Corruption in Football

         

                                                             How fair do you play ?

           

                 

                 We all know the saying "money leads to corruption", which had been unfortunately ironic  during the past years of the football industry. It has been plagued by many events and incidents that have affected it's image. Incidents showed that football became under the control of money, authority, and politics. Nowadays, corruption and fraud became heavily involved in the world of football. 

        Mohamed Bin Hammam, Sepp Blatter's past challenger for the FIFA presidency , was accused of offering bribes during the campaign. This incident shocked the whole footballing industry, and the investigations began immediately . On the 29^th of May 2011, Mohamed Bin Hammam was charged of bribery and was suspended from all the duties which are related to FIFA temporarily. However, there was more to come on the 23^rd of July 2011, where he was permanently banned from all FIFA activities by the FIFA ethics committee. 

           A past example of football corruption,  the 2006 Italian football scandal ,which had stunned all of Italy. It involved many of the top clubs in Italy like Juventus, AC Milan, Lazio, and Fiorentina in match-fixing and bribery scandals. Many telephone calls were intercepted and showed a zone between the club directors and the referees. These telephone calls were published in the newspapers showing a great deal of corruption.  More than 40 people-including two senior officials from Juventus, the most successful club, have been placed under investigation mostly for suspect criminal association for the purpose of sporting fraud.

           There was also another footballing scandal which involved Marseille Football Club, a well-known French football club in 1993. Marseille, at that time, was owned by a wealthy businessman called Bernard Tapie. During his time, the club won four league titles, and the European Champions League. However, in 1994, Marseille was accused of match-fixing and was relegated to the second division. After this scandal, Bernard Tapie was prisoned for three years and was forced to sell Marseille.

        

          Football has been also used as a money laundering cycle. In 2003, the Russian multi-billionaire Roman Abramovic bought Chelsea Football Club for 140 million Sterling. It  was widely known that the purchase of Chelsea was a kind of money laundry to cover the illegal businesses and trades that were carried out by Abramovic.  Yet those corruptible examples tend to intimidate senses of ethics and fairness. Football survives in conflicts and so should our moods .