Overdue Athletes’ Salaries in Professional Football and Match-Fixing: a Legal Analysis

Abstract

Abstract Overdue athletes’ salaries, i.e. late, partial or nonpayment of athletes’ salaries in professional sports, increases the risk for match-fixing as athletes are rendered more vulnerable to match-fixing approaches and for giving in to such proposals. Even though research and stakeholders recognize the aforementioned risk, the body of literature addressing the issue from a preventative legal perspective is slim to nonexistent. While the Council of Europe’s Macolin Convention has stimulated various measures to tackle match-fixing in both ratifying and signatory States, this paper focuses on the Convention’s prevention objective by examining how international, European and Belgian football organizations enforce compliance by their affiliated members with their contractual and other obligations. The paper argues that while football federations do take initiative in the matter, they may not yet have found a way to effectively protect the integrity of their competitions when it comes to their approach towards the issue at hand.