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Top 10 Biggest Scandals in Football History(2023)
Biggest Scandals in Football History – The beautiful game, as Football is fondly called, remains beautiful and will be for the foreseeable future. It has grown to become arguably the most followed and most adored sport in the world as it continues to provide unmatchable entertainment and ecstatic feelings to spectators from all the four corners of the universe.
However, there are times when it could get down ugly – albeit as a result of various scandals that erupt at certain moments to shake the football world. This could be from several angles and it often involves major and minor figures alike and a lot of instances can be pointed at.
Over the past few years, there have been a lot of infamous scandals recorded in the sport that sent spectators wild. From football’s governing body involving in corruption to teams fixing matches and players having illegal affairs, we present to you the top 10 scandals in the history of the game:
Top 10 Biggest Scandals in Football History(2023)
Here are some of the biggest scandals in the history of Football
- Calciopoli Scandal (2006)
- The 2009 case of Nigerian age fraud
- The 2005 Bundesliga Match-Fixing Scandal
4. FIFA Corruption Scandal
5. The Brazilian spending scandal of 2014
6. Franck Ribery, Karim Benzema and the Underage Sex Worker Zahia Dehar
7. John Terry’s Affair with Wayne Bridge’s Wife Vanessa Peronncel
8. Mark Clattenburg Racist Accusations
9. Rio Ferdinand Drugs Test
10. Andres Escobar Murder
10. Andres Escobar Murder – Scandals in Football
Colombian Soccer Star Andres Escobar was Killed After an Own Goal in the 1994 World Cup
9. Rio Ferdinand Drug Test – Scandals in Football
Rio Ferdinand was banned for eight months after missing a drug test in 2003
Compared to other sports of similar popularity, Football is quite relaxed when it comes to the subject of performance-enhancing drugs and drug testing.
However, in 2003, Rio Ferdinand was one of those rare individuals to fall afoul of the law and was banned from the game for eight months after missing a test he was scheduled to have (via BBC Sport).
Along with his suspension, the Manchester United stalwart was fined £50,000 and missed Euro 2004 as a result of his ban.
It’s still slightly a mystery as to what reason Ferdinand had for missing the test, but the centre-back has since gone on to enjoy great success during his days as a Red Devil, absolving his sins in the minds of many.
8. Mark Clattenburg Racist Accusations – Scandals in Football
Clattenburg was said to have racially abused Chelsea midfielder MikelIt’s one thing for the players on the pitch to be accused of racism, but it’s another issue entirely when the allegations are aimed at a referee, since the officials are there to make sure such matters don’t pose an issue.
In 2012, the Daily Mail reported that two unnamed Chelsea players said they heard referee Mark Clattenburg make racist remarks during a fixture against Manchester United.
Chelsea later stated that they regretted their handling of the whole incident (BBC Sport), but its impact was nevertheless felt at the time.
7. John Terry’s Affair with Wayne Bridge’s Wife Vanessa Peronncel
Wayne Bridge was devastated after it emerged that his Chelsea team mate John Terry could be involved in an affair with his wife Vanessa Perroncel.
Bridge and Terry also played for the English National team in the past and were considered to be good friends before this incident.
Bridge subsequently refused to play for England if he will be lining up alongside Terry.
In the games against Chelsea that he has taken part since details of the alleged affair emerged, he refused to shake hands with Terry.
The former Chelsea defender also had a tough time following the affair, considering that he was stripped of his captaincy before the world cup by Fabio Capello and had to endure plenty of criticism.
6. Franck Ribery, Karim Benzema and the Underage Sex Worker Zahia Dehar
The trio were believed to have slept with an underage sex worker
Franck Ribery, Karim Benzema and Sidney Govou were involved in an alleged sex scandal involving sex worker Zahia Dehar, who is still a teenager.
She has been accused of sleeping with all three footballers at the time when she was lesser than 18 years of age though Ribery and the others claim that they had no knowledge of her age when they were involved in the incident.
She said that they were all nice to her, and that she was surprised that they could face criminal charges in the future.
5. The Brazilian Spending Scandal of 2014
One of the recent World Cup scandals happened just few years ago as Brazil served as the ground on which the prestigious tournament was played in 2014. to host the mega competition, some money had to be spent on the construction of stadiums, living quarters, and a lot more.
Although that in itself isn’t a scandal, the billions of dollars that were spent on the project was. It was claimed that Brazilian politicians were amongst those who provided revenue for the immensely expensive building project. The act was slammed scandalous for two reasons.
Accusers claimed it was Influencing the potential outcomes of future government elections, as well as taking government funds away from the masses for things they needed. It ended up as a mess on Brazilian football as the sport is supposed to be free from political influence.
4. FIFA corruption scandal – Scandals in Football
Football’s governing body was charged for corruptionThis is one of the biggest sporting corruption scandal of all time. Swiss police had raided a luxury hotel in Zurich and arrested seven FIFA executives.
Working with the FBI, the arrests came after years of alleged corruption by the world football governing body, who awarded the 2022 World Cup to Qatar despite the rich nation having no footballing culture or history.
A further 14 current and former FIFA officials were then arrested due to “rampant, systemic and deep-rooted” corruption, and in December, 16 more FIFA officials were arrested in the same hotel for “racketeering, conspiracy and corruption.”
The arrests ended the careers of former FIFA president Sepp Blatter and UEFA president Michel Platini, who were both banned for eight years from all football related activities. The two were found guilty of breaches surrounding a £1.3 million payment made to Platini in 2011.
FIFA as an organisation has been accused of 47 different offences by US prosecutors, who took charge of the investigation after discovering that US bank accounts were used to transfer illegal funds.
US authorities have charged 14 defendants with racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering and claim that FIFA officials took part “in a 24-year scheme to enrich themselves through the corruption of international soccer.”
According to the former general secretary of Concacaf, which operates North, Central America and Caribbean football, FIFA officials agreed to accept bribes in order to select South Africa for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
He said another co-conspirator received a bribe to vote for Morocco in the 1998 World Cup which went to France, while he and others accepted bribes for broadcast deals and others rights.
3.The 2005 Bundesliga Match-Fixing Scandal
Many scandals have been recorded in Germany’s top football division over the years, which includes Hertha Berlin making illegal payments to players in order to gain an unfair competitive advantage in 1965 (an act similar to circumventing the salary cap), or over 50 players, managers, and officials being suspended or fined for match-fixing in 1971.
The scandals are endless but the one that drew the attention of most people happened in 2005, when second-division referee Robert Hoyzer, several other officials, and even some managers and players were discovered to be working closely with an organized crime group to fix the results of games. To make matters worse, the scandal came just as Germany was preparing to host the FIFA World Cup in 2006.
It was later revealed that Hoyzer, whose manipulation of match outcomes through controversial penalty calls and ejections was reported by co-officials, did a majority of his match-fixing work at the lower divisions of German football.
2. The 2009 case of Nigerian age fraud
Age fraud has been a consistent problem in football for a long time and the topic again re-emerged in 2014 after Lazio signed 17-year-old Cameroonian midfielder Joseph Minala.
According to the Senegalese media, the player was actually 41 years old and was just one of many African players who claimed they were younger in order to gain a competitive advantage.
While the claim was strongly denied by both the player and his club, age fraud in African football has been a problem for many years with Nigeria having the worst reputation for hiding the age of its players.
In 1988, Nigeria was banned from all FIFA competitions after it was revealed that three of the players in the country’s Olympic squad had different birth dates compared to dates used in previous tournaments.
But the biggest case of age fraud in Nigeria was discovered in the build up to the 2009 Under-17 World Cup. After FIFA announced that it would be taking new measures to test the age of players in the tournament, Nigeria dropped 15 players from its squad.
The prevalence of age fraud in the country has been admitted by several Nigerian officials since, and in 2010 the former head of the Nigerian Football Federation said in regards to age fraud, “We always cheats, it’s a fact.
1. Calciopoli Scandal (2006)
Juventus were relegated as a result of match-fixing
Calciopoli Scandal in 2006 rocked world football when it emerged that many top clubs in Italy had been involved in influencing the appointment of referees for their games among various other allegations.
Every football lover knows quite well that even one bad call by a referee can change the overall outcome of a game. For this reason, when it was revealed in 2006 that a handful of Italian teams were picking referees who would officiate games in their favor, it ended up being one of the most popular scandals in the long and illustrious history of the game.
While a couple of teams took part in the scandal and were found guilty of using certain officials to influence the outcome of games, the most significant one was Juventus, who got demoted from Serie A to Serie B as a result.
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