By Joseph Connolly
International football, known as soccer in most of the world, is organized by FIFA the Federation Internationale de Football Association. It was founded on 21st MAY 1904, and organized men’s football in 1930, followed by the women in 1931. FIFA, comprised of 211 National associations, is headquartered in Zurich.
The game of football is full of scandals.
The FIFA corruption scandal
The biggest football corruption scandal of all the time involves FIFA. The Swiss police raided a highly luxurious hotel in Zurich, arresting seven FIFA executives after having acquired criminally damaging information through espionage. Many apps are constructed nowadays for spying like spy on phone. FIFA as an organization has been accused of 47 different offenses by U.S. prosecutors, who took charge of the investigation once US bank accounts were used for illegal fund transfer. The Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter was found guilty of making a £1.3 million “disloyal payment” made to former UEFA President Michael Platini. FIFA has been synonymous with scandal due to its rampant, systemic and deep rooted corruption.
The 2006 “Calciopolli” scandal
Arguably the most publicized scandal in history took place in 2006 when it was revealed that several top Serie A clubs had been involved in match fixing. The scandal was actually uncovered by the Italian police who were informed that teams had been rigging games by selecting favorable referees. Juventus, who were the current champions and had won the league in 2005 and 2006, were relegated to Serie B and stripped of their titles.
The scandal faced the resignation of several high-profile officials, including the complete Juventus board of directors and the president of the Italian Football Federation.
The 2009 case of Nigerian age fraud
Age fraud has been a huge problem in football for a very long time and the topic re-emerged in 2014 after Lazio signed 17-year-old Cameroonian midfielder Joseph Minala. According to reports, the player was actually 41-years-old, and he was one of many African players who claimed they were younger in order to gain a competitive advantage. The claim was denied by the club, but age fraud seems to be worse in Nigeria than in other African countries.
In 1988, Nigeria was banned from all the FIFA competitions and said “We will always cheat, it’s a fact”.
The 2013 English match fixing scandal
Match fixing is mostly talked about in football (particularly in England) but it’s a constant topic of concern in other sports. It came as a shock to England in 2013 when the biggest match-fixing scandal in the nation’s history was revealed. After investigations by journalists, six people were arrested for their involvement in a “suspected international illegal betting syndicate.”