Corruption And Football

Transparency International defines corruption as “the abuse of entrusted power for private gain”. Corruption can be classified as grand, petty and political, depending on the amounts of money lost and the sector where it occurs.

Grand corruption consists of acts committed at a high level of government that distort policies or the central functioning of the state, enabling leaders to benefit at the expense of the public good. Petty corruption refers to everyday abuse of entrusted power by low- and mid-level public officials in their interactions with ordinary citizens, who often are trying to access basic goods or services in places like hospitals, schools, police departments and other agencies.

Political corruption is a manipulation of policies, institutions and rules of procedure in the allocation of resources and financing by political decision makers, who abuse their position to sustain their power, status and wealth. Within football this is when any official or person or persons use their position of trust in order to gain an undue advantage.4 Across the world football corruption is evident in many activities including vote buying, match fixing, bribing officials, player transfers, sponsorship deals and even team selections.

2006 was a dark year for the Italian football nation. The former manager of FC Juventus Turin, one of the most popular teams in the league, was accused of manipulating games with the help of corrupt referees, players and officials. As a consequence, the team had to dismount to the second league and its last two-championship titles 2005 and 2006 were withdrawn. The manager was punished to 5 years of occupational ban. In total, 26 officials were accused.

Another of the major football scandals in Europe, the “Golden Whistle”, occurred in 2004 in Portugal. 171 persons, including 110 arbitrators, two mayors and the league’s president, were accused of having manipulated the outcome of championship games.

In China, an official referee was accused for manipulating games in the Chinese football league. In South Africa, 34 of the 40 best-qualified referees are accused of the same crime.

Corruption is synonymous with African football. The tale of the game on the continent is full of controversy and complex problems involving missing funds, election rigging, presidents who serve for decades, under paid players and poor infrastructure.

The nature and level of corruption might be different from country to country but what is clear from literature is that most, if not, all African countries have serious administrative problems. The major obstacles facing all countries from combating corruption in football are FIFA’s statutes of non-interference. With protection ensured from the global football mother body, most national association leaders run roughshod and this leads to the detriment of the game. There is corruption in sport all over the world yet somehow when it comes to football in Africa the practice has devastating effects especially on the players earning a livelihood from the sport

In most countries such as Ghana and Nigeria the majority of football fans are not involved in this process and in most countries only those who have been involved in football administration for a number of years are allowed to run for office. As such the fans have no way of holding administrators accountable. Administrators only answer to FIFA or CAF which are not involved in everyday happenings of footballing nations. There is upward accountability which leaves African fans alienated from the footballing fraternity. This has serious implications in the commercialisation of the game since it is the same fans that are required to part with their money to finance football on the continent

A report by the Forum of African Investigative Reporters10 (FAIR) labels football administrators as corrupt, greedy and inefficient administrators. Khumalo concludes that while players (such as George Weah, Salif Keita, Didier Drogba and Kalusha Balwa) have sacrificed their personal fortunes to develop not just soccer but their own communities, and have in some cases bailed out their national teams, the administration tasked with developing the game focus on personal gain. In South Africa, the lead up to the World Cup in 2010 is alleged to have been tainted by match fixing involving senior soccer administrators. The matches in question included friendly matches Thailand, Bulgaria, Columbia and Guatemala. An initial report by FIFA Chris Eaton showed that there was enough evidence to initiate a probe. The report highlighted that South African Football Association (SAFA) officials had been involved in match fixing through convicted Singaporean Wilson Perumal Raj

Sugden and Tomlinson15 argue that the problem which is most worrying in Africa is the scale of corruption. Amos Adamu who was the head of Nigeria’s football association allegedly misappropriated US$800 000 grant from FIFA meant for infrastructural programmes. Former Cameroonian goalkeeper Joseph-Antoine Bell once claimed that 90 out of 100 dollars in football disappears in private pockets16 Corruption is bad because it, among other things, demoralizes the players.

Corruption crisis is looming for Ghana football as more and more officials of football clubs continue to admit paying bribe to match officials.

A club official from a lower division side in Ghana football has openly admitted on radio that he bribed referees to officiate in his team’s favour. The Ghana Football Association has failed to take action against club officials who have openly admitted bribing referees. The Zein FC official told Accra-based radio Asempa FM on 20^th of October,2017: “I once engaged a referee and paid him Ghs2000 and he officiated in our favour against Mighty Jets.” “From that time I stopped paying the bribe because I just wanted to prove a point that referees take bribe,” he added.

Two months before the 20^th October, another official from Amidaus Professionals openly admitted on radio that he has paid bribe to induce referees in the past. The Ghana FA has also failed to take him on. Recently, an Executive Committee member of the Ghana FA Wilfried Osei Kwaku claimed Ghana failed to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup because the West African national could not make budget for referees.

About six years ago a referee was discharged by the Ghana FA despite being caught with money in the sum of GHc 4000 in his socks while officiating a league game in Ghana. It can also be established that as of 20^th October, 2017 the Ghana FA had failed to pay referees officiating in the Division for over 8 months despite collecting $92,467 from 48 clubs playing in the Ghanaian Division One.

Ghana witnessed heavy cricket scoreline in 2007 as Nania F.C. beat Okwawu United by 31-0 goals to nil while Mighty Jets recorded a 29-0 victory over Great Mariners F.C in Cape coast. What is interesting about these games was that as of the half time, Okwawu United were down by a goal to nil, only for the team to concede 30 goals in the second half. Similarly, Mighty Jets were up by a goal in the first half. They took a 3-0 lead before the 55th minute, while Nania scored around that same time. I guess by the 60th minute the score was 5-0 in favor of Mighty Jets and 2-0 in favor of Nania F. C. What then happened within the remaining 30 minutes of the game that made these two teams score so many goals? Your guess is as good as mine.

Barely 6 years after four clubs were involved in two play-off matches that ended 79-0 and 67-0 respectively - a total of 146 goals in Nigeria, shaming what happened in Ghana six years ago. Taking a leaf from the books of Ghanaian clubs Nania FC and Tudu Mighty Jets, Plateau United Feeders defeated Akurba FC 79-0 while Police Machine FC demolished Babayaro FC 67-0. "The teams were suspended indefinitely, pending further sanctions."Plateau United Feeders and Police Machine went into the matches level on points, with promotion to the lowest tier of the Nationwide League Division at stake. Feeders scored 72 of their goals in the second half, while Police Machine reportedly scored 61 times after the break in their game.

Ex-Ghana defender Joe Addo had said corruption is real in Ghana football and it is fast killing the sport in the country. "There is so much corruption in Ghana football. It is unfortunate but it's true and am not the only one who knows, a lot of people know that and I think we have to do something about it so am very happy Hon. Osaafo Maafo voiced it out," Addo said on GHOne TV Football Legends Night Show.

''For instance, many people don’t understand what indemnity means but in actual sense it means bribery or ‘ways and means’, there are so many things in football and there are many that are left unsaid. ''Many Ghanaians eyes are wide opened, everybody wants to know about every single thing that happens in our football, it is not like the past, and it's killing our game.

''It's very difficult to eradicate bribery and corrupt practices, even the professional leagues in Europe find it difficult to fix them but we should find a way to fix or kill it if we are really serious about.''

Ghana Senior Minister Yaw Osafo Maafo has pointed out the increasing rate of corruption in Ghana football as the main reason for the falling standards of the local league. He said “Corruption in the officiating of Ghana Premier League matches has had a very negative effect on our football, to the extent that local players hardly feature in the Black Stars call-ups these days.

“That is certainly not the best, as we used to get about half of the Black Stars from the local league, with most of them coming from Hearts, Kotoko, Olympics, Eleven Wise and a few others. And these players were very competitive and conquered Africa.“These teams also conquered Africa in their own right, but how are our teams doing in Africa these days? The winner of our league cannot even make it through the first round of the CAF competition.

“We must make sure that those who are guilty of these corrupt offences are found out and punished accordingly.”

Retired Ghanaian referee Charles Dowouna had said in 2013 that referees do not take bribes but but only receive gifts for doing a professional job. The CAF referee instructor was responding to claims that Ghanaian referees are corrupt. He said “No referee takes bribe but it is only nice for people to appreciate your work, he told Metro FM. And therefore after doing a diligent job, if people in appreciation of your work give you something (money) for maybe transportation does that mean the referee has taken bribe” Meanwhile The newly elected Referees Association of Ghana (RAG) Chairman, John Bismark Debrah says referees underperform in this country due to lack of support. Mr Debrah said, “When you know the genesis of the problem, you will know how to tackle and how to solve it. There are speculations that referees take bribe but the question is how do they take it? the answer is because they are not paid well,” Debrah told footballmadeinghana.com

”The FA has made the referees to go hungry for so long and that is the reason why they have been taking those things and if we want to do away with it unless the FA sit up.”

”FIFA referees in this country take a mere GHC 500 including hotel fees, transportation and other things. So the referees underperform because of lack of support. I will sit down with them to make sure the right things are done” But One would ask Are we experiencing all these because the President of the Ghana Football Association had asked the referees to take all sort of bribes or gifts they receive from club officials and do the right thing as he as President knows those who give and those who take?