World of sport must gamble on setting up a new global anti-corruption body
IT is rare for the spotlight to be shone on potential match-fixing in Ireland. Reports of an eye-watering €400,000 being wagered on a first division game in the League of Ireland and the apparent evidence of the UEFA report certainly suggest the investigation into the Athlone Town-Longford Town match will garner significant attention in the coming weeks and months.
Unlike other countries, there is little data available on the problem of gambling in Ireland. A UCD study from 2015 indicated that 40,000 people in Ireland are known to have a gambling addiction. There is plenty of colloquial evidence, however, of sportspeople with a gambling problem. The number of high-profile GAA players who have confessed to gambling addictions means that it is not just the likes of Joey Barton who gamble as a release from the high pressure world of sport.
The corruption of sporting events dates back to the Olympics in ancient Greece. However, technology and innovation means that you can now bet 24/7 from anywhere in the world on almost any conceivable aspect of a sporting event. Not just that but you can ‘lay’ or bet on a team, player, athlete, horse or greyhound to lose.
As a result, corruption in sport has been described by Michel Platini as a “mortal danger” to sport and by the IOC as “the biggest threat facing sports”. While doping involves breaking the rules to win, match-fixing or spot-fixing involves competitors not trying their best — which strikes at the very essence of sport.
It is a transnational problem. Illegal Asian gambling markets are said to be worth €409bn. Fixing is reported to be one of the ways organised criminals launder and supplement their ill-gotten gains.
There is only so much that national sporting bodies like the FAI can do. They have rules dealing with the manipulation of matches and players betting on matches, as well as rules requiring players to immediately report if they are approached by anyone in connection with influencing the course of a match. But however well drafted a sports body’s rules may be, they are of little use if they cannot be policed and enforced — and sports bodies don’t have the resources or legal powers to do this.
The sports betting industry in Ireland is regulated by the Betting Act 1931. This was amended in 2015 to provide for a licensing regime for betting exchanges and intermediaries but there is no regulation of the industry in any real sense. Under Alan Shatter, the Dept of Justice published the general scheme of the Gambling Control Bill in 2013, which provides for an offence of “manipulation with intent to alter outcome”. When enacted, this legislation would make it an offence for any participant in sport (players, management, medical and technical support personnel) to accept any payment, gift or reward in return for agreeing or, in so far as that person can, to bring about a particular score or outcome. The Government’s legislative programme suggests that pre-legislative scrutiny of the Gambling Control Bill is underway, but it remains to be seen if and when the Government will see fit to regulate the betting industry.
The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that in addition to opening its own investigation, the FAI sent a copy of UEFA’s report to An Garda Siochana. Match-fixing may amount to fraud under Section 6 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001, but there has yet to be such a case in Ireland.
National measures are only one piece of the puzzle. Unfortunately, to date, there has been no global response to gamblingrelated corruption in sport. This contrasts with doping. The fight against doping in sport is led by the World Anti-Doping Agency which is jointly funded by sports bodies and governments and underpinned by a UN convention and a world anti-doping code binding on governments and sports respectively.
Recent years have seen repeated calls for a world anti-corruption agency with similar mandate and powers but little progress. In 2014, the Council of Europe agreed a Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions. It has yet to come into force and Ireland has neither signed it nor ratified it. Until an effective global response led by governments establishes a similar structure which encompasses sports, police and enforcement agencies and the global betting industry, the clear and present danger to sport will remain. Gary Rice, Aidan Healy and Niall Sexton are solicitors at DAC Beachcroft Dublin which specialises in sports law and regulation.