Football (or rugby, internationally) is the most popular sport in the world. As such, it has a long, complicated history, filled with scandals and controversies from the English Premier League to the FIFA World Cup. From game tampering to murder, here are some of the biggest football scandals of all time. So Wintips will share with readers the football scandals through the following article!
The biggest soccer scandals of all time
The FIFA corruption scandal of 2015
Corruption and bribery have long been associated with international soccer because of its popularity and profitability. The sport’s biggest scandal occurred in 2015, when 14 former and current FIFA officials (at the time) were arrested by the FBI on charges of extortion.
The world soccer organization was accused of accepting more than $100 million in bribes from countries seeking to host the World Cup and using U.S. bank accounts to complete the transactions.
When soccer’s world governing body corrupts the game, how can anyone else play by the rules?
The Calciopoli refereeing scandal of 2006
Every sports fan knows that even a single bad refereeing decision can change the entire outcome of a match. That is why when it was discovered in 2006 that a handful of Italian teams had chosen referees who would tip the game in their favour, it became one of the biggest football scandals in the history of the sport.
While a number of teams were implicated in the scandal and found guilty of using certain referees to influence the outcome of matches, the most notable Italian team was Juventus, who were demoted from Serie A to Serie B because of the scandal. They were also stripped of the titles they had won because of the scandal.
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The 1994 murder of Andrés Escobar
Soccer is not just a sport, but part of a larger culture in almost every country other than the United States. (However, Americans’ love for the game is growing.) This is part of what made the 1994 World Cup match between the United States and Colombia so disastrous; losing to the United States was a huge embarrassment.
Under normal circumstances, Colombia would have won the match, but defender Andrés Escobar “accidentally” scored past his own goalkeeper, putting the game out of reach from the start. Yes, we put that in quotes because there are many theories that it may not have been an accident, but rather a bribery move by an organized crime group interested in betting on the game.
Whatever the explanation behind his own goal, Escobar's mistake not only saddened his team but his entire country. Immediately after the mistake, Escobar was shot six times and later died.
The 2009 Nigeria age-cheating scandal
Age-cheating isn’t just a problem for women’s gymnastics. It’s one of the biggest soccer scandals in years—especially for Nigeria.
Over the years, Nigeria has cheated on all aspects of its sports, from Champions League teams to Olympic athletes. Perhaps the most famous case was the 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup, when half the team was found to be much older than their actual age. Older, more experienced players give a team a winning edge, and are therefore taken very seriously.
Nigeria has a history of age-cheating dating back decades, dating back to at least the 1998 Olympics.
Brazil’s 2014 spending scandal
The most recent FIFA World Cup took place in 2014 in Brazil. In order to host this international event, money had to be spent on stadiums, housing, etc. That in itself is not a scandal. However, the billions of dollars spent on this project are.
Brazilian politicians were among those who provided the money for this insanely expensive construction project, which is scandalous for two reasons:
- It affects the potential outcome of future government elections and
- It takes government money away from the people to spend on things they really need.
Mexico's 2011 "Chicken Gate"
The name of one of the biggest soccer scandals in history may sound ridiculous, but 'Chicken-Gate' was a major controversy in 2011. Before the 2011 Gold Cup, Mexican players were tested for drugs and five of them failed. What drug was involved? Clenbuterol.
Clenbuterol can be used as a performance-enhancing drug because it has the ability to turn any calories a person consumes into muscle instead of fat. However, it has also been injected into livestock, which is why the results of this drug test were controversial. The players involved in the scandal claimed that they failed the drug test due to eating bad meat.
It was later discovered that the majority of players in the U-17 World Cup tested positive for the same drug. So is this a public health pandemic or a convenient excuse for doping?
Ronaldo's transgender scandal of 2008
Bet you didn't think something like this would appear on this list, but it's true. In 2008, Brazilian footballer Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima made the most indiscreet move: He found himself in a room with three transgender prostitutes.
While some may overlook this, others (including Ronaldo himself) consider it a huge stain on his image. Ronaldo claimed he didn't know that the three prostitutes were transgender until they arrived at his hotel room, where they then attempted to extort a large sum of money from him in exchange for their silence. The transgenders, on the other hand, claimed that he tried to give them money against his will and even threatened them.
No arrests were made, but there was still a huge controversy surrounding the famous footballer's career.
The 2010 Bruno Fernandes murder arrest
This is one of the biggest football scandals of all time because it looks like something straight out of a horror movie. Bruno Fernandes was a famous Brazilian footballer who, despite earning a lot of money, refused to pay child support to his girlfriend Eliza Samudio. He was so angry that he ordered his friends to torture her, kill her, cut her into pieces and feed her to his dogs.
The killer was convicted of the brutal crime and sentenced to 22 years in prison, but only served a few years before an appeal was made. During that time, Frenandes was released and even picked up by a new football club. His comments on the murder? "I made a mistake... mistakes are inevitable in life".
Fortunately, his appeal was eventually rejected and the brutal, heartless murderer was sent back to prison.
The Ryan Giggs sex scandal of 2011
The Ryan Giggs sex scandal was one of the biggest in football, essentially the equivalent of the Tiger Woods sex scandal in England in 2009. The footballer was exposed by John Hemming, a member of the British Parliament, for having multiple affairs, including a years-long affair with his sister-in-law.
The affairs weren't crimes, but they rocked the world of sports as if they were. Often referred to in the headlines as a "love rat", Giggs will forever be known as the game's most famous sex addict.
The 2011 racial quota scandal
While racial issues tend to be most prominent in the United States, France was criticized in 2011 for its so-called “racial quota” in association football. Racial quotas were not an officially sanctioned policy, but rather an informal consensus among some prominent figures and coaches in the sport that people of African or Arab descent should not make up more than 30 percent of the country’s players. Unfortunately, this remains a hot-button issue even in 2018.
Lessons learned
Soccer, despite being a globally popular sport, has not been short of shocking football scandals. From major corruption scandals like the 2015 FIFA scandal, to controversies involving referees, age fraud, and violence and crime, soccer has seen its fair share of incidents that have tarnished its image. These scandals not only affect the players and teams, but also erode the fans’ faith in the integrity and fairness of the sport. However, football continues to be a passion for millions around the world, overcoming scandals to maintain its growth and appeal.
See more: Revisiting the 2006 Italian football scandal: The fall of Serie A
