Research on Corruption in Sports

Question: Discuss about the Research on Corruption in Sports. Answer: Introduction: Corruption is like a worm which is eating the humanity and killing the emotions of people from very long. Not only politically now corruption is everywhere, moreover corruption didnt even skipped sports. Sports were watched for entertainment in previous time but now sports is being watched for earning money. There is lot of corruption in sports in todays world. Every sports person is ready to ditch the team for which he/she is playing from long ago for just few amount of money or any other form of personal gains. Corruption also affects the way in which sports is played, promoted and managed. It affects sports in other forms also like players transfer from one team to another, schedule of matches, way in which a team plays, management of teams etc. (Australian Institute of Criminology, 2015). Corruption in sports is any kind of illegality during the course of the tournament or the match. Anything which is against that sport will lead to corruption. Like an athlete fixing a match or h e/ she is taking drugs to enhance the performance in a game. All these come under the head of corruption in sports. In present years corruption in field of sports has taken a huge rise as compared to previous years. There are many incidents which took place as corruption in sports. The recent incidents regarding corruption in sports are as follows In the game of cricket once a Sri Lankan player Suraj Randiv, bowled a no ball so that Indian batsman Virender Sehwag cant score a century. Sehwag was on 99 and India just needed one run to win. Although the batsman hit that ball for six but that was not counted in his account as India already won the match as soon as the ball was delivered. There was too much questions about the incident after the match, then the bowler of Sri Lanka admitted the wrong which he has done on his part. (Indian Express, 2010) In another game of cricket there was a test match between England and Pakistan in Lords. Three players of Pakistan cricket team were involved in spot fixing. The three players were- Mohammad Amir, Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif. Amir bowled two no balls in the match as a part of spot fixing. In the case Majeed was the name of the bookie that was controlling these three players and he paid 150,000 to them for delivering three no balls. First was to be bowled by Amir which was the first ball of his second over. Second one was to be bowled by Asif which was last ball of his fifth over. The third one was again bowled by Amir which was final delivery of his first over in that Amir had to go round the wicket to a right handed batsman. (Hoult, 2016) A well-known case of soccer match fixing in Australia was reported on September 2013 in which players and staff of the team Southern Stars FC were involved. Sportsradar is a internet betting web who detected strange betting patterns related to 5 matches of team Southern Stars, which may be said as poor play by few players of Southern Stars. After the investigation 6 players were found guilty. (Akerman, 2013) Victoria police charged 6 people in match fixing out of which 4 were players, one was coach and another one was Malaysian national. Betting was on 5 games (held on 21 July and 13 September 2013) with an estimate of 2 million USD. Coach was suspended on 25 October 2013 by the Football Federation of Australia for four months and sent to custodial sentence with a fine of 3000 USD. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2013) Four players were also suspended for breaches of FFAs National Code of Conduct. The players were fined with 1200 to 3000 USD each. The reason given by coach and players for fixing of the match was low pay by the club. The Malaysian resident was also held guilty by the court and he got a custodial sentence of three years. In February 2013, Australian Crime Commission came up with a 1 year investigation with Australian Sports Anti-Doping Agency into the use of PIEDs (Performance and Image Enhancing Drugs, 2016) It a steroid that increases male sex hormone specially testosterone which can enhance the performance by athletes in Australia. The investigation described heavy use of PIEDs among athletes. Use of this substance is illegal in sports as it enhances the performance of the athletes in a wrong way. Use of any kind of steroid in sports in banned by the laws in sports. (People Speaking about Sports Doping, 2013) These are few of the incidents which can come under the head of recent incidents regarding corruption in sports. There are a lot many incidents which has taken place in past and still there are incidents like these taking place in sports. This has drastically affected sports and nowadays people are not trusting the sports played on international level as they used to trust them in early times. The only reason behind this image of sports in world is corruption in sports. Steps to stop corruption in sports There can be several steps which can help us out in stopping corruption in field of sports. The steps for stopping corruption are as follows- (Sanders, 2016) The sports authorities and associations can play a major role in preventing corruption in sports. They provide a platform by which sports leaders can meet each other and can exchange their views (Transparency International, 2009). They represent their nation in the field of sports and they have obligations to perform their duties. The steps which can be taken by association are A strict policy should be made against corruption and no tolerance must be there in terms of corruption Public speak out against corruption. Remove the members who misuse their position for their personal gains. To make sure that no corrupt practices are done with their sponsor companies. Awareness should be spread among the players, trainers and all other members of the association of the issue of corruption and its after effects. They must work with government bodies to ensure efforts at higher scale to prevent corruption. Actions for government To keep sports out of corruption, governments actions are fundamental and most effective actions. The perception here is that government may have signed anti corruption conventions, and also they may have introduced law against corruption (Ranga, 2012) We can recommend that national authority Hold to account government officials who are involved in corruption in sports. There must not be any kind of immunity for the people who are indulged in corruption. Hold to account government officials who allow the sports persons to corrupt the sports. Co-operate with other countries government in prevention of corruption in international sports. Co-operation with the sport sector in implementing anti-corruption nationally. There can be some strict actions taken by the government for making a corruption free state. Those steps can definitely bring changes in the society. The steps can be- Making strict laws against corruption Penalizing the wrong doer with a large amount of fine. Heavy penalty to people who are regular offenders. Amendments in present laws as required. Government can also make organizations to look into the matter and they can ask the organization to make people aware about it and also to keep a check on the society that no corruption is taking place in society. The role of media Media coverage of corruption in sports is very important. It helps out the people to know truth about the sports that they are watching. Media organisations can do few things to prevent corruption They must adopt some policies that covers social issues in sports so that they can notice corruption in national and international sport associations. They must also encourage journalists to investigate on allegations put up for corruption in national and international sport association. Lastly they must educate there journalists in sports corruption so that they can keep a proper check on the daily activities in sports and if there is any kind of different activity they can point that out easily without being confused about the act. (Play the Game, 2005) Education can also play a major and vital role in preventing corruption in sports. According to a study 30000 students in 8th grade in 6 countries of Latin America that are Paraguay, Guatemala, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Mexico and Chile showed that the students who has more civic education are less involved in practice of corruption and also less likely to violate laws. (Education as tool against corruption, n.d.) Education can also be stated as backbone to prevent corruption. As we all know that backbone for almost everything in this world is education, so as to prevent corruption education is must. People should be educated about the negative points of education so that they can think twice before going for an act which is corrupted. They should be made aware about the laws against the person who has done any kind of corruption in any manner. (Bures, 2008) Education is one of the key things which can reduce or remove corruption from our world. Corruption free society is dream o f every country. The first thing which can make a country as a developed country is Corruption free society. By providing proper education we can make our society corruption free. A step is required to be taken for this, people are to be educated by providing awareness camps and other methods should be followed to make a corruption free society. This can help a lot because by providing education to people they will learn that how corruption is a big problem and in one or the way it is affecting their living standard only. As the result people will come to know that giving bribe is their big contribution towards downgrading their own nation. (parliamentarystrengthening.org, n.d.) There should be educational camps to make people aware about corruption. These camps should be organized by educational institutions on regular basis and in every possible place of their state so as to educate more and more people about that. References Akerman, P. (2013, September 16) Match-fixing scandal in the spotlight. The Weekend Australian. Retrieved from https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/football/match-fixing-scandal-in-the-spotlight/news-story/f2b80038af139cbb0cb2a406da572279 Australian Broadcasting Corporation. (2013, February 10). People Speaking about Sports Doping. Retrieved from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-10/people-speaking-out-about-sports-doping/4510542 Australian Broadcasting Corporation. (2013, October 25). Southern Stars players and coach banned by FFA following criminal charges for alleged match-fixing. Retrieved from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-25/ffa-bans-accused-match-fixers/5046854 Australian Institute of Criminology. (2015). Corruption in Australian Sport. Retrieved from https://www.aic.gov.au/media_library/publications/tandi_pdf/tandi490.pdf Bures, R., (2008). Why Sport is Not Immune to Corruption. Strasbourg. P.p. 27. Hoult, N. (2016, July 12) Pakistan spot-fixing shame: The inside story on the day the home of cricket became engulfed in scandal. The Telegraph. Retrieved from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2016/07/12/pakistan-spot-fixing-shame-the-inside-story-on-the-day-the-home/ Indian Express. (2010, August 18). No-ball Controversy: Dilshan instructed Randiv. Retrieved from https://archive.indianexpress.com/news/noball-controversy-dilshan-instructed-randiv/661947/1 Inter- American Development Bank. Education as tool against corruption. Retrieved from https://www.iadb.org/en/topics/transparency/support-for-countries/education-as-a-tool-against-corruption,6752.html Parliamentarystrengthening, The prevention, Education, and Enforcement of Corruption. P.p 14. Retrieved on 24 December 2016. Retrieved from https://www.parliamentarystrengthening.org/corruptionmodule/pdf/corruptionunit3.pdf Performance and Image Enhancing Drugs. (2016). Retrieved from https://www.druginfo.adf.org.au/drug-facts/pieds-facts#skiptocontent Play the Game. (2005, November 10). Statement for Integrity and Anti- Corruption in Sport. Retrieved from https://www.playthegame.org/news/news-articles/2005/statement-for-integrity-and-anti-corruption-in-sport Ranga, N.R. (2012). Effects of Corruption on People, Society and Economy. Retrieved from https://www.mindcontroversy.com/impact-effects-corruption-public-life-india/ Sanders, C. (2016). How to Stop Corruption. Retrieved from https://www.transparency.org/news/feature/how_to_stop_corruption_5_key_ingredients Transparency International. (2009, June 16). Preventing Corruption in Sport. Retrieved from What is Corruption? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.corruptie.org/en/corruption/what-is-corruption/