Corruption in Sport

Causes, Consequences, and Reform

Lisa A. Kihl

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138935709
• eBook ISBN: 9781317387497
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Criminology
• Index: Social Sciences

Corruption in the sport industry is a pervasive issue that threatens the integrity of sport as an institution. From doping and match-fixing to money laundering, corruption should be a concern to anybody interested in sport policy, management, governance, or ethics. This is the first book to explore the complexity of sport corruption in terms of its conceptualisation, causes, consequences, and reform.

The first part looks at the concept of sport corruption, while the second examines the causes of sport corruption from individual, organisational, industry-wide, and longitudinal viewpoints. The third part discussed is the consequences of sport corruption and its impact on the global sport industry. Various approaches to regulatory reform are considered in the next part, as well as the challenges of combatting corruption in the sport industry. The final part assesses the current state of literature in this area and suggests opportunities for future research.

Drawing on multidisciplinary case studies from across the world, this is a seminal contribution to the academic study of corruption in sport. It is important reading for all students and scholars of sport management, business, criminology, and law.

Chapter 1

Complex and multifaceted phenomenon of sport corruption

Lisa A. Kihl

Corruption within the sport industry is a pervasive and complex issue that is threatening the integrity of sport as an institution.¹ The political, commercial, and individual/renegade group interests across the global sport industry provide a wide range of opportunities for both individual and organisational malfeasance to occur in both the for-profit and non-profit sporting sectors. The opportunities for corruption in sport are illustrated, for example, by many sport organisations’ willingness to partner with the gambling industry through sponsorship (e.g. South African cricket team Cape Cobras and World Sports Betting; English Premier League team West Ham United and Betway) despite the potential risks of associating with the gambling industry and manipulating sporting events. For example, in Australia, offshore gambling sites (i.e. Sportradar, a FIFA partner that monitors match-fixing) are using a subsidiary company, Real Time Sportscasts, to collect play-by-play data in low-profile amateur sport leagues (e.g. basketball and football) by using ‘data scouts’. Real-time sportscasts recruit university students to attend amateur, semi-professional, and low-level sporting contests to collect live data. The play-by-play data is fed into an offshore call centre and then distributed to international gambling websites. While this practice of live data collection at amateur sporting competitions is not illegal in Australia, and probably in most parts of the world, it is concerning because it opens the door to match- and sport-fixing in local recreation competitions (Kerr, 2017). Furthermore, it is noteworthy that Sportradar, which partners with many international sport federations (e.g. Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the International Tennis Federation, and the National Basketball Association) and police agencies (e.g. Australian Federal police) to monitor betting and match-fixing, is comfortable with taking advantage of the lack of international gambling legislation. Sportradar rationalises its behaviour as normal by arguing the service is responding to the needs of the bookmaker industry and their scouts are controlled, thus legitimising the practice (Kerr, 2017).²

Another example of the interwoven political, commercial, and group interest nature of corruption in sport is the recent exposure of the bidding practices for hosting the 2018 and 2022 football World Cups. The Garcia Report (2014) detailed how the then British prime minster and a member of the royal family were allegedly present in a meeting that discussed vote-swapping and the possibility of a FIFA Executive member receiving a knighthood from the Queen in exchange for assisting the England World Cup bid. The swapping of votes and gift-giving is a violation of FIFA’s anti-collusion rules; however, the prestige, national prominence, and financial benefits of hosting a World Cup appears to be worth the risk of engaging in this socialised and normalised practice of rule-breaking.

As evidenced by the two preceding examples, corruption in sport is arguably a complex and multifaceted phenomenon. This is displayed by the various conceptions of corruption, the multiple causes and consequences that occur in different contexts (e.g. sports, sport events, governance, and countries), in various forms (e.g. bribery, fraud, lack of institutional oversight) that range in intensity (quantity and gravity) of acts and levels of organisational involvement (hierarchies) (Kihl, Skinner, and Engelberg, 2017). A range of reform strategies have been theorised and implemented to counteract the multifaceted nature of sport corruption.

Given the number and gravity of cases of corruption in sport that have occurred during the past 10–20 years, sport scholars have increasingly engaged in academic and professional conversations about corruption. An emerging body of literature exists that has focused primarily on examining specific types of sport competition corruption (e.g. doping, match-fixing, and illegal gambling), in particular cases or sports (their causes and consequences) (e.g. Aquilinaa and Chetcuti, 2014; Forrest, 2012; Hill, 2009, 2010; Kihl and Richardson, 2009; Mazanov, Lo Tenero, Connor, and Sharpe, 2012), and non-competition corruption (Jennings, 2011; Mason, Thibault, and Misener, 2006), and reform strategies (e.g. Geeraert and Drieskens, 2015; Pielke, 2013). Despite the growth in the scholarly inquiry of sport corruption (in all its forms, extent, causes, consequences, and reform efforts), theoretical and empirical analyses of corruption across the sport industry are limited and the complex nature of corruption in the sport industry has been largely underexplored. This is not a criticism of the sport corruption literature, but this book offers a contribution by providing a broad investigation into the process of corruption in sport and offers empirical guidance on how to conduct future research on this complex phenomenon.

Structure of the book

It is impossible to provide a comprehensive analysis of the various aspects of corruption across the sport industry. Given its complexity, it is not feasible to review corruption in sport within every sport, global and local sport organisations, anti-corruption institutions, or provide every reputable expert’s perspective on the topic. However, this book is a starting point that aims to contribute to the scholarly advancement of sport corruption as a field of study by engaging in a theoretical and extensive organisational analysis to enhance our understanding of the scope and depth of corruption in the sport industry. Contributors were asked to share their perspectives relating to the broad understandings of the meaning of sport corruption, multi-level analysis of how and why it happens, corruption’s broad impact, approaches to reform, and strategies for research. The main contribution of the book is to provide a theoretically sound review of corruption in sport in all of its forms, causes, consequences, countermeasures, and research methods, and to subsequently provide an enhanced understanding of the complex and multidimensional nature of sport corruption.

This study of sport corruption is organised around five themes. The first discusses the concept of sport corruption. In Chapter 2, Simon Gardiner examines the meaning of different types and forms of malfeasance that are considered corruption within the sport industry. He then presents an important cross-disciplinary assessment (i.e. sport management, legal, and criminology) of the meaning of sport corruption to gain much-needed definitional clarity, resulting in a model of sport-related corruption. The model suggests that sport corruption includes a ‘core of certainty’, where the law acts as a primary regulating mechanism, and a wider ‘penumbra of uncertainty’, which is regulated primarily by sporting rules. Gardiner’s model of sport-related corruption is one of the first attempts by scholars in sport corruption to shift the discussion of defining sport corruption through developing a typology. Such a typology, he argues, assists in understanding the intertwined ideological, moral, cultural, and political perspectives evident in sport corruption and the need to bring empirically informed conceptual clarity.

The second theme examines the causes of sport corruption through reviewing the role of sport organisational processes and systems and the dynamics among multiple levels (individual, group, organisations, national, sport industry as a whole) that influence sport corruption. Micro (individual and group-level analysis), macro (organisational and national level), systematic (across the sport industry), and longitudinal (over time/historical perspective) viewpoints are presented in this part. Drawing from the literature and using multi-case analyses of sport corruption across the globe, each chapter aims to enhance our knowledge of the complexity and multidimensional attributes that lead to sport corruption. This section begins with a chapter by Lisa A. Kihl, offering a micro-level analysis of how sport corruption occurs (Chapter 3). In this chapter, Kihl uses a multidisciplinary approach to understanding individual-level and group explanations of how and why actors first engage in doping and match-fixing, and shares explanations on why individuals engage in different types and forms of corruption within the context of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I programmes. Such an assessment underscores the notion that economic rationale choices are not the sole driving force behind micro-level explanations of sport corruption. A range of individual-level and group explanations (e.g. rationalising strategies, personal norms, abuse of power, failure of responsibilities, social network) influence people’s decisions to become corrupt.

In Chapter 4, Arnout Geeraert offers macro- and meso-level analyses of how specific national and international sport governing bodies become corrupt. In particular, Geeraert discerns how the overwhelming trends of commercialisation and the instrumentalisation of sport by politics increases the likelihood for corruption to manifest within international sport federations (ISFs). These two issues in combination with corrupt organisational cultures and poor governance practices provide opportunities for corruption to transpire. Furthermore, corrupt ISFs’ cultural norms and practices are socialised and institutionalised because they exist within corrupt countries and within a climate of impunity. Geeraert maintains that decreasing the opportunities for individuals to commit fraud or take bribes is the most effective strategy to overcome corruption in ISFs.

Given the revealing of the recent Russian national doping programme and the failings of current international anti-doping policy regimes, Chapter 5 undertakes a necessary system-wide analysis to understand corruption in sectors where repeated malfeasance occurs. Skinner, Read, and Kihl use Getz’s (2006) model of regime effectiveness to examine why both national and international multilateral drug-testing regimes of the NCAA and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) have been labelled as ineffective. Given the limited work that exists on applying regime theory to doping (Houlihan, 1999), this chapter revisits this theoretical approach to investigate the pitfalls of drug-testing policy regimes to offer insight into why the corrupt behaviour of doping appears to still be pervasive in elite sport. In their discussion and critique of the NCAA and WADA as prohibition, it clearly shows no clear cause for the many behaviours associated with doping and that to address the shortcomings of each regime would require extensive reform. While Getz’s model of regime effectiveness is a useful framework to understand the persistence of doping, Skinner and his colleagues’ caution drawing conclusions on regime effectiveness because of the breadth of factors involved in regime effectiveness.

In the last chapter on this theme of the causes of corruption, Graham Brooks and Anita Lavorgna present a longitudinal analysis of occurrences of corruption across the sport industry and responses to reform. Throughout the history of the sporting landscape, corruption in sport has been a steadfast feature, along with efforts to address fraud, bribery, and doping. In Chapter 6, the authors highlight how sport corruption has manifested over time and how sport leaders have responded to address the variety of corrupt behaviours evident in the sport industry. The chapter provides a historical analysis of the changing nature of corruption in sport, which is presented in three stages. First, the societal discourse and attitudes toward gambling are discussed in relation to the changing football environment, from amateur to professional football. Second, the political manipulation of sport as a form of state corruption and national propaganda is examined. Finally, the documented increased commercialisation of sport overall, including within sporting bodies, has, as Geereart stated earlier in Chapter 4, led to more opportunities for corruption.

The next theme looks at the consequences of sport corruption. This section examines the micro and macro consequences of sport corruption across the sport industry. Chapters 7 and 8 offer micro-level enquiries into how athletes, teams, organisations, and sponsors are affected by sport corruption. Chapter 9 takes a macro-level approach and explores the economic and reputational impact on organisations.

In Chapter 7, Simon Robinson and Jim Parry examine the impact of corruption on individual athletes, teams, and organisations through the concept of integrity. Integrity in this chapter means the honest representation of one’s identity and comprises integrity of sport itself, personal integrity in sport, the organisational integrity of sport, and procedural integrity in the sport event. Using three case studies (i.e. Hansie Cronje, Lance Armstrong, and the International Olympic Committee and Federation International Football Association), they illustrate corruption’s impact on individual athletes, their teams, and organisations, including their image, trust, sanctions, and reform policies.

In Chapter 8, Simon Chadwick, Samantha Roberts, and Russell Cowley examine sport corruption’s effect on organisational stakeholders (i.e. management, fans, and sponsors), in particular how sponsors react and manage corruption’s impact on their relationship with their partners. They argue that corruption in sport can have an overwhelming impact on athletes, fans, sponsors, and commercial partners, and can either be cognitive or behavioural in nature. The chapter starts with a discussion of the nature of sport corruption. Then using a model of sporting transgression, they provide an in-depth examination of sport stakeholders’ decision-making processes, with a particular focus on how sponsors respond to instances of corruption. Reponses can range from complete withdrawal to remaining in relationship with the perpetrator.

This theme concludes with Brian Soebbing and Khirey Walker’s economic and reputation analysis of the impact of corruption in sport. In their chapter (Chapter 9) they draw from the economic models of rational choice, structural, and relational (social capital) to examine the economic and reputation consequences of corruption in sport. They look at three distinct cases of corruption within sport – strategic effort, organisational misconduct in the NCAA, and match-fixing – where they show that both tangible and positive economic financial impacts and a negative reputation are due to corruption. However, they stress the complexity of accurately determining the actual economic impact on respective sport organisations and the need for research.

The next theme, on approaches to reform, examines the regulatory approaches (e.g. legislation and compliance models) in combating corruption in sport as well as challenges in implementing and pursuing a corruption-free sport industry. In Chapter 10, Roberts and Bolton draw from Mitchell, Crosset, and Barr’s (1999) compliance framework to examine the effectiveness of sports organisations’ (e.g...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright page
• Table of Contents
• List of illustrations
• Notes on contributors
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Complex and multifaceted phenomenon of sport corruption
• 2 Conceptualising corruption in sport
• 3 Micro view: individual and group explanations of sport corruption
• 4 ‘Bad barrels’: corruption in international sport federations
• 5 Applying a conceptual model of policy regime effectiveness to national and international anti-doping policy in sport
• 6 Lost Eden: the corruption of sport
• 7 The impact of corruption on individual athletes, teams, and organisations
• 8 The impact of sports corruption on organisational stakeholders
• 9 Impact on organisations: economic and reputation
• 10 Approaches to compliance and reform
• 11 The regulation and sanctioning of on-field corruption: whose law?
• 12 Research methods
• 13 The future of sport corruption scholarship and practice
• Index