Match-fixing: Football referees’ attitudes and experiences

Abstract

Match-fixing is increasingly perceived by both national and European policy makers and independent observers as a major threat to the integrity of sports, and in particular football. A series of recent scandals in different European countries seems to corroborate the perception of football’s growing vulnerability to manipulations, suggesting that such vulnerability may be related to football’s popularity, the huge related financial interests and the rapid growth of online betting. Nonetheless, the empirical research on match-fixing in football has so far been very limited. Against this background, we present in this paper the results of survey amongst 595 referees belonging to the Royal Belgian Football Association about their attitudes towards the incidence, disclosure and combatting, and reporting of match-fixing, as well as their personal experiences with match-fixing. The main findings can be summarized as follows: (1) approximately 44% of the referees believes that at least one in ten Belgian football games is fixed; (2) 41% of the referees considers the likelihood of match-fixing in football being disclosed (very) low; (3) only 11% of the referees is aware of at least one protected reporting system for match-fixing; (4) 23.5% of the referees has already witnessed or suspected match-fixing in football; and (5) only 12% of the referees who witnessed or suspected match-fixing reported the only/last case of match-fixing they witnessed or suspected. Although our referee’s perceptions might not correspond to reality, our findings suggest the need to introduce adequate protected reporting systems, conduct awareness campaigns and intensify law enforcement agencies’ and sports bodies’ cooperation and data sharing.