Sports Journalists and Corruption in Zimbabwean Football: Reflections on the Asiagate Scandal

Abstract

Zimbabwe experienced a high-profile football match fixing scandal between 2007 and 2010, commonly known as the Asiagate scandal. The men’s senior national football team – the Warriors – reportedly fell victim to Asian betting syndicates. Three journalists from the statecontrolled media were sanctioned by the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) for allegedly participating in the scandal. Burgeoning literature on “brown envelopes” and freebies in journalistic practice in Africa at large, and Zimbabwe in particular, has under-theorised this phenomenon in Zimbabwe’s sports journalism fraternity. Focusing on the Asiagate scandal, this article reports on a study that used the “brown envelope journalism” theoretical lens to examine the subject and its repercussions on sports journalism practice, from the view point of sports journalists. In-depth interviews were conducted with selected sports journalists both from the publicly owned and privately owned media in Zimbabwe. The article avers that due to the deteriorating socio-economic environment, some journalists were “seduced” by “brown envelopes” and “recruited” into a “patronage” corrupt network by match fixers. Consequently, “patronised” journalists became pliant tools in hands of match fixers and failed to “bark” at the malpractices masterminded by their “benefactors”.