https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9220-7062
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ABSTRACT
Since match-fixing is considered a major threat to the integrity of sport, the implementation of awareness campaigns has become one of the most recommended and enacted policies. Sports governing bodies and international political organizations have established programmes to morally educate on-field sports actors to recognize the problem, resist its incentives and proposals, and report any offer or case they may know. The homogeneity of the content of those prevention campaigns, which are forged and agreed upon in a top-down perspective by international and sports governing organizations, betting regulators and law enforcement institutions, has generated an official preventive narrative of the problem. Through interviews with on-field sports actors (athletes, players, coaches, referees) this article explores the dislocations between the contents of this official preventive narrative and interviewers’ perceptions and experiences of match-fixing. Findings show how some cognitive limitations of the official narrative can led to the delegitimating of the educational programmes to fight against the phenomenon. The results also provide evidence to broaden the debate on the subject. The conclusions suggest a new road map for policy intervention, and for the set-up of new and more effective awareness initiatives.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank all the key informants that were interviewed. Their insight information was crucial for this research. He would also like to thank all the partners with he has shared the development of project funded by the European Commission, such as Staying of Side: How to stop match-fixing; AMATT; T-PREG and Bitefix. The event and meeting of these initiatives were also very useful for this research. The contents of this article reflect only the view of the author. Special thanks to César de Cima for his conceptual inputs and to three anonymous reviewers for their comments.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Research involving human participants and/or animals and informed consent
Authors have conducted their research in accordance with principles detailed by professional associations and treaties other than the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki such as the International Sociological Association’s (ISA) Code of Ethics.
Notes
1 Gardiner, Parry, and Robinson (Citation2017) use the concept of sport integrity industry to define the set of stakeholders fighting against corruption in sport. Those stakeholders formed what the Council of Europe denominates The Macolin Community (https://www.coe.int/en/web/sport/macolin-community). The integrity industry is made up for different groups of actors: public authorities, the sport movement, law enforcement institutions, and the betting industry.
2 Para más detalles sobre el programa ver: https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/erasmus-plus/actions/sport_en
5 See also Say No to Match-Fixing campaign, available in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GglVF9l1HM4
6 For instance, AMATT: Anti Match-Fixing Top Training (https://www.amatt.eu/) and T-PREG: Training on Protecting Reporting System for Professional and Grassroot Sport (http://www.tpreg-training.eu/). Other projects in which the author participated was Staying on side: How to stop match-fixing (https://images.transparencycdn.org/images/2014_Stop_MatchFixing_EN.pdf) and Bitefix (https://bitefix.eu/).
8 In 2016, former secretary general of UEFA and former FIFA president, admitted that hot and cold balls were used to fix European draws at UEFA’s championships. For more information: https://en.as.com/en/2016/06/13/soccer/1465851727_136465.html
9 An interview with Donaghy can be seen in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd90ISp-Ezc
10 Accessible online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gUd2HQCpn0. The interviews presented in the video are one of the most used preventive materials and, as the author could confirm during ethnographic interventions, have been using for years in trainings provided by National Olympic Committees and Football Federation along Europe.
11 Some example from newspaper are: https://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/18/tennis/australian-open-tennis-trolls-social-media-hate-epidemic/index.html and https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/losing-is-bad-enough-it-now-comes-with-death-threats-say-players-2021-09-06/
14 Torok, Sebastián (Citation2019, February 10). Marco Trungelliti: “No soy topo ni buchón; no aguanto más.” En La Nación On line. Retrieved https://www.lanacion.com.ar/deportes/tenis/marco-trungelliti-no-soy-topobuchon-no-nid2218721, from June 18, Citation2022.
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Marcelo Moriconi
Marcelo Moriconi (PhD University of Salamanca, 2009) is an assistant researcher at the Centre for International Studies (CEI) of the Iscte – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Portugal. His research focuses on crimes, corruption and deviant behaviours in different social areas. In the last years, his has developed studies and research projects on sport integrity, mainly manipulation of sport competitions and match-fixing. His work has been published in journals such as Crime, Law and Social Change; Trends in Organized Crime; Journal of Gambling Studies, International Area Studies Review; International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics; and Soccer and Society.