Match fixing is when the outcome of a match in organized sports has been manipulated. The reason for fixing a match includes ensuring a certain team advances or gambling. Match fixing is seen as one of the biggest problems in organized sports and is considered as a major scandal. This article is a list of match fixing incidents and of matches that are widely suspected of having been fixed.
American football The Canton Bulldogs–Massillon Tigers betting scandal, which is recognized as the first major scandal in professional football history, unfolded after the 1906 Ohio League championship series. Canton Bulldogs coach Blondy Wallace and Massillon Tigers end Walter East were accused of conspiring to fix the series. In 1915, an unidentified gambler made an offer of $150 to Multnomah Athletic Club football player L. W. "Patsy" O'Rourke to throw the team's annual Thanksgiving game against the University of Oregon football team. O'Rourke approached team captain Red Rupert about the bribe, and the information ultimately made its way to Multnomah's coach. As a result, O'Rourke was benched for the game, which was a 15–2 victory for Oregon. An attempt was made to fix the 1946 NFL Championship Game between the New York Giants and the Chicago Bears, in favor of the latter team. Alvin J. Paris was convicted of bribery in 1947 for soliciting Giants players Frank Filchock and Merle Hapes. Harvey Stemmer and David "Pete" Karkower were also convicted of bribery for their involvement in the plot. The convictions were upheld on appeal in 1948. In 1949, Daniel Opalka of Massena, New York, was arrested for allegedly offering Massena High School football player David Walker $200 to fix the team's upcoming game against Saranac Lake High School. Opalka admitted to having a conversation with Walker about fixing the game, but said he was doing so in jest. In 1960, Brooklyn, New York, school teacher David Budin was arrested by Michigan State Police for allegedly trying to bribe University of Oregon football team member Mickey Bruce in order to fix the outcome of their upcoming game against the University of Michigan football team. According to police, University of Oregon athletic director Leo Harris declined to press charges to spare Bruce from having to be involved further. Budin was released by police after paying a $150 fine because he registered his hotel room under false name. Bruce later alleged sports gambler Frank Rosenthal was the mastermind of the plot. In 1998, four Northwestern University football players were indicted for lying to a federal grand jury when they testified they had not placed wagers on their own games in 1994. Only one player—tailback Dennis Lundy—was accused of fixing the game. Lundy denied in front of the grand jury to intentionally fumbling on a play during a game against the University of Iowa in 1994. Federal prosecutors attested the fumble was intentional for the purposes of point-shaving. 2015: On May 6, a federal grand jury in Detroit indicted six former University of Toledo athletes—three each from the school's football and basketball programs—on charges of conspiracy to commit sports bribery in relation to their alleged involvement in a point shaving scheme that ran from 2012 through 2015. It is believed to be the first major U.S. gambling case involving two sports at the same college. Since then, four former Toledo athletes, including at least one not named in the original indictments, have pleaded guilty on charges related to the scheme. One of these, former Rockets running back Quinton Broussard, admitted he had deliberately fumbled during the 2005 GMAC Bowl against UTEP (a game ultimately won 45–13 by Toledo) in exchange for $500, and had been paid to provide confidential team information to one of the orchestrators of the scheme by Ásgeirsson Günther .
Association football
In 1964, the great British football betting scandal of the 1960s was uncovered: a betting ring organized by Jimmy Gauld and involving several Football League players had been fixing matches. The most famous incident involved three Sheffield Wednesday players, including two England international players, who were subsequently banned from football for life and imprisoned after it was discovered they had bet on their team losing a match against Ipswich Town. There had been a similar scandal in 1915. 1980 Italian football scandal ("Totonero"): In May 1980, the largest match-fixing scandal in the history of Italian football was reported to the Italian Guardia di Finanza by the owner of and supplier to a restaurant frequented by players, Alvaro Trinca and Massimo Cruciani, who declared that some Italian football players agreed to fix football matches for money in a scheme planned by Trinca and Cruciani, implicating, among others, AC Milan and Lazio. Teams were suspected of rigging games by selecting favorable referees, with superstar Italian World Cup team goalkeeper Enrico Albertosi and future 1982 FIFA World Cup winner Paolo Rossi being banned for betting on football games. Both clubs were forcibly relegated to Serie B and the ringleader of the scheme, Milan president Felice Colombo, was banned for life. In 1981, a mob of about 500 people took over the pitch during a Panionios F.C. practice amid accusations that team trainer Lakis Petropoulos had helped fix a match against P.A.S. Korinthos that resulted in a 0–0 draw. Police assisted Petropoulos to safety. During the 1982 FIFA World Cup, West Germany and Austria played a game on 25 June known as the Disgrace of Gijón due to accusations that both teams had fixed the match. In 1986, the Yugoslavian Football Association ruled that the first round playoffs of the Yugoslav First League had to be replayed after accusations of match fixing were made against several teams by the press. Twelve of the league's 18 teams were penalized. A court later dismissed the penalties against the clubs. In February 1999 a Malaysian-based betting syndicate was caught attempting to install a remote-control device to sabotage the floodlights at FA Premier League team Charlton Athletic's ground, with the aid of a corrupt security officer. If the match had been abandoned after half-time, then the result and bets would have stood. Subsequent investigations showed that the gang had been responsible for previously unsuspected "floodlight failures" at West Ham's ground in November 1997, and again a month later at Crystal Palace's ground during a home match of Palace's groundsharing tenant Wimbledon. The Italian Football Federation said in October 2000 it had found eight players guilty of match-fixing. Three were from Serie A side Atalanta and the other five played for Serie B side Pistoiese. The players were Giacomo Banchelli, Cristiano Doni and Sebastiano Siviglia (all Atalanta) and Alfredo Aglietti, Massimiliano Allegri, Daniele Amerini, Gianluca Lillo and Girolamo Bizzarri (all Pistoiese). The charges related to an Italian Cup first round tie between the two sides in Bergamo on August 20, 2000, which ended 1–1. Atalanta scored at the end of the first half and Pistoiese equalised three minutes from full-time. Atalanta qualified for the second round. Snai, which organises betting on Italian football, said later it had registered suspiciously heavy betting on the result and many of the bets were for a 1–0 halftime score and a full-time score of 1–1. In 2004, Portuguese Police launched the operation Apito Dourado and named several Portuguese club presidents and football personalities as suspects of match fixing, including FC Porto's chairman Pinto da Costa. Some of the wiretaps used as proof, deemed inadmissible in court, can now be found on YouTube. In June 2004 in South Africa, thirty-three people (including nineteen referees, club officials, a match commissioner and an official of the South African Football Association) were arrested on match-fixing charges. 2005 German football match-fixing scandal: In January 2005, the German Football Association (DFB) and German prosecutors launched separate probes into charges that referee Robert Hoyzer had fixed several matches in which he refereed and had bet on, including a German Cup tie. Hoyzer later admitted to the allegations; it has been reported that he was involved with Croat gambling syndicates, and also implicated other referees and players in the match-fixing scheme. The first arrests in the Hoyzer investigation were made on January 28 in Berlin; Hoyzer himself was arrested on February 12 after new evidence apparently emerged to suggest that he had been involved in fixing more matches than he had admitted to. Hoyzer was banned for life from football by the DFB. On March 10, a second referee, Dominik Marks, was arrested after being implicated in the scheme by Hoyzer. On March 24 it was reported that Hoyzer had told investigators that the gambling ring he was involved with had access to UEFA's referee assignments for international matches and Champions League and UEFA Cup fixtures several days before UEFA publicly announced them. Hoyzer was sentenced to serve 2 years and 5 months in prison. In July 2005, Italian Serie B champions Genoa was downgraded to last place in the division by the sporting justice, and therefore condemned to relegation in Serie C1, after it was revealed that they bribed their opponents in the final match of the season, Venezia to throw the match. Club president Enrico Preziozi was banned for five years after being guilty by the sporting justice. Genoa won the match 3–2 and had apparently secured promotion to Serie A. Brazilian football match-fixing scandal: In September 2005, a Brazilian magazine revealed that two football referees, Edílson Pereira de Carvalho (a member of FIFA's referee staff) and Paulo José Danelon, had accepted bribes to fix matches. Soon afterwards, sport authorities ordered the replaying of 11 matches in the country's top competition, the Campeonato Brasileiro, that had been worked by Edílson. Both referees were banned for life from football, and faced criminal charges. After the scandal Brazilian supporters often shouted "Edílson" at a referee considered to have made a bad call against their team. 2008 The Fix: Book by Declan Hill alleges that in the 2006 World Cup, the group game between Ghana and Italy, the round-of-16 game between Ghana and Brazil, and the Italy-Ukraine quarter-final had all been fixed by Asian gambling syndicates. The German Football Federation (DFB) and German Football League (DFL) looked into claims made in a Der Spiegel interview with Hill that two Bundesliga matches were fixed by William Bee Wah Lim, a fugitive with a 2004 conviction for match-fixing. 2008: On October 1, it was reported that a Spanish judge who headed an investigation against Russian Mafia figures uncovered information alleging that the mobsters might have attempted to fix the 2007–08 UEFA Cup semi-final between eventual champion Zenit St. Petersburg and Bayern Munich. Both clubs denied any knowledge of the alleged scheme. Prosecutors in the German state of Bavaria, home to Bayern, later announced that they did not have enough evidence to justify a full investigation. 2008: On October 4, suspicious online betting on the game between Norwich City and Derby County led some to question the validity of the Football League match. Gamblers in Asia were said to have placed a large amount of money down during halftime, which raised concerns over the outcome.FA launches match-fixing investigation into Norwich v Derby match, 16 October 2008, accessed 14 Match 2009 The inquiry by The Football Association found no evidence that would suggest the match was fixed.Match-fixing inquiry closed by FA, 5 December 2008, accessed 14 March 2009. Derby County won the match 2–1.