Sport Integrity

Introduction Georgia has unique difficulties in ensuring efficient regulation of the sports betting industry and the financial transparency of sports organizations due to it is a developing state. The lack of a strong regulatory framework is the main cause of these difficulties. Adopting a normative legal act that fully complies with the Council of Europe Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions (the Macolin Convention) is therefore imperative.The creation of a solid betting regulation policy and the establishment of efficient information-sharing mechanisms between state authorities and industry stakeholders would be made possible by the introduction of such a specialized regulatory framework. This would make it easier to prevent crime, specify criminal liability and disciplinary procedures and make clear the authority of specific state institutions. To establish a robust and specialized regulatory framework To develop a coherent and effective betting regulation policy To clearly define disciplinary and criminal liability regimes.

Cockfighting (sabong) has long been embedded in Philippine culture as a social and economic practice that cuts across class lines. The emergence of online cockfighting (e-sabong), however, transformed this tradition into a highly commercialized and digitalized gambling industry. Central to this transformation is tyope, a form of deliberate match manipulation carried out by insiders such as handlers, breeders, referees, and syndicates to secure predetermined outcomes for profit. This study examines tyope as a systemic political-economic phenomenon rather than isolated cheating. Using secondary data from investigative journalism, Senate hearings, and existing literature, the paper analyzes how weak governance, regulatory ambiguity, digital platforms, and economic incentives sustain match manipulation despite the 2022 e-sabong ban. Findings show that tyope is linked to corruption, violence, gambling addiction, tax evasion, and the disappearance of individuals involved in e-sabong operations. Ultimately, the study argues that tyope reflects deeper structural failures in governance and regulation within the Philippine gambling economy.

Mega sport events were among the very few types of events still attracting tourists during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and represented an exceptionally attractive tourism opportunity for Bucharest through the matches scheduled for the UEFA 2020 championship. Motivated by the novelty of the event which was organized for the first time in the Romanian capital city and motivated by the exceptionally restrictive context imposed by the sanitary crisis, the aim of this study was to analyze domestic tourist participation in and satisfaction with this event. An extended survey focusing on the autochthonous participants was applied to gather data and then further computed using SPSS software through crosstabulations and associated statistical analysis adapted for nominal and ordinal variables. The main results emphasize a large participation of Romanian football supporters who came specifically for the event. Most of them expressed dissatisfaction with souvenir, food and drink products sold within the stadium area but were satisfied with the COVID-19 measures and their costs. Supporters coming from rural areas opted for VFR accommodations while retirees and elderly supporters preferred hotels. Occupation and age were the main variables determining accommodation preferences as well as satisfaction with souvenir prices. These options may be valuable input for future adapted marketing strategies for sport event tourism in Romania. Lacking important urban tourist attractions and competing with other mature European urban destinations, mega sport events may represent an opportunity for autochthonous large cities to increase tourist attractiveness and maintain leisure travel even during periods of travel restrictions.

Manipulation of competitions has long plagued the sport industry, affecting almost every sport over time. While sharing certain common features, the regulatory provisions and procedural responses to this phenomenon by international federations (IFs), sports’ governing bodies, vary on many aspects, including the definition of the specific offence of “competition manipulation” itself, scope of application, especially in relationship to betting, categories of participants, mens rea elements such as recklessness and negligent behaviour, reporting obligations, aggravating and mitigating factors, and applicable sanctions across sports and within a sport/discipline. More nuanced items within internal disciplinary procedure also vary across federations, such as standard of proof and evidence. The purpose of this study is to offer a comparative synopsis of the regulations of 43 IFs governing Olympic and certain non-Olympic sports, to provide a critical overview of specific aspects of the abo...

Official documents, such as the Word Anti-Doping Code (WADC), argue that sport can be deemed a homogenous and unitary concept. Even where different sports have varying characteristics, the homogenous view of a given sport ('a sport' or 'the sport') persists. The WADC, international and national sport associations aim to protect the spirit of (the) sport. In this picture, the intersection of sporting integrity and legal processes occupies a vital place. The article will posit that, from a legal perspective sport is heterogeneous due to its governance, regulation, adjudication, and enforcement structures. International and national associations, such as sport federations and leagues, have separate normative orders. These normative orders lead to differences in ensuring sporting integrity. A plural normative environment is inherent in sport; thus, we need to deal with it. The article will conclude that although harmonising norms and interpretations related to sporting integrity through national and global institutions may be acceptable, these must be achieved by promoting good governance and human rights.

The bet match fixing scandals that started to affect European football in 2009 comprised Europe and Asia countries. The bet match fixing scandal, started in the bottom of the league in 2010, arose in 2011 in Spor Toto Super League and turned the market upside down. In the investigation of bet chicanery in which unethical behaviors were to be determined; club leaders, managers, technical directors, journalists, football players, national players and many fans were investigated and some were even arrested. This study, investigating how bet chicanery scandal effects social morality, included a questionnaire of 33 questions, 7 of which considering independent variables and 26 considering bet players' betting status and their point of view. In this study in which the titles "Football from Past to Present in Turkey", "Bet from Past to Present in Turkey" and "Mach Fixing Past to Present in Turkey" were considered, we can see Turkish people's betting statistics, their perspective of football clubs, attitudes towards these clubs and social effects about bet match fixing.

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the impacts of media coverage on the development of Hadiya Hosanna football club. Football and media has long historical relationships. Under this research, the researcher was study the relationship between social media and football. This study was employed by purposefully sampling method or the sampling techniques are purposeful sampling methods. The needed data was obtained by means of questioner and interview on players, coach and club manager from Hadiya Hosanna football club and the total population of Hadiya Hosanna football club was 29 and sampling size are 25 players, 3 coaches and 1 club manager based on analyzed media is very essential to develop football. In Hadiya Hosanna football club there was medium media coverage. In this cause there was impacts of on the development of the club. So the responsible body must work with medias.

This critical PhD review paper examines existing scholarship on ethical leadership in sport. Following a general trend in business ethics and related fields, ethical leadership has gained considerable research attention in sport over the last decades. Within this growing body of literature, ethical leadership is often presented as part of the desired strategic response of sport organizations to tackle the so-called dark side of sport (i.e., formed by such ethical issues as abuse, violence, management fraud, match-fixing, and doping). However, this critical PhD review paper argues that the current body of literature on ethical leadership in sport has matured along two strongly related yet quite isolated lines of inquiry: a normative (i.e., philosophical) and a descriptive (i.e., empirical) line. While the normative line of inquiry focuses on what ethical leadership in sport should look like based on moral reasoning, the descriptive line examines how ethical leadership in sport is perceived in practice and how it relates to certain antecedents and outcomes. As both lines offer complementary insights, we advocate future research to bridge this gap to come to an improved understanding of ethical leadership in sport. To this aim, we propose a broad stakeholder perspective on ethical leadership in sport, in which necessary attention is given to how all involved stakeholders make sense of ethical leadership as a socially constructed and context-dependent phenomenon.

Purpose. This study aimed to analyse the correlations between individual technical determinants and the overall team performance in rink hockey sport. Methods. Retrospective observational data were collected from 182 matches played by 14 teams competing at the first division of the Portuguese national senior rink hockey championship (full season, 2018/19). Goals scored, goals conceded, direct free-hits, penalties, and final classifications were collected by team, on the basis of the official scoresheets of the games, validated by the official referees. Results. The results revealed that direct free-hits were more prevalent, although teams were more effective on penalties (40.4%) than direct free-hits (27.1%). Strong inverse relationships between direct free-hits effectiveness and final classification in the league (r =-0.71, p = 0.004) as well as penalties (r =-0.58, p = 0.029) were found. The effectiveness of the technical determinants, penalties, and direct free-hits increased with the proficiency of the teams in the classification. However, the bottom teams experienced significantly higher weights of these technical determinants on the team's total goals scored (1 st-4 th : 15.3%, 5 th-9 th : 25.6%, 10 th-14 th : 23.9%; p < 0.05). Conclusions. In conclusion, individual technical determinants' effectiveness was a strong predictor of team performance, accounting for at least 22.1% of the total goals scored in the full season, highlighting athletes' specialization in the training process.

Mega sport events were among the very few types of events still attracting tourists during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and represented an exceptionally attractive tourism opportunity for Bucharest through the matches scheduled for the UEFA 2020 championship. Motivated by the novelty of the event which was organized for the first time in the Romanian capital city and motivated by the exceptionally restrictive context imposed by the sanitary crisis, the aim of this study was to analyze domestic tourist participation in and satisfaction with this event. An extended survey focusing on the autochthonous participants was applied to gather data and then further computed using SPSS software through crosstabulations and associated statistical analysis adapted for nominal and ordinal variables. The main results emphasize a large participation of Romanian football supporters who came specifically for the event. Most of them expressed dissatisfaction with souvenir, food and drink products sold w...

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Moriconi, M. & Cima, C. (2020). To report, or not to report? From code of silence suppositions within sport to public secrecy realities. Crime, Law and Social Change. 74 (1), 55-76, which has been published in final form at

The growth of the online sports betting market has generated new risk areas and threats to sport integrity, such as match-fixing. In recent years, institutional concern to fight against the phenomenon has been intensified and a set of countermeasures has been adopted. One of the most widely implemented measures to protect integrity in sport is to ban athletes and sports players from betting on the competitions in which they are involved. In some countries, such as Portugal, this practice has become a crime under the new legislation. Despite the legal and sporting restrictions and the prevention programmes carried out for sport institutions to explain the gambling rules, there are many athletes who are putting bets on their own competitions and even in their own games. Through interviews with key informant actors and ethnographic fieldwork, this article describes betting patterns among sports actors in Portugal and explains the perceptions and incentives that lead them to bet in their own sports, competitions and games. The results show different conceptions of integrity between the normative discourse on legal and sport governance institutions and sports actors' opinion, essentially, the premise that suggest a direct link between betting on one's own games and manipulation of these games. In some cases, betting in one's own games helps to strengthen fair play values. However, the spreading of online betting, together with the perception of inefficient controls in the implementation of sporting and legal regulations, creates opportunity structures for fixing matches and taking financial profit though gambling activities.

This report is the final output from a three-year Erasmus+ project, which researched the area of match fixing in club football friendlies in Europe.
The project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

This paper describes evolving patterns of drug misuse in sport, and reciprocal systems for defining and detecting doping across the late twentieth century.  The International Olympic Committee's list of prohibited substances and methods is presented as a primary tool for developing and administering such systems.  Developments in the list since its introduction have been stimulated both by increasingly sophisticated detection methods, and by the imperative to recognise and anticipate trends in doping.  The historical argument that doping is incompatible with the ethical nature of sport, and relates to pressures and inducements to misuse drugs, particularly at the elite level, is also addressed.  Finally, recent developments in international collaboration between governments and the sporting community are covered, and continued efforts to harmonise standards in anti-doping policies and practices are advocated.

One of the main obstacles to detect undesirable conducts such as manipulation of games and competitions, and to combat corrupt behaviour in the sports world is the existence of the so-called “code of silence” among the sport’s actors. Therefore, integrity educational campaigns, codes of conduct, ethics and disciplinary norms include the obligation to report any suspicion, approach, tentative or case of match-fixing. In some countries, such as Portugal, the obligation to denounce is incorporated into criminal law. Although several protected reporting channels have been implemented for sport institutions and federations to encourage whistle-blowing practices, the level of denouncement is still low. Through the analysis of official discourses, ethnography and interviews with key informants, this article demonstrates that despite the formal norms, reporting on corruption in sport, mainly match-fixing, is a dangerous practice that can have serious consequences for the athletes’ career. More than a code of silence within sports, what exist is a series of public secrecies that deliberately recognize the existence of informal institutions that create and materialize those dangers. However, while integrity actors show awareness of the situation, the official narrative and formal norms avoid considering these problems and, moreover, throw this evidence out of the integrity narrative framework. The result is a delegitimate and non-realistic narrative that pushes sports actors to keep quiet more than promoting ethical behaviours and whistle-blowing.

The growth of the online sports betting market has generated new risk areas and threats to sport integrity, such as match-fixing. In recent years, institutional concern to fight against the phenomenon has been intensified and a set of countermeasures has been adopted. One of the most widely implemented measures to protect integrity in sport is to ban athletes and sports players from betting on the competitions in which they are involved. In some countries, such as Portugal, this practice has become a crime under the new legislation. Despite the legal and sporting restrictions and the prevention programmes carried out for sport institutions to explain the gambling rules, there are many athletes who are putting bets on their own competitions and even in their own games. Through interviews with key informant actors and ethnographic fieldwork, this article describes betting patterns among sports actors in Portugal and explains the perceptions and incentives that lead them to bet in their own sports, competitions and games. The results show different conceptions of integrity between the normative discourse on legal and sport governance institutions and sports actors’ opinion, essentially, the premise that suggest a direct link between betting on one’s own games and manipulation of these games. In some cases, betting in one’s own games helps to strengthen fair play values. However, the spreading of online betting, together with the perception of inefficient controls in the implementation of sporting and legal regulations, creates opportunity structures for fixing matches and taking financial profit though gambling activities.

On the 1st of September 2019, the Council of Europe Convention against the Manipulation of Sports Competitions entered into force. This official mandate appears to confirm the significance of the issue on the political agenda. For sports governance bodies, the problem is one of the biggest threats against the integrity and sustainability of their industry. Despite this political-institutional situation, the phenomenon still remains under-studied in the academic world and several authors have emphasized the need for more and better empirical research to verify the premises (sometimes unfounded) on which the official preventive narrative of the problem is built. This special issue, Deconstructing Match-fixing, comes to light to address this issue. Systematizing the evidence presented along the contributions, this introductory article attempts to dispel some ‘myths’ in the official preventive narrative, offers some lessons for a better understanding of the phenomenon, and promotes recommendations for establishing more evidence-based public policies and educational campaigns.