The issue of corruption in
the sport has been the focus of the world attention for many years.
Various frauds are revealed almost every day in the media, which
unfortunately spoil the reputation of the spirit of sportsmanship.
According to data of different referees, most often players and
coaches are allegedly blamed for corruption, rarely the third
parties. Offense connected with the so-called "bribe" is
of individual in nature, which means it can only be committed by
persons taking part in competitions, or persons organizing game
The phenomenon of fixed
matches
Sport has been subjected
to significant commercialization process starting from the beginning
of the 90s. This commercialization is also due to the influence of
betting on sports market. The opportunity to place bets on the match
also provided people with the option of manipulating the results of
certain events. These phenomena often occurred in Italy and the
countries of the former Soviet Union, in the territories mainly
controlled by mafia.
There are a lot of
examples of match-fixing. There is no sports discipline which is 100%
clean of corruption. In the betting lingo such phenomena are called
fixing. The definition of the word means that the match result or
scenario of this game has been pre-fixed in order to achieve
significant financial benefits by third parties.
Fixed matches in football
Every year In the Brazilian football league (Serie A) we deal with the wonder rounds at the end of the season. The question is: "Who needs points?" seems to apply to all clubs, not only those who are fighting to stay in the league but also the leaders in the league. In Germany, Robert Heuser "was granting points" for several years - the referee, who was working in the Bundesliga, was apparently acting on behalf of the Balkan mafia. A little later in Italy, Luciano Moggi, manager of Juventus was associated with a notorious Calciopoli scandal. Here, referees were also playing the main roles. Then Juventus was stripped of its titles and the club was relegated to Serie B.
Fixed matches in tennis
Tennis is a sport which is most exposed to fixing. First, because there are no teams consisting of several players, only single athletes, and secondly because it is possible to agree on victory in certain games or sets. For example, player X wins the 1st set, the player Y - the second set and the third set is played for real. Easy, isn’t it? Therefore, the results of 0:6, 6:1, 7:5 in the frameworks of the Challenge Cup surprises nobody. One can also fix matches according to under/over - it's very easy. A famous example of the fixed match is the game Davydenko vs. Arguello few years ago, when someone bet 7,3 million euros at Betfair on Arguello, with the score of 6:2 in the favour of the Russian. What is interesting, the odds for Arguello’s victory amounted to 1.20! Did it happen by chance? Probably not, because the Argentinian won that game. We wonder how much did these third parties get, probably more than the prize fund of the tournament.
Fixed matches in ice hockey
In the Austrian Hockey
League there was a case a few years ago, when Olimpija Ljubljana
competed with the EC VSV Villach. Each season
there was a simple arrangement - the hosts always won the match.
These results manipulations were called "3 by 3". Everyone
was satisfied, because the fans of the home team were always happy
with 3 points, and in the away games the teams could always lose the
same amount of points, but there was no spirit of competition.