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Match fixing

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Match fixing or game fixing in organized sports occurs when a match is played to a completely or partially pre-determined result. Where the sporting competition in question is a race then the incident will be referred to as race fixing. Games that are deliberately lost are sometimes called thrown games. When a team intentionally loses a game to obtain a perceived future competitive advantage rather than gamblers being involved, the team is often said to have tanked the game instead of having thrown it.

Contents

Reasons

Match fixing is often motivated by agreements with gamblers. But even if there are no gamblers involved, sometimes a team may deliberately lose to gain some perceived future advantage. For example, in the NHL and NBA, teams near the bottom of the standings have sometimes been accused of throwing games at the end of the season to finish with the worst record in the league - thereby gaining the first draft pick. To deter this, these leagues now use a draft lottery which does not guarantee the first pick to the team at the bottom of the standings. Since the NFL does not make use of a lottery it makes it an easy target for match fixing, especially since top draft picks can have top careers. Like the NFL, MLB does not conduct a draft lottery, though it is very unlikely that an MLB team would tank a game for a draft pick because of the series of minor leagues that draft picks have to go through, and the fact that a first round draft pick may go their entire professional career without making a single major league plate appeareance (or if a pitcher without making one major league pitch).

In the NBA (but not in the NHL), there have also been allegations of teams throwing games in order to finish in sixth rather than fifth place in the conference standings, thus enabling the team in question to evade a possible playoff match with the conference's top seed until the final round of playoffs in that conference (for more details see single-elimination tournament). For example, the 2006 Los Angeles Clippers allegedly threw late season games so they could finish with the 6th seed and play the 8th ranked team in the west, the Denver Nuggets, who were the 3rd seed by way of winning their division. If this was indeed their strategy, it worked, as the Clippers easily won the first round series.

In the past, some NFL teams have been accused of throwing games in order to obtain a more favourable schedule the following season; this was especially true between 1977 and 1993, when a team finishing last in a five-team division would get to play five of its eight non-division matches the next season against other last-place teams. On occasion, an NFL team has also been accused of throwing its final regular-season game in an attempt to "choose" its possible opponent in the subsequent playoffs; perhaps the most notable example of this was when the San Francisco 49ers, who had clinched a playoff berth, lost their regular-season finale in 1988 to the Los Angeles Rams, thereby keeping the New York Giants (who had defeated the 49ers in the playoffs in both 1985 and 1986, also injuring 49er quarterback Joe Montana in the latter year's game) from qualifying for the postseason; after the game, Giants quarterback Phil Simms angrily accused the 49ers of "laying down like dogs."

Thrown games, when motivated by gambling, require contacts (and normally money transfers) between gamblers, players, team officials, and/or referees. These contacts and transfer can sometimes be found, and lead to prosecution, by law or by the sports league(s). In contrast, tanking is internal to the team and very hard to prove. Often, substitutions made by the coach designed to deliberately increase the team's chances of losing (frequently by having one or more key players sit out, often using minimal or phantom injuries as a public excuse for doing this), rather than ordering the players actually on the field to intentionally underperform, were cited as the main factor in cases where tanking has been alleged.

A more recent example of possible tanking came in the ice hockey competition at the 2006 Winter Olympics. In Pool B, Sweden was to face Slovakia in the last pool match for both teams. Sweden coach Bengt-Åke Gustafsson publicly contemplated tanking against Slovakia, knowing that if his team won, they would have to face either Canada or the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals; he would tell Swedish television "One is cholera, the other the plague." Sweden lost the match 3-0; the most obvious sign of tanking was when Sweden had a five-on-three power play with five NHL stars—Peter Forsberg, Mats Sundin, Daniel Alfredsson, Nicklas Lidström, and Fredrik Modin—on the ice, and failed to put a shot on goal. If he was seeking to tank, Alfredsson got his wish; Sweden would face a much less formidable quarterfinal opponent in Switzerland. Canada would lose to Russia in a quarterfinal in the opposite bracket, while Sweden went on to win the gold medal, defeating the Czechs in the semifinals.

In addition to the match fixing that is committed by players, coaches and/or team officials, it is not unheard of to have results manipulated by corrupt referees. In 2004 a scandal erupted in Germany concerning soccer-referees who fixed matches for gamblers.

Match fixing does not necessarily involve deliberately losing a match. Occasionally, teams have been accused of deliberately playing to a draw (or a fixed score) where this ensures some mutual benefit (e.g. both teams advancing to the next stage of a competition.) For example, in the 1982 FIFA World Cup, West Germany played Austria in the last match of group B. A West German victory by 1 or 2 goals would result in both teams advancing; any less and Germany was out; any more and Austria was out (and replaced by Algeria, who had just beaten West Germany). West Germany attacked hard, scored once, then the players just kicked the ball around aimlessly for the last 80 minutes. The play was sufficiently bad that a German fan burned his German flag in disgust. As a result, FIFA changed its tournament scheduling for subsequent World Cups so that the final pair of matches in each four team group are played simultaneously.

A more recent and similar example of alleged match fixing in soccer occured in the 2004 European Football Championship. Because unlike FIFA, UEFA takes "head-to-head" play into consideration before overall goal difference when ranking teams level on points, a situation arose in Group C where Sweden and Denmark played to a 2-2 draw, which was a sufficently high scoreline to eliminate Italy (which had lower-scoring draws with the Swedes and Danes) regardless of Italy's result with already-eliminated Bulgaria. Although Italy beat Bulgaria by only one goal and would hypothetically have been eliminated using the FIFA tie-breaker too, some Italian fans bitterly contended that the FIFA tie-breaker would have motivated their team to play harder and deterred their Scandinavian rivals from, in their view, at the very least half-heartedly playing out the match after the score became 2-2. This led to calls for UEFA to adopt FIFA's tiebreaking formula for future tournaments.

There have also been incidents (especially in basketball) where players on a favored team have won the game but deliberately ensured the quoted point spread was not covered (see point shaving). Likewise, there are cases where a team not only lost (which might be honest) but lost by some large amount, enough to grant a favor to the victor. Perhaps the most famous example was Argentina vs Peru in the 1978 FIFA World Cup. Argentina needed a four goal victory to advance over Brazil, an almost unheard-of margin at this level of competition, especially since Argentina had a weak offense (6 goals in 5 games) and Peru a stout defence (allowing only 6 goals in 5 games). Yet somehow Argentina won 6-0. Much was made over the fact that the Peruvian goalkeeper was born in Argentina, and Peru was dependent on Argentinian grain shipments, but nothing was ever proven.

History

Since gambling pre-dates recorded history it comes as little surprise that evidence of match fixing is found throughout recorded history. The Ancient Olympics were almost constantly dealing with allegations of athletes accepting bribes to lose a competition and city-states which often tried to manipulate the outcome with large amounts of money. These activities went on despite the oath each athlete took to protect the integrity of the events and the severe punishment sometimes inflicted on those who were caught. Chariot racing was also dogged by race fixing throughout its history.

By the end of the 19th century gambling was illegal in most jurisdictions but that did not stop its widepread practice especially in the United States. Boxing soon became rife with fighters "taking a dive" - probably because boxing is an individual sport which makes its matches much easier to fix without getting caught. Baseball also became plagued by match fixing despite efforts by the National League to stop gambling at its games. Matters finally came to a head in 1919 when eight members of the Chicago White Sox threw the World Series (see Black Sox Scandal). In an effort to restore confidence, Major League Baseball established the office of the Baseball Commissioner, and one of Kenesaw Mountain Landis's first acts was to ban all involved players for life. Strict rules prohibiting gambling persist to this day (See Pete Rose).

Match fixing and gambling today

Influenced by baseball's experiences, the NFL and NBA have followed MLB's lead and adopted a hard line against gambling on its games, especially by those directly involved in the league. The NCAA goes as far as to prohibit its athletes and coaches from gambling on any sport in which the NCAA holds a championship, and prohibits venues in championship play to carry advertising for any form of gambling, including state lotteries. Each of these organizations was, and may still be influenced by fears that their games could come under the influence of gamblers in the absence of these tough measures.

In Britain the authorities in both government and sport have taken a softer line on gambling. Sports betting was legalized in the 1960s and organizations such as The Football Association seem to have taken the stance that gambling on their events is inevitable - unlike the American leagues, The FA only prohibits betting on a match by those directly involved in the game in question. In 1964 in the great British football betting scandal of the 1960s, three Sheffield Wednesday players, including two England international players, were banned from football for life and imprisoned after it was discovered they had bet against their team winning in a match against Ipswich Town.

The integrity of horse racing remains an ongoing concern since gambling is an integral part of this sport. Recent allegations of race fixing have centered around the recently-formed betting exchanges which unlike traditional bookmakers allow punters to lay an outcome (that is, to bet against a particular runner). Leading exchange Betfair has responded to the allegations by signing Memorandums of Understanding with the Jockey Club, The FA, the International Cricket Council, the Association of Tennis Professionals and other sporting authorities. These MOUs are evidence of the vast difference between British and American attitudes - as of 2004 it would be almost unthinkable for an American sports league to sign such an agreement with a bookmaker or betting exchange.

It should be noted that while British football has never been rocked by match fixing allegations on the scale of the Black Sox scandal, cricket has been scandalized by gambling and match fixing in soccer has become a serious problem in parts of Continental Europe.

The high salaries of some of today's professional athletes likely serves to insulate their leagues from player-instigated match fixing. In the NCAA and in leagues where the salaries are comparatively less (or, in the case of the amateur NCAA, zero), match fixing by players remains a serious concern.

Recent incidents

References

 

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