Football's greatest threat: Why technology & stakeholder collaboration are key to combating global match-fixing

The integrity of football has faced significant challenges in recent years – from governance failures and alleged vote-rigging, to concerns around common ownership of clubs, third party ownership of players and so-called “financial doping” ¹ (e.g. potential flouting of financial fair play regulations).

Yet one of the most far-reaching threats to maintaining honest competition in football is a scourge that often seems to go under the radar (certainly in terms of mainstream media reporting) – namely, match-fixing. Whilst FIFA/UEFA seem to be getting their respective houses in order and rules have been introduced to tackle ownership issues, match-fixing continues to blight the game with alarming regularity.

This article discusses the threats that match-fixing poses to football and how the community might best begin to tackle the problem. Specifically, it looks at:

• Examples of recent match-fixing convictions and allegations from around the world;

• The paradoxical role that modern technology plays in both combatting and exacerbating the problem;

• What the future holds in terms of prevention and detection.