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Match-fixing scandals are horrible stains on football history, and every other month, there's yet another instance of it trending on social media. More often than not, a lot more of it goes on than what eventually gets reported.
Sometimes, the truth comes out and those involved are punished. However, these punishments rarely serve as deterrents for clubs and players, as new match-fixing scandals keep surfacing.
This week, a coach in Nigeria's lower league was banned for two years after a recorded conversation about altering a game's outcome was revealed.
Earlier this month, Kenya temporarily suspended five top-league referees in a match-fixing scandal. It came after FIFA expelled Zoo Kericho from Kenya's Premier League, having found the club guilty of match-fixing in May.
Last month, in a video that went viral, Inter Allies defender Hashmin Musah came on against Ashanti Gold and scored two deliberate own goals in the final 12 minutes. He did it to prevent a pre-planned wager that had been placed on the Ghana's Premier League game's final score.
Clearly, match-fixing scandals are nothing new. In fact, they have increased in earnest, with top officials calling the matter a football crisis and a pandemic. UEFA ex-president Michel Platini had popularly said:
"If tomorrow, we go watch a game already knowing the outcome, football is dead.”
The new season is now in full swing across Europe. Many countries have deployed dedicated task forces for uncovering match-fixing incidents and hopefully nip them in the bud.
With that in mind, here's a look at some of the most shocking match-fixing scandals in football history:
10. Disgrace of Gijon (West Germany vs Austria in 1982)
The match-fixing that took place during the group stages of the 1982 World Cup came as a shocker to world football. It was clear as day to anyone who watched the match, yet neither West Germany nor Austria were found guilty of any wrongdoing. FIFA officially said that no rules had been broken!
A 1-0 win for West Germany would see both sides progress from the group stage at Algeria's expense. The Germans scored the needed goal within 10 minutes. Both teams quite literally passed the ball to each other for the entire duration of the game!
The resulting worldwide condemnation provoked FIFA to include a new rule for the final group games of tournaments, stating that all matches must be played simultaneously.
9. Plateau United Feeders 79-0 Akurba FC |
Police Machine 67-0 Babayaro FC (2013)
These are some of the most absurd scorelines you'll ever see in football. It's hard to decide what's more shocking; that 79 goals were scored, or that their opponents didn't manage a single goal!
79 goals in 90 minutes comes to a goal every 68 seconds - an impossible feat. It is said that 72 of those goals came in the second half, which just makes this even more implausible!
Plateau United Feeders and Police Machine — teams in Nigeria's lower-tier league — were chasing promotion chances which were dented due to large goal differences. So, the teams took it into their own hands to come up with one of the craziest solutions ever conceived.
The Nigerian Football Association handed down lifetime bans to all four teams and the match officials who partook in this instance of match-fixing.
8. Calciopoli (2006)
Italy has had its fair share of match-fixing scandals. One of the most popular, tagged as Calciopoli, occurred in 2006. Intercepted phone calls revealed that some teams had been in contact with referee organizations so they could select favorable referees. Teams in trouble included Juventus, Milan, Fiorentina, Lazio, and Reggina.
The punishments saw club owners, referees and top club officials receive lengthy bans. Some, like former Fiorentina co-owner Andrea Della Valle and former Juventus director Luciano Moggi, were given prison sentences in addition to their football bans. Clubs received punishment as well, with Juventus relegated to Serie B and stripped of two Serie A titles.
Players like Fabio Cannavaro and Zlatan Ibrahimovic decided to leave Juventus after they were relegated. Nearly 35 international stars left Serie A after the scandal and moved to other leagues in Europe.
7. Totonero (1980)
This is yet another Italy-based match-fixing scandal that saw players like Italian World Cup winner Paolo Rossi led away from his dressing room in handcuffs. Rossi later rejoined the Italian national team and led the Azzurri to a World Cup win in 1982.
The massive scandal, termed Totenero by the Italian media, was uncovered when a newspaper discovered a match-fixing ring involving Lazio players. The heads of the ring were greengrocers in Italy's capital city, and the players were regulars in their establishment.
Milan and Lazio were relegated from Serie A, and over 20 players, club owners, and top club officials were given prison time. Unfortunately, this won't be the last time Italy is mentioned on this list.
6. Cremonese vs Paganese (Serie C)
In another bizarre incident that transpired in Italy, former Cremonese goalkeeper Marco Paolini was found guilty of spiking the drinks and waterbottles of his teammates with tranquilizers!
Paolini was so deep in gambling debts that he was willing to fix the game to pay them off. Cremonese players were sluggish and lethargic during the game, with some struggling to walk. One player notably crashed their car on the way home afterwards.
When tests showed that they had been drugged, investigations were launched and eventually pointed at Paolini as the main culprit. The former goalkeeper was eventually banned for five years.
5. Olympique de Marseille (1993)
Marseille notably won the UEFA Champions League in 1993, while picking up their fourth Ligue 1 title in a row. Dominating French football and consolidating their pole position in Europe suddenly looked pointless as Marseille were found guilty of match-fixing.
Bernard Tapie, former owner of Marseilles and Adidas, was discovered to have offered money to Valenciennes to lose against Marseilles. Tapie's intention was apparently to ensure that his team didn't have to deal with injury or lower conditioning in the finals of the Champions League.
Consequently, Marseilles were relegated to Ligue 2 and stripped of their Ligue 1 title win. Tapie himself was handed a lifetime ban from football.
4. Standard Liege (1982)
Standard Liege were involved in a match-fixing scandal that rocked Belgium a few decades ago. Club manager Raymond Goethals had instructed players to offer their match bonuses as bribes to their opponents.
This would have allowed Standard Liege to ensure victory and win the title trophy. It would've also allowed them to keep their players match-fit and uninjured for their game against Barcelona.
After the match-fixing scandal came to the fore, Goethals was banned from managing in Belgium for life. 13 Standard Liege players were also found quilty and banned from Belgian football.
Notably, Goethals would go on to coach Marseilles and bring them their Champions League trophy in 1993. In the same year that Tapei was involved in the club's Ligue 1 match-fixing scandal.
3. Choi Sung-kuk (2011)
South Korean football took an unexpected turn in 2011 when a huge match-fixing controversy saw dozens of active and former K-League players indicted and found guilty. Most notably, Choi Sung-kuk, a former South Korea forward, received a lifetime ban from playing football in the country. FIFA then made the decision to extend his ban worldwide, essentially ending his football career.
Choi was found guilty of fixing two games while playing for his former team Gwangju Sangmu. The scandal, which had found its way to dozens of footballers, saw Choi receive a 10-month suspended prison sentence as well.
Choi's punishment is notably one of the heaviest handed to an individual footballer for match-fixing.
2. Kurt Rothlisberger (1997)
In 1997, top Swiss and World Cup referee Kurt Rothlisberger didn't think his actions would lead to a lifetime ban from the sport. Before a Champions League game between Grasshoppers and Auxerre, Rothlisberger suggested to Grasshopper officials that $70,000 would be enough to convince Vadim Zhuk — the referee assigned to the game — to make calls in their favor.
While Grasshoppers did win the game, there was no proof that Zhuk took a bribe to ensure their win. According to Rothlisberger, he had just been "stupid" in a casual conversation with the then Grasshopper manager Erich Vogel when he mentioned it. The referee was banned for life, right after he decided to retire from football in 1996.
1. Bruce Grobbelaar (1994)
It's rare to find major match-fixing scandals in English football. That's what made former Liverpool goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar very popular when the Sun accused him of taking bribes to concede goals against Newcastle United. The former star was charged with match-fixing and sent to court.
To this day, he has maintained innocence and denied any wrongdoing. They had to go through two trials, but the juries failed to come to a conclusive verdict. It is believed that though he had accepted the bribes, he did not let in goals to fix the outcome of the match.
