Declan Hill is an investigative journalist, documentary maker and academic. He specializes in the study of organized crime and international issues. His book ‘The Fix: Soccer & Organized Crime’ examined the corruption at the heart of international football and became a landmark best-seller in eight languages. Before publishing ‘The Fix’ he completed documentaries on the killing of the head of the Canadian mafia, blood feuds in Kosovo and ethnic cleansing in Iraq. He has also made documentaries in Kurdistan, Bolivia, India, Mexico, and Turkey.
To learn more about Dr. Hill and his work, visit www.declanhill.com and www.howtofixasoccergame.com.
RedNation recently had the chance to catch up with Dr. Hill to discuss the state of match fixing in 2012 and to get his thoughts on developments in his field of expertise since The Fix was published.
RedNation Online: The Fix was first published in September, 2008 and the last time I spoke to you was June of 2010. I guess an obvious first question is: have things improved at all since your book was published?
Declan Hill: Oh gosh, yes. I mean unbelievably so. When it came out, I think maybe 50% of people said “This is a problem and we have to deal with it” and the other 50% said “Who is this guy?” and “This is complete crap”, etc. And what has happened is that the second critical 50% has just evaporated like snow in May, mostly because of the Organized Crime Task Force in Bochum, Germany. I had taught a couple of their detectives in Vienna at a corruption school and, when the book came out, they were like we know him and he is okay. And they launched an investigation and it basically revealed that not only had I told the truth, I had actually been moderate in what I had written compared to what was actually going on. They discovered over 250 games that had been fixed in nine different countries, including the European Championships, World Cup qualifiers, all the way down to a game featuring 16 year olds in Germany.
According to Chris Eaton at FIFA, that first investigation has spawned something like fifty match fixing investigations that are ongoing around the world. I don’t know that for a fact, but I do know that there are match fixing investigations going on in Finland, Turkey, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Malta, Cyprus, Italy, Switzerland, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, Albania, Austria and Poland, where its been said the levels of corruption are up there with Asian levels.
So people in official places are starting to take it seriously and I just mentioned Chris Eaton’s name. He is in charge of the Integrity Unit that I recommended should be set up at FIFA. I know for a fact that the Integrity Unit at UEFA was set up partly in response to my book. I don’t want to take full credit when its not justified, but I do know that the publication of the book was very much a catalyst for the establishment of that. And I know that, because they told me when they flew me out to Milan and we met and they said, “We are setting this up in part because of you.” So it is a huge, huge change.
I have testified in front of the International Olympic Committee since you and I last spoke Steve. I’ve just finished an International E-Learning program for athletes that is saying, “Guys, if you fix with these people, you end up as their slaves. You don’t want to be doing that. You want to be controlling your own career.” I know the British Olympic Association has just put in place a special security unit to stop fixing from going on at the Olympics in London.
This is not to say that they have actually succeeded in stopping corruption, but at least the battle has begun and at least the forces are starting to get organized and putting measures in place. Some of those forces are not working in good faith, but lots of people are. So the battle has begun and we have started it.
RNO: Interestingly, The Fix was released right around the time that the world economy entered a period of crisis. The entire world - and Europe in particular - has been experiencing a lot of financial problems and economic turbulence over the last several years. Has that had any effect on the preponderance of match fixing?
Declan Hill: No, absolutely not. The only connection that I can see between those two things is that basically what I wrote about in The Fix is the globalization of the gambling market. It meant that I, a non-gambler, spent an enormous amount of time around gamblers. And what I recognize is happening with the world financial markets is that they got taken over by gamblers. I remember reading the news and the quotes from these bankers and investment guys and the language they were using is exactly the same as the way that gamblers talk. It’s never their fault and it is always somebody else’s fault. They never think they have made a bad bet in their entire life. When you talk to addicted gamblers, they speak in those ways. They have no self reflection and they do not have any ability to say, “You know what, I really screwed up – I made a bad bet.” It’s always somebody else or another issue.
RNO: In The Fix you described several of the ways in which matches have been fixed in the past. When it has come to regulating the use of steroids and performance enhancing drugs in sport, it's pretty much accepted that innovators simply find new ways to break the rules and find ways to get around controls that have been put in place. Have there been any recent innovations in how matches are fixed?
Declan Hill: Not really particular technology, but it is a very astute question. The Fix is basically about the activity of Asian gangs and one in particular that I infiltrated and used a hidden camera to record the boys in action. Where match fixing has gone since the publication of the book is that we have now reached the state where anyone can fix a game. You don’t need those Asian gangs to help fix the games. Now all you need is contact with the players and a capacity to get on the Asian gambling market, which is pretty easy. Make your bets small enough that they don’t attract all that much attention and you are on your way - you can fix. That’s the problem. That’s why we need all these institutions in place quickly, because we are not just facing professionals, we’re facing amateurs who now have the tools – thanks to globalization – to be able to corrupt their own matches.
RNO: On your blog you have written about the recent match fixing scandal in Turkey. The Turkish First Division has been prominent for Canadian soccer fans due to the fact that three important Canadian National Team members have until very recently plied their trade there. Interestingly, all three have had either an issue with unpaid wages or with their club struggling financially. Obviously, clubs are under enormous financial pressure these days. While the morality and background of the people who own and operate football clubs around the world is varied, do you think those financial pressures on clubs have lead to some executives who would actually like to run their teams in the pure spirit of the sport actually getting involved in match fixing in order to keep their organizations solvent?
Declan Hill: Yes, absolutely. And this is what I am talking about when I say that anyone can fix. It is now part of the business plan for many clubs – not the majority – in many countries. This is not to exaggerate because it is not all clubs in all countries, but is the club owners who are now fixing. And they are telling their guys by walking into their dressing room and asking them if they want to receive their salaries, which they haven’t received for three months, telling them that they need to lose the game because they made a bet on the gambling market.
And so it has become a professional code in many countries that a player has to know how to lose as well as how to win. And while this isn’t just Turkey, I would advise any Canadian player to take a sober look before playing in the Turkish league, because very few players get their promised salaries in that league. It is notorious for corruption and evasion, even before this most recent fixing episode. The Turkish match fixing investigation that is going on right now is extraordinarily large. It is three of their top four teams, whose club officials are in jail as we speak.
But it’s not just Turkey. I just returned from Greece, where the allegations and charges by the police against a number of club owners are exactly what I have just outlined. The clubs themselves were fixing. It wasn’t just gangs or criminals that were hooking up with players. It was a business plan and it was how they made money.
RNO: We have all read about some shady people owning very prominent clubs in Europe. As part of the regulations that need to be put in place, does their need to be more due diligence and governance around who can actually own a club?
Declan Hill: Yes.
RNO: You have written about the story of a young Korean player who committed suicide due to his involvement in match fixing. When German keeper Robert Enke committed suicide due to depression, it was a huge story all around the world and rightfully so. Why do you think the suicide of the Korean player was a story that received so little coverage in the media?
Declan Hill: I think it is just that South Korean football isn’t as prominent as German football. I followed the Korean story quite closely and one thing they didn’t talk about was how poorly those players were paid and how they were exploited by their club ownership. And it is the same thing with Taiwanese baseball. At the root of widespread fixing is widespread exploitation of the players.
I believe that a number of African teams at the World Cup have fixed games. I believe that because when the African players go to the World Cup they are badly exploited. I believe the problem in South Korea and in Taiwanese baseball is larger than it should be because so many players are exploited. And really the first thing that needs to be done is to put in place protection for the players, so they know they are getting their wages, they know they are getting their benefits and there are proper post-career mechanisms in place. These things are very basic and they are not being done by Asian sports officials.
RNO: You have written that FIFA has at times often run a fairly good public relations campaign on match fixing, but is still often failing to really do anything tangible in terms of actually dealing with the problem. Do you think any progress can be made in curbing match fixing without their being significant reform in how FIFA is governed?
Declan Hill: No.
RNO: You have talked about the importance of pressuring FIFA and club sponsors to force action on match fixing and have called FIFA the house that Adidas built. What are some of the ways that those who truly love the game can make a difference on this issue? Is it simply a matter of sending a letter to Adidas and telling them you will no longer be buying their products until they pressure FIFA to get serious about stamping out the scourge of match fixing?
Declan Hill: Yes, it’s that simple. Let’s just start with the Canadian Soccer Association. The CSA has voted with and for Jack Warner for years. We have a case where there has been an alleged fixed match happening in the Canadian Soccer League. I live in the same city as the Canadian Soccer Association and I have never received a phone call from them. I have never even received an email from them. I consult for UEFA, the International Olympic Committee and for the Danish and Dutch Football Associations. And this is their response to corruption and possible corruption?
So it’s going to be a waste of time for ordinary Canadian soccer fans to approach those guys. So just bypass them and go straight to the sponsors. This is only way that you are going to motivate sports officials, through their revenue sources. They are not going to respond to moral suasion. They have demonstrated that clearly over the last decade. So just go directly to the money. And to be clear, I don’t have any problem with Adidas as a company and I don’t have any problems with their products. But you just have to say, “Sorry, you are giving money to organizations that are complicit with corruption and you haven’t come out and made a public statement about this or put any pressure internally on them. When you do I am happy to buy your stuff. In fact, I will buy more stuff if you make that stance.”
Coca Cola, Hyundai and Sony are other FIFA sponsors. They have sixteen major sponsors and they should be held accountable. I have been in the halls of power with these sports officials – not with the Canadian Soccer Association, but with others – and moral suasion isn’t doing any good. Petitions and writing letters and articles don’t have an effect. The only thing that affects these guys is their bottom line. So write to these companies that are paying these guys and sponsoring these football associations. If you force these sponsors to go to FIFA and the football associations and say, “We have 20,000 people writing to us saying they are not going to buy our boots - or they are not going to drink our soft drinks - because of your stance and we’re not happy about this. Change.” You can bet your bottom dollar that those sports officials are going to start paying attention.
I say this is as man who had to close down one of his email accounts because it has been bombarded by thousands of Turkish soccer fans writing to me. They overwhelmed the filters on one of my email accounts just because they are angry about what is going on in Turkish soccer. And I’d love to say to all those guys – this isn’t doing you any good. What would do good is if you were writing all these letters to Pepsi and Coke and Adidas in Turkey.
RNO: The shenanigans around the selections of Qatar and Russia as the next two World Cup hosts were particularly galling for a lot of people. How much does an occurrence like that send out a message of validation that things like match fixing are just business as usual?
Declan Hill: I think two things happened last December. One is that FIFA executive committee were so without credibility by the time that they got to that decision, that they had a huge problem. There were twenty-four members who were voting on those two tournaments, ten of whom I believe had been seriously linked with corruption – three had been indicted and convicted in a Swiss court for corruption, three more had been trapped by The Sunday Times on camera asking for donations and bribes, and another two or three had actually been censured by FIFA’s own ethics committee for corruption – so you had a huge problem.
And then you had these two really weird decisions, particularly the Qatar one, where people were exclaiming that this can’t be happening. I think that was a real hard blow to FIFA.
RNO: I’m curious as to your current thoughts on Michel Platini. On the one hand, you have given him credit when you believe has done something good, but on the other you are still reporting on UEFA Champions League matches and other European fixtures being fixed.
Declan Hill: I think he is the best of a bad lot. He has done a good job. The fact that they are battling corruption doesn’t mean they are going to stop all corruption. At least they have started to do it.
Basically, FIFA’s match fixing unit got shut down last year. It works, but it works in a much more neutered way. They got their asses whipped by Bayern Munich and a number of people were fired. So they had a problem there and they were trying to fight it. And that is why I am always talking about the need for an independent agency within sport to try to deal with these issues. Because the integrity unit within FIFA has a problem and a central conflict of interest in that the very people that they are investigating are often their own people, who pay their salaries. That’s why you need an independent sports agency to investigate these things, like WADA does for doping.
RNO: I’m probably going a little bit out there in bringing David Beckham into the match fixing conversation, but it seems to me that he is the one player who has the media profile necessary to make a real difference if he took up the cause of combating match fixing. Obviously, he could not have been happy with the manner in which England was denied the opportunity to host a World Cup. We know that global icons like Beckham and Michael Jordan don’t like to do anything that might be damaging in terms of their own endorsements, but, being purely speculative, what would it mean if someone like Beckham spoke out regularly against something that has been called the biggest threat there is to his sport?
Declan Hill: I think it would have a huge effect. But let’s be realistic. If Declan Hill says it – and 2008 wasn’t a particularly easy year for me due to a lot of people saying negative things about me – it’s not that bad for me. If Jordan, Federer, Beckham and all these guys were to speak out about match fixing, they would get clobbered by people. And even having their name in the same sentence with match fixing would be really difficult for them. Would it be good if we had an independent group of athletes or just former retired athletes coming out and saying that somebody has to clean up corruption for future generations? I think it would be a fantastic idea. But let’s be fair to the high profile athletes, they would pay a huge price for that kind of stuff. A massive price.
RNO: We don’t tend to hear about match fixing incidents with the four major sports in North America – NFL Football, MLB Baseball, NBA Basketball or NHL Hockey. Do you think those organizations can provide a model for how soccer should set up its security and corruption mechanisms?
Declan Hill: That’s a very good question Steve. Yes, I think so. I spend part of every day working to convince European football officials to do just the very basics that they have in North America. Most leagues in North America have a professional training camp. It lasts a week or ten days at some university campus and they teach their young athletes financial stuff and why you shouldn’t be corrupt. If a practice is at ten in the morning, you are taught to be there at 9:30am getting dressed and warmed up, so you are ready to go at ten. And it doesn’t matter if you play for the Sacramento Bees or the Winnipeg Jets or New York Rangers or whatever team, this is what you do in terms of professionalism.
They have Integrity Units. So they have lots of measures which European sports don’t have. And I’m just saying, “Hey guys, put these into place. It’s not like the blueprint isn’t out there already.” Do I think that all those measures mean that there is absolutely no corruption in North American professional sports? No, I don’t.
And the more I know about North American sports – because I have always followed European football – the more I am like, “What? They don’t pay college athletes? You have to be joking? And the coach receives how many millions of dollars a year? You have to be joking. And how many NFL athletes go bankrupt within five years of their retirement? And how many of these guys have been convicted of serious felonies?” It stuns me. I don’t really know what I am talking about, but my “spidey sense” tingles in a big way. My agent and I were talking recently about prospective book projects and I have two on the go now, but another one might be The Fix in North America.
It is an ambiguous response, because North American leagues are doing something, but the more I find out about professional sports in North America, particularly college sports, the more I am like, “You have got to be joking?” I never knew that college athletes never received payment and I just assumed that they did. This is a multi billion dollar industry. How can you not pay your workers? It’s bizarre.
|