corruption_sports/2006/in focus/news room

Corruption and Sport

When the beautiful game turns ugly...
With World Cup fever kicking into high gear, all eyes are on the ‘beautiful game’. But for all its grace, there is a dark side to soccer and the sport industry more broadly. Match-fixing, money-laundering, kickbacks, extortion and bribery may not quite be Olympic sports, but they are all too prevalent in the athletic world.

Press Release: TI calls on FIFA to keep the beautiful game clean

Introduction: Why is corruption in sport important?
Interview with investigative sports journalist Jens Weinreich
Book review of Andrew Jennings "Foul!"
Country specific examples
Statement for integrity and anti-corruption in sport
TI National Chapter work on corruption and sport
Corruption cases and convictions
Selected links & readings
News coverage
Media contacts

Introduction: Why is corruption in sport important?

With World Cup fever starting to peak, all eyes are on the ‘beautiful game’. But for all its grace, there is a dark side to soccer and the sport industry more broadly. Match-fixing, money-laundering, kickbacks, extortion and bribery may not quite be Olympic sports, but they are all too prevalent in the athletic world.

The referee (A. Dimitrov, Moldova)

Transparency International has produced this collection of articles, links and information resources to cast a light on the vulnerabilities of the sport world to corruption as well as efforts being undertaken to combat it. We speak with investigative journalists. We look at the mysterious lack of convictions in sports corruption. We examine a book that details the history of FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association). And we talk about the role of civil society organisations in keeping the beautiful game beautiful.

If sport was a largely informal affair a century ago, it has morphed into a full-fledged industry – total costs, including infrastructure, of the 2006 World Cup in Germany are estimated at upwards of € 6 billion (see interview with sport journalist Jens Weinreich). With such increasingly huge sums in play, whether in terms merchandising, sponsorship, betting or athlete salaries, the seduction of and vulnerability to corrupt behaviour has grown. The sport world has responded slowly and, to date, inadequately. It is as serious a threat as doping; only it has the potential to inflict much greater damage on the sport world and the communities, representing billions of people globally, that support it.

Football scandals in Germany, Brazil, Italy, Belgium and China are evidence that the problem is real and it is global. This means that international sports associations such as FIFA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) must lead the way in terms of systematic enforcement of a zero-tolerance policy on corruption.

FIFA is currently trumpeting the introduction of an Ethics Commission as well as the creation of a commercial firm called Early Warning System designed to detect irregularities in game scoring. These are laudable efforts, but the phenomenon runs deeper than match-fixing. There is a need to address the conflicts of interest that are part and parcel of a familial network of athletic officials that spans the globe. While statements have been made and ethical codes adopted, what is missing is rigorous enforcement and follow-through, including the systematic ejection of tainted officials.

The sport world draws its legitimacy from communities at a basic level.

Interview with investigative journalist Jens Weinreich

Prominent German sports journalist Jens Weinreich provides insights into corruption in the sport world and its synergies with criminal structures. He takes aim at the big issues: senior officials of international sport associations treated like diplomats, and a clan structure in global sport that remains beyond national law. Weinreich also talks about encouraging developments and suggests how the system can be reformed.

Read the Interview.

Book review: Andrew Jennings’ “FOUL!"

Red card for the FIFA family
Read the review.

Country specific examples

Read about how TI’s national chapter in Kenya worked with national and international sports associations and the national government to help solve a governance crisis in Kenyan football.
And read about the a fresh scandal that is shaking Italian football to its core.

Statement on integrity and anti-corruption in sport

Play the Game, an NGO devoted to ethics in sport, Transparency International and others came together in November 2005 to release a joint paper: “Statement for Integrity and Anti-Corruption in Sport”. The statement takes aim at sport associations, governments, the media and even Play the Game itself. It recommends concrete anti-corruption actions and seeks to provide benchmarks for sport associations and be a starting point for developing codes of conduct.

Read the complete statement.

TI National Chapter work on corruption and sport

TI Switzerland has championed this issue within the TI network.

Perhaps the issue of corruption in sport is more visible in Switzerland as it hosts about 30 per cent of international sport associations, including FIFA, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), and the IOC. While the problem has many facets, TI Switzerland has chosen to focus its attention on the transfer of players. Based on its findings and on the Independent European Football Review, which defines the parameters of a European Union sport policy, the chapter is organising a roundtable with representatives from FIFA, UEFA, athletic agents, team managers, sport lawyers and players themselves to advance the dialogue on reducing corruption in sport.

TI Germany founded a working group on sport in July 2005 with a mandate to generate a body of knowledge on the issue and to support, among others, sport organisations in implementing measures for increased transparency. Although still in the early stages, the working group intends to hold awareness-raising events and to advocate for systemic change to prevent corruption in sport.

Read more on TI Germany’s web site.

TI Kenya played a key role in helping resolve the long-running crisis of governance in Kenyan football. It worked with government, national football and FIFA. Read more about their work.

Corruption scandals and convictions

Whether in football or any other sport, and even in international sport associations such as the International Olympic Committee (IOC), convictions are often for anything other than accepting bribes in an athletic context. The parallels to the difficulties in convicting organised crime bosses are striking. Robert Hoyzer, for example, the main offender in the infamous German match-rigging scandal, was actually convicted for fraud. Two Brazilian referees who were proven to have fixed matches are currently facing charges of fraud, conspiracy and financial crime. The case of Bruce Grobbelaar, the former Liverpool goalkeeper, highlights the complexity of the issue. After numerous legal battles, Britain’s highest court decided it could not be shown that he fixed matches even though it had been shown he took bribes. There was no conviction.

Bribery scandals involving members of the International Olympic Committee are follow this disturbing pattern. A number of IOC members, such as Guy Drut or former IOC vice president Kim Un-yong, have been convicted on charges of business corruption or embezzlement. Cases directly involving the IOC like the Salt Lake City vote-buying scandal or the case of Ivan Slavkov (Bulgaria) never culminated in convictions. One of the reasons for this is very simple: There is no law against corruption in sport, making the sector ideal for professional swindlers.

Another complicating factor is a flexible interpretation of the rule of law within international sport associations. The prominent sports journalist Jens Weinreich describes FIFA as an organisation operating “within its strange own system of law”, choosing to resolve problems within the “family”. Until legislation begins to take account of the reality of corruption in sports and sports associations really go on the offensive, there stands to be little change.

See a table of sport scandals and convictions here.

Selected links & readings

Links:

Transparency in Sport

Play the game conference

FIFA Code of Ethics

IOC Ethics Commission

All about "Volleygate"

TI Germany sports section (in German)

Readings:
Jan Borgen: Anti-Corruption in Sport

Adili 55: The evolution of bad governance in Kenyan sports

Greed vs. Good Governance_The fight for corruption-free football in Kenya