Football in the Contemporary World.

Contemporary
Issues
By Boni Bonev

01. Introduction

The following reading will be focusing on two contemporary issues in

football, relevant for the industry. The first topic explored will be the
gender inequality in football in terms of popularity, profit and rewards
and media coverage. A number of articles and researches would be
analysed, as well as information from government organisations. This
topic has relevant importance to the Sport and Football industry, in
particular, given the numbers from a recent survey taken by Sports
England (2015) which shows that more women are getting active in
sport participation in the last couple of years.

The second contemporary issue discussed would be the corruption in

football. This is another popular topic, given the fact of the FIFA 2015
corruption scandal, which led to the dismissal of President Joseph
(Sepp) Blatter and his UEFA counterpart Michel Platini. There will be
critical analysis of a range of topics which includes match fixing,
referee bribing and exploiting voting system for the biggest football
event: The World Cup.

02. Gender inequality in football

Participation in all sports amongst women has increased sufficiently in

the last couple of decades, mainly due to the introduction of equal
right policies such as 1975 Sex Discrimination Act in the United
Kingdom and Title IX in the United States (Coakley & Pike, 2009 and
Theberge & Birrell, 1994). However, despite the growth in women’s
participation in sports in recent years, football continues to be
predominantly men’s territory in England and across Europe (Scraton
et al., 1999 and Clark & Peachter, 2007). This part of the article would
explore the trends in gender inequality in football in terms of
participation rates, profit and rewards, popularity and media
coverage.
Football participation continue to rise in England according to 2015
Football Association (FA) survey. One in five adults regularly took place
in football activity in 2015 (The FA, 2015). Approximately over 8
million people are playing football in some form, which is increase by
14% since 2014. Most important there is a boost in youth and female
participants (aged 14-25) from over 100 000 compared to the numbers
the year before. These results come to support the recent 2015 Sport
England’s Active People Survey (APS) result which shows over 7 million
females, aged 16 or over, played sport at least once a week between
October 2014 and September 2015, an increase by 150 000 than the
female participants in March 2015 (Sport England, 2015).

Despite these encouraging numbers many female footballers still suffer

sexism and discrimination, and feel unequal compared to their male
counterparts (Caudwell, 2011). A research, conducted by University of
Liverpool professor Sue Bridgewater finds that 61% of women involved
in football have witnessed sexism and 46% have suffered sexism
themselves. Another survey from 2014 held by Women in Football (WiF)
showed almost 25% of women involved in the game have been bullied
and 15% feel they have been victims of sexual harassment. Head of
Women in Football Anna Kessel summarize this last:

“What we found 2 years ago was that there was really endemic
culture of institutionalized sexism against women…Two years
down the line not that much has changed…It shows that the
football authorities probably need to step up and work in this
area.”
(Sky Sports, 2016)

Another example of sexism towards female participants in football is

the case with Mike Newell (Luton manager 2003-2007) in 2006 when he
made a comment about the assistant referee Amy Rayner saying:
“What are women doing here? She shouldn’t be here, I know that
sounds sexist, but I am sexist!” (Kempson & Smyth, cited in Caldwell,
2011). However the FA fined Newell GBP 6 500 and he was made to
apologize publicly, but this is not a separate case. In 2010 Amy Rayner
actually refereed 20 minutes of a game between Conventry City and
Nothingam Forest due to the first referee injury. The Sun newspaper
came with the heading: “Can women referee a man’s footie?” and “Oi
ref! Are you blonde?” (Caldwell, 2011).

These examples are just supporting Jones’ (2008) thesis that sexism
and misogyny are common occurrences within football fan culture and
are proofs that gendered social connections stand as important and
influencing power in society and in football context (Jones, 2008).

The pay gap between male and female footballers is still huge,
according to report by BBC in 2014. Germany’s men national team for
example, as a World Champions received GBP 22 million for their title
winning in 2014 and Japan women’s team got GBP 630 000 in 2011
(BBC, 2014). It is the same competition, same award, but different
reward for the effort. The numbers are similar for the Champions
League: GBP 8,3 million for men and GBP 199 000 for women; English
FA Cup: GBP 1,8 million against GBP 5 000; and the Premier League:
GBP 24 million for the title in the men’s game, compared to no prize
money at all for the women’s equivalent (BBC, 2014). Actually there
are just a number of sports which pays equal prize money and they do
so only since couple of decades. The US Open tennis championship was
the first to introduce equal pay for men and women in 1973, followed
by the Boston and New York Marathons in the 1980’s , Athletics in 1993
and Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2000’s (BBC, 2014).

As defined by Boyle and Haynes (2009) the relationship between media

and sport is fundamental one as mass media sells sport and sport sells
mass media (Boyle and Haynes, 2009).The sporting world have been
seen for quite long as a male domain, with exposed masculinity
(Messner, 1993) and this also can be recognized in the media coverage
as women receive less air time than men does (Bishop, 2003 and
Biscomb & Griggs, 2012). As Cleland (2011) suggests women are lacking
role models seen in the media, they receive less funding on national
and international level and held sufficiently less governing positions
(Cleland, 2011). For example examining Guardian articles for the
period 1998-2009 on football topics shows that only 303 articles are
about women football, when for comparison 388 are for Coventry City
Football Club alone and Sir Alex Ferguson has 184 all of his own (The
Guardian, 2009).

According to Messner (2010) and his twenty years study of the media
coverage trends, women received less to no time in the sport news for
the period between 1989 and 2009. His findings confirmed there is a
huge gender gap in terms of sport news coverage. In 1989 women had
5% and men had 92% of air time, and in 2009 women had only 1,6%
compared to men’s 96,3%. The trend stayed the same with small
increase in women’s percentages in 1999 when women reached their
peak in his study at 8,7% news time (Messner, 2010).

When it comes to governance the picture is not so different. Women

are under-represented in publicly funded sport organizations in 2015.
They held only 30% of the leadership positions in the boardrooms.
However there is an increase from 2009 when in these positions were
only 21% women. However of the 63 organizations surveyed by
Independent (2015), 26 have minimum of 30% women in their
governance, but 29 of them are still struggling in gender parity with
less than 25% female board members (Independent, 2015).

However something is done after all in this path. The new FIFA
president Gianni Infantino introduced a change of women quotas in
FIFA governance. That includes all 209 member countries has to have a
women in decision making positions. At least 6 members of the FIFA
council would be women, which mean female would have 16%
representation in the World football governing body (Sky Sports, 2016).

03. Corruption in football

“Corruption is hidden action aimed at influencing the outcome of

an event away from its competitive outcome”
(Reade and Akie, 2013, p. 1)
As defined by Hill (2010) there are three major factors that influence
the occurrence of match fixing and these are low salary players
(officials), alternative market which pays more (gambling market) and
the perception of official complicity with the corruption. These three
factors feed to each other (Hill, 2011). His researched in the Asian
football leagues includes 220 interviews with players, coaches and
officials and quantitative data in terms of determining the trends.

Hill (2011) explores the trends in Asian football leagues after many of
them collapsed (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia)
in the last 15 years due to a high level of corruption and match-fixing
(Watts, 2004). His findings shows that due to the high number of
match-fixing in these countries the local leagues lost credibility and
spectators’ interest, the sponsors withdraw their funding because of
the bad publicity of these leagues and the leagues themselves
effectively collapsed (Hill, 2011). Although in these cases bribes were
used mainly towards the players, this is not case in European football.

Calciopoli in Italy in 2006 was one of the biggest ever scandals in the
contemporary football. Boeri (2010) argue that the Asian model could
not have worked in Europe because of the bigger salaries the players
take, therefore it was way cheaper to bribe the referee, on one side,
and was also more influential on the games’ outcome. A referee for
example was paid about 50 000 Euro per year, while a player from the
lower teams in the league were paid around ten times more (Boeri,
2010).

In May 2006 the Calciopoli unfolded as Italian prosecutors accused the

general manager of Juventus, Luciano Moggi, of exerting pressure on
referees, football officials and journalists ahead of important games
between Juventus and their rival teams. According to Garlando (2005)
who investigated the penalties given to Juventus in the period 1929-
2005 there are at least 20 games which can be associated with match-
fixing between 1994- 2004 (see Table 1).
Table 1.

Champ. M. day Match Result Dubious referee decision

1994/1995 18 Juventus–Brescia 2–1 Last minute irregular penalty
1996/1997 20 Juventus–Perugia 2–1 Perugia was denied penalty
1997/1998 3 Juventus–Brescia 4–0 Brescia was denied penalty
1997/1998 11 Juventus–Lazio 2–1 Penalty for Juventus
1997/1998 19 Juventus–Roma 3–1 Favours to Juventus
1997/1998 21 Juventus–Sampdoria 3–0 Non-existent goal for Juventus
1997/1998 25 Juventus–Napoli 2–2 Favours to Juventus
1997/1998 30 Empoli–Juventus 0–1 Empoli was denied goal
1997/1998 31 Juventus–Inter 1–0 Inter was denied penalty
1999/2000 33 Juventus–Parma 1–0 Parma was denied goal
2001/2002 3 Juventus–Chievo 3–2 Penalty for Juventus
2001/2002 14 A.C. Milan–Juventus 1–1 Penalty for Juventus
2001/2002 15 Inter–Chievo 1–2 Inter was denied penalty
2002/2003 17 Chievo–Juventus 1–4 2 penalties for Juventus
2002/2003 20 Juventus–Empoli 1–0 Penalty for Juventus
2002/2003 29 Juventus–Roma 2–1 Penalty for Juventus
2003/2004 10 Modena–Juventus 0–2 Favours to Juventus
2003/2004 16 Sampdoria–Juventus 1–2 Favours to Juventus
2003/2004 24 Brescia–Juventus 2–3 Favours to Juventus

It is important to note that there is no information of match-fixing in

1998/1999 season, when Italian Football Federation (IFF) introduced a
new random system of assigning referees (Garlando, 2005). The IFF
accused not only Moggi, but Diego Della Valle (Fiorentina owner) and
Claudio Lotito (Lazio chairman) with similar charges, sanctioned AC
Milan, Fiorentntina, Lazio and Reggina with points deduction while
Juventus were thrown in Serie B (the second tier of Italian Football),
points were also deducted from them in the season after and they
were stripped of their titles in 2005 and 2006. Forty eight people were
charged during this process including eight match officials (BBC, 2007).

However the main instigator for corruption in this case was referee’s
desire for promotion to an international referee level, which of course
would have doubled or even tripled the money they earn as Serie A
referees. In Italy in 2005 a referee received about 5100 Euro per game
in Serie A and 2500 Euro in Serie B, related to that there was also a
salary depending on the referee’s status: international referees – 37
000 Euro per year; top-referees (non-international) – 31 000 Euro;
intermediate – 25 000 Euro; new comers to Serie B – 13 000 Euro. So for
referees the involvement in top games in Italian Championship
significantly increases their chances of getting onto the international
roster, which first give them substantially increase of the income (the
annual earnings of international referee in around 200 000 Euros), and
second their career last longer, as international referees continue to
be selected for Serie A games until the age of 45, while referees
without international status are “retired” ten years early (Boeri,
2010).

Another case of referee bribing is the Hoyzer affair in Germany in

2005. He was accused of manipulating the results in several matches in
favour of illegal betting. His paymasters were Croatian criminals
(Forrest, 2012). In 2011 the so called “Bochum trail” (which the Hoyzer
affair was part of) resulted in a sentencing of nine people part of
organized crime in the Balkans who were found guilty of match-fixing.
Three hundred-twenty matches in 10 European countries were
identified to be manipulated including 53 in Germany, 74 in Turkey, 35
in Switzerland and 33 internationals (one of which was a World Cup
qualifier). For one year the criminal organization paid bribes of around
12 million Euro and made a profit of almost 8 million Euro (IRIS, 2012,
pp. 12-13). That was Germany’s biggest corruption scandal since 1971,
when there were sanctions for 53 players, 2 coaches, 6 officials and
clubs Arminia Bielefeld and Kickers Offenbach (Eurosport, 2005).

Links of corruption with other European countries are also evident. In

2011 a fake promoter invited four national football federations to
participate in an exhibition tournament in Turkey. All the games
finished “over 2,5 goals” and all seven goals were scored from
penalties (Latvia-Bolivia 2-1, Bulgaria-Estonia 2-2). Millions of Euro
were bet on the Asian betting market. The promoter nominated all six
referees from Bosnia and Hungary and ever since FIFA has given them
life suspensions. The promoter is currently still wanted by the police
(Forrest, 2012).
There are examples from England as well, where Liverpool goalkeeper
Bruce Grobbellaar was accused of fixing in 1994 after being videotaped
discussing a match arrangement with a Malaysian businessman. And in
1997 there was another bribing scandal, this time involving the stadium
technicians and a floodlight failure. An Asian betting market payed out
on the basis of the score when the game was stopped (The Guardian,
2001).

But of course the biggest ever corruption scandal came in 2015, when
the World football governing body, FIFA and its officials were accused
of taking millions of USD in bribes (BBC, 2015). The US investigators
found that the FIFA officials accepted bribes in connection with the
selection of South Africa as host of the World cup in 2010. They were
also found guilty in accepting money in connection with broadcast and
other rights to the Concacaf Gold Cup tournament in 1996, 1998, 2000,
2002 and 2003. In 2015 a total of 40 former and present officials were
accused of bribery and corruption. The former Brazil football
federation chief Ricardo Teixeira was amongst the charged officials of
involvement in criminal schemes priced more than USD 200 million
(GBP 132 million), the president of FIFA Sepp Blatter and his UEFA
counterpart are still under investigation and were banned from
football-related activities for eight years from the FIFA’s ethics
committee (BBC, 2016). The criminal investigation from both US and
Swiss officials still continues.

04. Conclusion

Taking in place the written above it is fair to conclude that there is

still gender inequality in football. It has many forms, from the society
perception of the game as typically masculine sport, to the prize
money and media interest, or lack of it, towards female achievements.
Sexism still exists in the game and it is also comprehend as something
normal and as part of the football fan culture. Football governance is
another place where women are underrepresented, however with
FIFA’s introduction of gender quotas in decision making positions, the
status quo would be slightly changed for the future generations.
Female participation numbers are also encouraging and initiatives like
Sports England “This girl can” campaign and the Active People Survey
has positive effect on the overall picture. There is still a massive pay
gap between men and women footballers, but this, more or less, is
being dictated by the market, the media and the customers’ and
viewers’ demands. The more money involved the bigger the interest
from a spectators’ point of view.

Regarding the corruption in football, the research and the information

provided in this article comes to show that corruption exist even in
highest level of football governance. The betting market and its
connection with organised crime are very strong and not easy to
monitor. Bribes and match-fixing are evident in all big football
leagues. Unfortunately manipulating game results will inevitably
withdraw the fan’s from the stadiums, as well as the sponsors due to
loss of credibility and trust in this market. The match manipulators in
any forms becomes more and more creative and with the betting
market giving them lots of gambling opportunities there is no evidence
that this is going to stop any time soon. The human’s greed and desire
for fortune and fame sometimes is ruining, what was once, a beautiful
game of football.
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