Here are some of the biggest match-fixing scandals in Football
Match-fixing scandals are nothing new in football history. There are new match-fixing scandals almost every other month.
A lot of the time match-fixing in football goes unnoticed with players, clubs or referees escaping without any punishment. Even when in some cases the truth comes out and guilty people involved in the incident do not receive a hard punishment as there are new instances of match-fixing in football almost every month.
There have been some infamous match-fixing instances that have even led to a change in the rules of competitions. Here are some of the most infamous match-fixing incidents in football history:
The disgrace of ‘Gijon’
The match-fixing that occurred during the 1982 World Cup’s group stages shocked the football world. Everybody who watched the game could understand that the match was clearly fixed. This incident could be the most infamous and surprisingly the most impactful as the game led to a change in rule.
The game between Austria and West Germany ended in a 1-0 win for the West Germany team. The Germans only needed to score one goal that would result in Austria and West Germany qualifying for the further stage while Algeria was knocked out of the tournament. The Germans scored the goal in the first ten minutes and in the remaining duration of the game, both teams just passed around the ball to each other. Interestingly, both teams suffered no punishment as they did not break any rules.
Due to the widespread criticism that followed, FIFA added a new regulation requiring that all matches in the final group games of tournaments be played concurrently.
Calciopoli in Italy
There have been many match-fixing scandals in Italy. One of the most well-known scandals, known as Calciopoli, took place in 2006. There were intercepted calls that showed certain teams had gotten in touch with referee associations to choose favored referee officials. Juventus, Milan, Fiorentina, Lazio, and Reggina were among the struggling teams.
Club owners, referees, and senior club officials all received extended suspensions as part of the penalties. Some, including former Juventus director Luciano Moggi and former Fiorentina co-owner Andrea Della Valle, received prison sentences in addition to their football suspensions. Juventus was demoted to Serie B and they had to forfeit their two Serie A titles as part of the punishment.
Spiking the drinks of opposition players
In a match in Italy’s Serie C between Cremonese and Paganese, a very unusual incident took place. The players of Cremonese looked very tired during the game and one player even crashed his car during the ride back home.
When tests were run on the players it showed that they were drugged and the investigations caught former Cremonese goalkeeper Marco Paolini as the main culprit. Paolini was in gambling debt and to pay off his debts he decided to spike his teammates’ drinks with tranquilizers. Guilty Paolini was banned for five years.
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