Abstract
The topic of corruption in football has recently shifted from the periphery to the centre of social scientific attention. Although it is a topic of growing interest, research into corruption in football has been empirically limited and not adequately developed in theory. In this paper, the author studies referee bribery in Chinese professional football leagues, which would be helpful to compensate for the relative absence of experience and theories. By qualitatively analyzing primary and secondary sources, the author, using unspoken rules as a theoretical perspective, reviews referee bribery related to corruption in Chinese football. According to this study, bribing referees in Chinese professional football leagues between 1998 and 2009 was a common practice and deemed to be an unspoken rule by all football clubs. This paper identifies three forms of bribing referees to manipulate matches: paying off referees, manipulation of referees by CFA officials, and investing in emotional bonds. By describing bribe giving as an unspoken rule, the author looks at the widespread referee bribing and its tacit acknowledgement by clubs. This study focuses on examples related to Chinese football leagues; however, it also provides a framework under which corruption in international football can be understood and analyzed.
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