches up to 122 degrees. Fifa has already decided to shift the schedule from summer to winter season. The schedule has been risked with a clash with other major sports events and on the eve of Christmas. This decision will be costing the people their family time too (Veloso, 2013). There were bids from several other countries, who were interested in hosting the games in summer. But, FIFAs decision regarding host nation of 2022 world cup seemed silly and unfair. Moreover, Qatar is a tiny country and still lacks the infrastructure to host a major tournament like the World Cup. So to stage the “greatest show on earth,” they have to build everything from a scratch (John, 2013). According to many experts, Qatar is indeed a strange place to host a World Cup when there were bids from other countries with far better infrastructure. Qatar has already started to construct with breakneck speed (Gardner, 2014). Qatar officials have also tried to keep down the labor cost as cheap as possible.

A more feared issue that is relevant in the world of football is human trafficking. The problem of exploitation of poor people in the name of making them stars by some corrupt officials has already been in practice. But, Fifa is yet to make any proactive decision or a mere statement to confront the issues. They are busy with the readymade stars overseeing a thousand others who lose their future in the dream of becoming a star (Cleland, 2016).

Corruptions have already developed its many faces in the game of football. The most relevant problem which the game of football faces is through gambling, betting and match fixing issues. The money behind the game is increased two fold with the issues. In order to win the invested bets or to earn more cash influential people have again and again used their power to alter the course of the game in favor of them.  Vietnam bears such an example where the entire football system of country was under jeopardy due to corrupt officials, players and personnel’s (Junge, 2011). Referee Long Trung Viet was charged in crime of assisting a division 1 team to fix matches in order to rise to premiere division. The investigation by police brought the fact that during a time span of 20 years 150 games were fixed. As a result, 15 referees were banned for the final two years (Meier, 2015). Last season the V-league was on the verge of suspension (Eberhardt, 2016). Many teams, players and star Vietnamese striker Pham Van Quyen was banned with charges of corruption. This is how hunger for excess money can put whole system in jeopardy. Though it is hard to influence in the western world still it is an alarm to upcoming situation. Professionalism is required but it must be checked that it may not turn into lavishness where the integrity of the sports is sold in order earn more for convenience. The money ball has already started to affect the game around the world (Homburg, 2010). Besides Vietnam similar situations exists in Poland, Goa, Colombia and other such places where the money business is a different level altogether.

Match-Fixing

Conclusion

The major controversy today about football is that is it becoming a money game too. The stars of football, emerged from the club football, fail to put up a good show for the country. Recent times saw many such big names that were popular among the fans but lost their credibility in their respective national jerseys. The credibility of the players comes under question again and again. Being one of the most famous sports its integrity has been under question many times. Moreover, football holds one of the most prestigious Fifa World Cups every four years to fight for the top spot. Despite all these the bar of club football, the money game goes up. Smelling the green notes, players fight their hearts out for the club who pays them for the professional career. Moreover, it is the clubs which keep the cash stash clicking. So naturally, there is a debate on whether it is club or nation one should give everything out.

Fifa has also been hit by worst allegations which condemned its Presidents and power holders. When the governing body itself is in questions, it puts doubt marks on the sports and its credibility in itself. Though it was difficult to match fix a dynamic game of football through the players. Situations revealed that there are other methods too. Officials and referees were ‘bought’ in many cases. Despite all these controversies football still holds the spirit somehow till date when the players burn it out on the field.

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