Editors Note: Since the matchfixing news broke last week, the two questions that have been asked time and again are how bad will this get and what can be done to stop it?
The first is fairly simple: this isn't going away any time soon and it's safe to expect more games to come under suspicion - at home and abroad - in the near future. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
The second is more complex and the majority of the discussion has - rightfully so - focused on what FIFA, law enforcement agencies can do to clean up the mess they've ignored for a generation. What is clear is that it's not a situation that is going to be solved overnight. This mess has grown to the scale it has because of willful ignorance, on multiple levels. With time and thorough commitment from the FA's and international police agencies, the beautiful game can be brought back to respectability.
But while it will take a massive global effort to tackle the criminal element of this discussion, there is a moral conversation to be had as well. CSN has asked a friend - a soccer fan, intellectual and aspiring doctor - to write about that side of the matchfixing mess.
So much attention has been paid towards what can be done about the fixers and the incompetence of FIFA in allowing this to grow to the state its in, but both miss a larger discussion point.
But there is another participant in the scandal that has so far escaped scrutiny and one who is, perhaps, the most to blame of anyone - the players.
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By: Aleks Thornton
The problem:
The football media frenzy over match-fixing scandals in recent days started with Europol surprising football authorities this week with a "sensational press conference, declaring 380 cases under suspicion in Europe and 300 more around the world." Europol stresses the economic consequences of these 380 matches in Europe: more than €8m was generated in betting profits and more than €2m paid in bribes to those involved in fixing the matches. The problem also reaches closer to home. "According to CSA and CONCACAF sources, Interpol [claim] that nearly $100 million had passed through legitimate betting houses, to be placed on Canadian Soccer League matches, the past three seasons."
Paul Put, Burkina Faso's head coach, who served a three-year ban in Belgium after being found guilty of fixing two matches, said that "Match-fixing has always existed in football. That is reality but what can you do about that?"
What can be done about this? Well, FIFA pressured law makers and "called for longer prison sentences for criminals involved in match-fixing." However, the problem of match-fixing is more than just an economic and legal issue. It falls in the realm of morality.
One needs only to look at the wider consequences in the sport of cycling, as a result of the catastrophic doping scandal, to see what can happen when ethics takes a back seat to the desire for financial and personal gain.
Morality:
Morality is difficult to discuss, but it is necessary if we wish to keep the integrity of the beautiful game. Although morality and ethics are complex subjects, there are some inherent notions that all of us posses about them: living morally means conducting oneself in a way that, if faced with an opportunity to cheat, one will take the step into the correct direction. Making the right choice can be difficult, but in the aftermath, one will be easily able to tell the truth about how he or she acted, and a persistent feeling of guilt will be absent. Certainly, we intuitively know that taking bribes and throwing matches is not the correct moral choice to make.
The moral failings of footballers as individuals have contributed to this growing match-fixing problem. The footballers involved are not taking personal responsibility for their particular role as ambassadorial exemplars in the footballing community. If they are going to be moral, they have to accept themselves, their actions and their responsibility with an appropriate level of gravitas.
Footballers and the community around them would do well to understand the notion that they are actually networked with other people and not merely a little dot among seven billion: they are part of a "causal network" and all of their actions matter.
In those 680 Europol cases under investigation, there are at least 680 individual footballers (allegedly) who made the wrong choice and have contributed to the decaying integrity of the game. Those players who do end up cheating certainly justify it to themselves; similarly to the way Lance Armstong justified his cheating, by saying ‘everyone does it’.
Interestingly, studies suggest that this is human nature. Humans tend to cheat, at least "just a little", as long as they can rationalize it in their head. For example, a Footballer in the CSL who may only earn $5,000 a season, can easily defend the taking of an additional illicit pay-cheque to feed his family. That is why making the right choice can be incredibly difficult.
Footballers and its community need to reestablish that their actions have wider consequences. That puts a big burden on them, which many players (especially ones with lower annual salaries) are unwilling to bear. Their lives may be difficult, after all they train 2 or 3 times during the week, work second jobs and play on the weekends, but footballers will have to accept this burden, if football is to be saved
Starting to solve the problem:
Attacking this match-fixing issue from purely an economic and legal perspective won’t effectively resolve it. Merely attempting to control criminal activity is very ineffective - notwithstanding how tough the laws, large criminal networks tend to actively bypass them as a matter of course.
Alternatively, the focus can be put on the players. Ultimately, they are the individuals who are not taking their responsibility (albeit in difficult times) as footballers in a footballing community. There are innovative ways to deal with this. One way is for clubs to consistently remind players of their responsibility to the greater cause. This can be done by instituting a moral code or honour code.
Studies show that reminding people of their natural duties by way of an honour code leaves them with a sense of self-respect, and can deter them from cheating, at least in the short term.
However, thinking that teaching players about an honor code one time and thinking it will be good for several years is a bit naive. Clubs, governing bodies and the greater community really need to remind their players of these ideas continuously and with a long term commitment of vigilience in mind.