Match fixing in association football

The issue of match fixing in association football has been described, in 2013, by Chris Eaton, the former Head of Security of FIFA (the sport's world governing body), as a "crisis", while UEFA's president Michel Platini has said that if it continues, "football is dead." Zhang Jilong, president of the Asian Football Confederation, has stated that it is a "pandemic." The issue also affects a number of other sports across the world.

In May 2011, world governing body FIFA announced an anti-match fixing plan, and in September 2012 FIFA President Sepp Blatter warned that match-fixing endangered "the integrity of the game." In September 2014 the Council of Europe also announced they would tackle the problem.

A number of clubs in countries across the world have been subject to match fixing, including Australia, China, and Spain. The South African national team has also been investigated.

In the 18 months prior to February 2013, Europol investigated 680 matches in 30 countries. In November 2013, 11 men were charged in Estonia with fixing 17 matches.

The problem is often attributed to criminal gangs based in Asia, who generate "hundreds of billions of euros per year."

Players who have publicly rejected bribes have been praised.

Algeria

In September 2018, the BBC reported on match fixing in Algerian football.

Azerbaijan

On 30 November 2017, Keshla FK confirmed that they had terminated the contracts of Nizami Hajiyev and Mirhüseyn Seyidov due to suspicion of match manipulating, with both also being arrested. The following day, 1 December 2017, both Hajiyev and Seyidov were banned from all footballing activities by the AFFA.
In December 2019, Jamshid Maharramov was arrested in relation to match-fixing allegations that saw him banned from football by the AFFA in 2017.

Bangladesh

On 29 August 2021, Arambagh KS were found guilty of spot-fixing, match manipulations and live and online betting. Bangladesh Football Federation disciplinary committee fined 5 lakhs BDT & banned Arambagh for two years from Second Division League and relegated them to the Dhaka Senior Division Football League, which is the country's third tier.

Belgium

In October 2018, 14 people, including two referees, were arrested and charged with bribery involving two relegation battles in a match-fixing investigation.

Benin

In April 2019 ex-Benin international Séïdath Tchomogo was one of four African former international footballers banned for life by FIFA due to "match manipulation".

Canada

The Canadian Soccer League (CSL) is an unsanctioned semi-professional league in Canada, formerly sanctioned by the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA). Despite its name, the CSL is not a national league as the teams are located solely in Southern Ontario. On 12 September 2012, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported that a CSL game held in September 2009 was fixed. On 31 January 2013, the CSA announced it was decertifying the league. Following the 2013 announcement, the Canadian MLS teams Toronto FC and Montreal Impact both withdrew their academy teams, Toronto FC Academy and Montreal Impact Academy from participation in the CSL.

The CSL continued to operate after decertification by the CSA. The International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS) later reported that 42% of matches in the "rogue league's" 2015 season showed signs of suspicious betting activity. In 2016, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police opened investigations in the alleged CSL match fixing.

China

The "Five Jia B Rats incident" was a series of match fixing incidents that involved five football teams in the final rounds of the 2001 second-tier Jia B League (present day China League One). Referee Gong Jianping served 18 months in prison before dying of leukemia.

From 2009 to 2011, a large-scale 2009–2013 investigation by the Ministry of Public Security of China revealed many match-fixing scandals that occurred mainly between 2003 and 2009 in Chinese top-two tier leagues. As a result, Shanghai Shenhua F.C. was stripped of their 2003 top-tier league title. Former vice presidents of Chinese Football Association Xie Yalong, Nan Yong and Yang Yimin were sentenced to 10.5 years in jail. FIFA World Cup referee Lu Jun, and China national football team players Shen Si, Jiang Jin, Qi Hong, Li Ming, were sentenced to 5.5 years or 6 years in jail.

El Salvador

On 20 September 2013, the Salvadoran Football Federation banned 14 Salvadoran players for life, and three other players for shorter periods, due to their involvement with match fixing while playing with the El Salvador national football team at various matches during the period 2010–2012. Those banned for life were Dennis Alas, Luis Anaya, Darwin Bonilla, Cristian Castillo, Ramón Flores, Marvin González, Miguel Granada, José Henríquez, Reynaldo Hernández, Miguel Montes, Alfredo Pacheco, Dagoberto Portillo, Osael Romero, Ramón Sánchez and Miguel Montes.

The match fixers included some of El Salvador's most noted players. Sánchez had served as the team captain at the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup. González had been captain at the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup, when he and seven other of these players fixed the result in a 5–0 loss to the Mexico national football team. At the time of the ban, Pacheco held the record for most appearances on the El Salvador national football team; he was murdered in 2015 when leaving a bathroom at a gas station in Santa Ana, El Salvador. Castillo (D.C. United) and Romero (Chivas USA) had both played in Major League Soccer.

England

Six people, including three current players and ex-player Delroy Facey, were arrested in November 2013 on suspicion of match fixing. Two Singaporean men were later charged, while two non-league footballers for Whitehawk were also charged in December 2013. As a result of this investigation, three people were jailed in June 2014.

Later that month, professional footballer Sam Sodje was investigated after he was filmed by an undercover journalist claiming to have fixed matches; a total of six people were arrested, including active player DJ Campbell. Campbell was later cleared of all allegations. Cristian Montaño was also named as one of those arrested, and he was later sacked by club Oldham Athletic. Montaño later denied the accusations. In March 2014 the six players were re-arrested, alongside seven new players, all based in North-West England. The seven new players arrested were later named as John Welsh, Keith Keane, Bailey Wright, David Buchanan, Ben Davies and Graham Cummins (who all play for Preston North End), and Stephen Dawson (who plays for Barnsley); all seven stated they were innocent. The men were late released from bail. In January 2015 all 13 players were released without charge.

Representatives from a number of sports met in December 2013 to discuss the issue, while former player Alan Shearer stated there should be a "zero tolerance" approach to the problem. Darren Bailey of the FA also stated that the country's gambling laws did not help in tackling match fixing in the sport.

In June 2014, it was announced that 13 games were believed to have been fixed in British football during the 2013–14 season.

On 1 September 2014 former professional player Delroy Facey was charged over alleged match fixing. The trial began in April 2015, when he was accused of being a "middleman" for others who had already been convicted of the crime. After being found guilty later that month he was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail.

In October 2022, non-league player Kynan Isaac was banned for 10 years for spot fixing in a FA Cup match.

France

In November 2014, the presidents of Ligue 2 clubs Caen

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases