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Everything You Need To Know About Soccer Match Fixing
Tue 01 Oct, by Asher Potu
It's no secret that the betting industry is worth a lot of money. And just like with anything in this world that involves significant amounts of money, corruption is bound to creep in. The realm of sports betting, or more specifically, soccer betting, is no stranger to this phenomenon. It has seen some of the biggest sports scandals in history.

Do you remember back in 2006, Juventus, undoubtedly one of the best teams in the Serie A, was relegated to Serie B? To some, that moment is still hard to process.

To those of you who are unfamiliar with this story, it was found that the managers of several top-flight Italian clubs had set up exclusive relationships with certain referees to influence the results of a match.

Apart from Juve, several other clubs were implicated - AC Milan, Inter Milan, Fiorentina, Lazio, and Reggina. Apart from being relegated to a lower division, they were given a point reduction and hefty fines.

How does match fixing work?

Match-fixing takes place between or among gambling syndicates, athletes, sports managers and executives, and other officials like referees. Usually, large sums of money exchange hands to ensure that a match goes a certain way. In some cases, the individuals involved get caught, but there have probably been countless instances where everyone got away.

The 2006 Italian football scandal, or better known as the Calciopoli, involved club managers setting exclusive relationships with particular referees. This way they could influence the outcome of individual matches.

Due to the lack of research and regulations, it is hard to estimate how much one would profit from match-fixing. The amount would probably differ depending on the competition, but it's safe to say that match-fixers could make thousands or even millions of dollars. We hear of people investing millions in getting a match to go one way, so the payout must be enormous.

An incredibly common form of match-fixing is spot-fixing. It is much less detectable than throwing away the entire game, as it involves altering a particular aspect of a match that wouldn't impact the outcome.

There are numerous ways by which the outcome of a match can be altered. In the late 1990s, an Asian betting syndicate was caught attempting to manipulate the floodlights during a match between Charlton Liverpool, with the hope that the match would be abandoned due to the darkness. They had successfully pulled off this stunt twice previously, once during a match between West Ham United and Crystal Palace, and another time during a playoff between Wimbledon and Arsenal.


Scope

Match-fixing, unfortunately, is a worldwide phenomenon. A solution to this could be legalized betting. A more structured, regulated system with regular checks could potentially reduce the number of fixed matches, but corruption still occurs in places like England, where gambling on sports is entirely legal. Perhaps a stricter system would help, but until then, the match-fixing industry will continue to thrive.

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