(Article) Corruption In Sports: Civil Services Mentor Magazine November 2011

Money Matters the Most

Sport is a big phenomenon of today, it is very important part of today life. However, sport is rather contradictory phenomenon. It is connected with big humanistic values and it formats life and values of billions of people on the one side. It is also connected with dirty business, doping, corruption and violence on the other side. Corruption in sport should be matter of concern not of pessimism. We are not speaking about decline of sport values. But we are facing of a new challenge. This
challenge is higher as the issue is still not dealt with properly. We may perhaps compare doping in sport with corruption in sport. However, doping has been seriously treated for many years now, with number of experts, scientific background and international co-ordination structures. Nothing of it exists in the area of corruption in sport yet.  Just over a decade after cricket was  hit by one its biggest scandals, three Pakistani cricketers were given prison sentences last week by a London court on charges of spot-fixing. For the first time in cricket’s history, players face jail terms of between six and 30 months, besides the prospect of never again playing the game. This is in stark contrast to investigations into match-fixing in 2000 where the central figure was the former South African captain, Hansie Cronje. Cricketers from various countries were alleged to have been involved, including a former captain of the Indian team who is now a member of the Indian
Parliament. Enquiry commissions were set up in South Africa and Pakistan following the scandal, but most players got away with bans, fines or in some cases just a
reprimand. After the events of 2000, cricket’s governing body, the International Cricket Council, set up theAnti-Corruption and Security Unit to tackle the menace of match fixing. But ironically it was a sting operation by the now discredited and defunct News of the World in 2010 which exposed the spot-fixing by the Pakistani cricketers and provided evidence for sentencing. While cricket with its elaborate rules is particularly prone to spot-fixing - where you bet on individual events
within the game rather than the result itself - the phenomenon of fixing is hardly confined to cricket. We are at a time when the world of sport seems to be awash in corruption. Earlier this year, prosecutors in South Korea indicted an astonishing 46 football players on charges of fixing matches in the football K-League.

According to the South Korean prosecutors, the players received up to US$50,000 for fixing matches, and sometimes even bet on the outcome. In Turkey, the
champion club Fenerbahce is at the centre of a match-fixing scandal, having won 16 of its 17 league matches at the end of the season to clinch the title on goal difference. It’s not just sportspersons who are in the dock. Sports administrators all over the world are facing scrutiny. FIFA, football’s governing body and the
richest sports association in the world, is in the midst of its biggest scandal. FIFA’s 24-member executive committee, which has had Sepp Blatter at the helm of affairs for 13 long years, is among the most sought  after clubs. But this elite club has now been riven apart with influential committee members accused of paying bribes. 

The head of the Caribbean and North and Central American region has already resigned. And Qatar ’s Mohamed bin Hammam, who was head of Asia’s football federation, has been banned for life by FIFA’s ethics committee. Bin Hammam is not going down without a fight. He has not only challenged FIFA’a ban but also
promised to reveal wrongdoings by Blatter. This has put a question mark over the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups which were awarded to Russia and Qatar respectively. What many had long suspected about the cronyism and corruption within FIFAis now coming to light. The obvious reason why there
are so many corruption scandals involving both players and administrators is the incredible amount of money involved in sport. FIFA’s current annual revenue is now pegged at US$1.3 billion and it even gets tax breaks from Switzerland where it is headquartered. There is plenty of money too in other sports like cricket which enjoys much less global popularity, but is akin to a religion in South Asia. In 2010-11, the Board of Control for Cricket in India generated over US$400 million in revenues. With this kind of money it is not surprising that corruption has eaten into sport. While sports administrators in many parts of the world have never had a
great reputation, it is the corruption of players that is more worrying. Many individual sporting disciplines have been tainted by performance enhancing drugs, but that is something the administrators have tried to check by putting in place an elaborate regime of doping tests. 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 Federation International 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 zerotolerance policy on corruption. FIFAis currently trumpeting the introduction of an Ethics Commission as well as the creation of a commercial firm called EarlyWarning Systemdesigned 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. For preventing and eliminating corruption it is important to know the scope of corruption and areas where it occurs. Knowing this it is also important to know patterns under which corruption is predominantly performed. This simple request is not easy to fulfill. When corruption is regarded it is very difficult everywhere, in all sectors of society,
to get reliable figures. Especially to get police and judicial statistic, which is successfully used in many other areas of crime and social pathology, do not bring required information. Detected or reported corruption is always only an iceberg of the whole problem and not always indicates correctly areas where corruption is most wide spread .A comprehensive study of this issue would be most desirable. But even for the short study like this one a survey of international press and Internet provides interesting mapping of the problem. It appears that corruption can be found in almost any imaginable areas of sport. The main areas are match fixing, embezzlement or misusing of sport funds, corruption in hosting of games, corruption in changing sport results, corruption in transfers of players, corrupted
elections in sporting bodies. We can also mention situations where high sport officials were convicted of corruption in their non-sport activities which is not corruption in sport itself but it certainly influences the sport life. We also keep aside a role of politics in sport which might be very close to political corruption of sport. It represents another very interesting and controversial issue of sport closely related to the issue of corruption in sport.

Match Fixing

Match fixing is a quite common problem in number of sports like football, tennis, basketball, volleyball etc. The reasons for match fixing may be also numerous. Perhaps the most commonly match fixing is connected with betting, legal or illegal. In this  cases match fixing is connected with financial profit and it may be connected with organized groups or we can even directly speak about links to organized crime. Match fixing may also occur in direct links with “sport” life. Matches can be fixed in order to gain better position in sport competition. It often occurs in cases where a club is in a risk of falling to lower league. While the visible purpose
is of a purely “sport nature” the underlining causes are often again financial – remaining in a higher league can generate higher income for the club and its owners (TV rights, better value for players). Devastating impact to sport is the same. However, match-fixing is something that requires not just administrators but investigative agencies to be on their toes. Prison terms for the guilty cricketers, one of them still a teenager, is not a happy occurrence. But it’s  heartening that the Pakistani people have by and large welcomed the court judgment and said the players deserved it. Indeed, we can only hope that such punishment will deter sportspersons in future from giving in to the temptation of making quick money through dubious means. Fixing of any sort destroys the purity of sport and the sacrosanct relationship
between a spectator and the sports hero. Once that trust is destroyed, it does irreparable damage to the  enterprise of sport. That’s why the jail terms for the cricketers, however  distasteful, were needed.

Managing of International Sport Federations

International sport federations with their often-enormous wealth and limited external control are of an especially high risk of corruption. Corruption here can take different form from simple misuse or embezzlement of federation funds though corruption related to media rights up to corruption of federation members. To make picture more structured we take the later two options as separate one.

Following case of Ruben Acosta, former president of Volleyball Federation represents a very good example of difficulties regarding possible corruption in sport. Media rights and other marketing activities represents one of major income source of sport, namely of a top international sport. Large sum of money attract the fraud
and corruption and organised crime. Large amount of money also always attracted organized criminal groups. At the 12 Anti-corruption conference in November 2006, on workshop “The Business of Sports and Corruption” Henri Roemer, of UEFA, presented part of the findings of a report that he had made to UEFA and which is expected to lead to some reforms of the organization in the next few months: “There are no ‘sport mafias’ but mafias invest into sports. With the huge potential for financial returns and the generally rather low standards of professionalism in the administration of clubs, football attracts criminal activities such as the trafficking of young players, money laundering, illegal betting etc. The risks for criminals are minimal and control systems are weak. Players are normally young and easy to influence, while by bribing one key player, the outcome of a game can be bought and generate revenues from betting. National laws and systems often have
little chances to be effective in relation to the international dimension of illegal activities in sports. There is also a legal vacuum: even the EU itself counts only half as many members as UEFA. Because player trafficking, money laundering and corruption are  bloodless crimes, they tend to be rather accepted socially. One can also
see that these problems started to affect amateur sports too. But the risks are great and the loss of interest by fans can already be witnessed in empty Italian stadia.”

Doping is another grave area of concerns. There have been many successful partnerships between antidoping and Governments worldwide, collaborating together to bring fair honest sport to all that deserve it. Anti-doping operations including the Balco case, the Italian police investigations at the 2007 Turin Olympics and operation Puerto were all conducted with close partnerships  between the police and anti-doping agencies. Drug testing, research and education is overseen by the World Anti-DopingAgency (WADA) and the WADACode forms the ‘bible’ of antidoping, seen by many as one of the most significant developments in antidoping
to date. Many now believe that the other ‘evil’ of sport is that of corruption, yet there is no anticorruption body solely for sport. Corruption is growing and at an
alarming rate. Betting scandals are taking up more headline space in sports such as snooker, tennis and soccer. Where there is money there will be crime and corruption. Unfortunately there is no test for corruption, although WADA have close ties with Interpol and the World Customs Organisation to help combat
such evils. Sport is big business, with millions being gambled on events each day, we are faced with many challenges. It is important that the anti-doping community unite against such spoils and that all athletes respect ethical, honest sport. Outcomes of above mentioned discussion must reach wide sport  audience. They must therefore be transferred into ethical guidelines and training manuals. Ethical and integrity aspect including risk of corruption and corruption prevention principles should become a part of sport education and training. While many manifestation of corruption in sport may be ambiguous there are many acts of corruption in
sport which can be prosecuted under existing international legislations. As  Council of Europe and United Nations conventions provide rather sufficient framework for corruption investigation and prosecution it is highly recommended to adhere to these convention for countries which had not done so yet. Transparency is one of
the most powerful tools against corruption. Any measure which will make sport life, including sport financing, more transparent should be supported and promoted. National subsidies provided by government to sport can be use a tool for requesting increased transparency. Having in mind limited possibilities of governments to intervene to internal sport life also other measures should be explored. For instance big sponsors and marketing partners might be encouraged to play an important role in promoting transparency in sport. To avoid risk that they will be perceived negatively together with corrupted sport in the case of corruption scandals they may man connect their support to the sport organization with demands on bigger transparency. The power of money can be in this way put to the service of a good purpose.