Investigative journalist Declan Hill continues his crusade against the scourge of match-fixing in soccer.
Ottawa journalist Hill paints disturbing picture in new book
On Tuesday, Ottawa investigative journalist Declan Hill told the European Parliament that if something is not done to crush match-fixing across the continent, spectator sport as we know it will begin to die.
He explained how sports fans throughout Asia have turned away because they no longer want to watch a match that has quite likely been fixed, and he called on prominent European politicians to stand beside him to demand action.
Later that day, he reiterated to me from his Brussels hotel room that global sports corruption is growing at such an alarming rate that it threatens to ruin sport.
If anyone has earned the right to say this, this remarkable crusader must be him.
Ten years ago, he launched into his Oxford University doctorate with a look at match-fixing in soccer — and by extension, as it turned out, other sports. And he has been shaking the soccer world by the neck ever since. He has sought out dangerous individuals, frightened individuals, major soccer players, match officials and team owners and their underlings.
His first book, The Fix: Organized Crime and Soccer, zipped around the world to a mixed early reception. The trouble was amateur and professional soccer players, millions of fans and a host of those in official capacities either didn’t believe him or, more likely, didn’t want to. He struck at the heart of the game in some of the most hallowed halls of the sport. Famous clubs, famous players, famous officials under scrutiny. That first book has become a must-read in the five years since it appeared.
Now he is telling us that those who didn’t believe then had better start changing their minds.
Hill has travelled the world preaching the gospel. He has testified on match-fixing in professional sports to the International Olympic Committee and the Council of Europe. Now he has launched his second salvo with The Insider’s Guide to Match-Fixing in Football, which was unveiled for the Kindle on Monday.
From where I sit, it promises to lift the lid once more, letting out the stench of corruption and warning the world that sport as a whole and soccer in particular is under threat.
He sees it as war and he intends to win it.
Maybe that’s a little too strong, but Hill is convinced that if something is not done to correct the problem, our children or grandchildren may no longer be able to enjoy a simple match between two “clean” teams intent on sporting endeavour.
Would any of us want to watch something that had been arranged in a dressing room somewhere or in a dark alley? Of course not.
During his doctorate, Hill amassed a huge collection of statistical evidence to help prove his point, and he has turned it into a book because he wants all of us with a love for honest competition to understand just how perversely and insidiously matchfixing is wrapping its tentacles around sports.
Anyone with an inquisitive eye might have spotted a man sitting in the corner of The Georgetown Pub in Old Ottawa South pecking away at a keyboard. They would have had no idea it was Hill turning out an academic statistical book that he has managed to write as a non-academic must-read.
He has littered the book with so many anecdotes that it is difficult to set aside.
Some were directly relayed to him in often hair-raising, almost unbelievable interviews, some from corruption court cases. He is even cheeky enough to suggest average fans skip the first four chapters if statistics send them to sleep. Don’t do that. There are far too many gems in there to allow you to drop off.
“At this moment, global sports corruption is in the hands of fixers in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand,” Hill says. Then he tells me that his research clearly indicates that Europe is under siege. Those fixers have spread into the Czech Republic, Finland, Italy, Slovakia, Greece, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and more. The list is eye-popping.
He says what has been happening to sports in Asia is there to see. Sponsors dropping off, fans staying away.
“With a very few honourable exceptions, it is so thoroughly corrupted and disgraced, most sports fans in Asia simply don’t bother. Instead, they watch the Premier League, Formula One, the NBA and switch off their local product.”
Then he gives me another shock, intended to emphasize the point that the cancer is spreading. That is how he described it in a speech to the Council of Europe — with apologies if the cancer analogy was too distasteful.
He seldom minces words.
“Italian and Turkish soccer is a dead man walking,” he says. “Right now Italian police say more than 20 teams are under investigation for match fixing in Serie A and Serie B (the top two professional leagues in the country). That’s 50 per cent. And if you include Serie C, more than 40 teams are being investigated for money laundering. There is a fully organized system of corruption.”
We soccer fans want to cover our ears when we hear stuff like that. But Hill has no intention of letting us.
He has on his side Dick Pound, the Canadian mastermind behind the World AntiDoping Agency, which has become so powerful it is capable of helping to bring down the most famous cheating untouchables. Remember Lance Armstrong?
And, judging by reaction from some of the prominent politicians at the European Parliament who have told him they will spread the message with him, he has a growing band of influential people ready to join the fight.
So where do we need to go from here?
Hill looks back to 1985 to support what he suggests.
That was the year when 89 Juventus fans died after a brutal confrontation with Liverpool fans in Brussels before the European Cup Final, the continent’s most important club contest. The European soccer authority (UEFA) told English authorities they had a soccer hooligan problem and banned all clubs in the country indefinitely. It lasted five years — six for Liverpool — by which time the hooligan element had been mostly eradicated. Families could return to stadiums to watch games in safety.
It was the tough stance that forced change, and Hill believes similar action is required here.
“At this moment, the Asian problem is racing round the world like the Asian flu,” he says. “We need to say to Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand governments: ‘With the greatest respect, your criminals are coming to Europe and fixing our sports. It has to stop and, if you don’t start taking measures, you are not welcome in international sport for the next two-to-five years.”
Europe’s most influential soccer authority — UEFA president Michel Platini — is onside.
In 2011, he told the Council of Europe: “European football is afraid … European sport is afraid because of a match-fixing phenomenon that is developing in connection with large-scale online betting activities … If tomorrow we’ll see a game and we already know the result, football is dead.” He reiterated the warning in an interview in September.
Hill is also calling for an independent international corruption agency to be set up to steer the fight — much like the anti-doping agency.
He is hoping what he reveals in The Insider’s Guide to Match-Fixing in Football will be a key persuader.