Stephen Lee, former world number 8 snooker player, with 5 ranking tournaments to his name, received a 12 year ban on Wednesday, the longest in the sport's history, for being found guilty of fixing 7 outcomes of matches. Lee did not necessarily lose the matches, but by choosing to lose for example, a first frame against an opponent, enabled 3 groups of gamblers to net £100,000 in winnings.
12 years is a long time no matter how you look at it, but is it enough, is it excessive, or is it too little? The possibility for a life ban was available. How does 12 years stack up against other sports and the precedents set within their own systems.
Juventus, the Italian sporting giants, are probably the most well known in the football world for having sanctions placed against them for match fixing. Juventus themselves got off somewhat more lightly than they could've/should've done. The original sanction for their actions in the "Great" Italian football scandal, was to be relegation to the third tier of Italian football, a 30 point deduction from the upcoming season's tally, and consequences tallying a whopping £31million in value overall. However, they were eventually only relegated to Serie B, the second tier, and lost only 9 points instead of 30, which allowed Juventus to gain promotion straight back up to the top tier again as league champions.
Sure, they lost out on European football and some TV revenue for a year or two, but honestly, is that an acceptable punishment considering the charges brought against them? This wasn't as simple as throwing a goal away, this was as deep rooted as ensuring favourable referees were selected for games! It's coruption of the highest order, and while Juventus were the team to suffer most from being discovered, lets not forget AC Milan, Lazio, Fiorentina and Reggina were all deemed guilty enough to have sanctions of their own imposed. People live, eat and drink football in Italy. To discover that what should be viewed as pure, is very much far from that, is a shattering revelation for people, and also, given the vast amounts of money gambled genuinely on games, to find out that you never had a chance in the first place I'm sure a good laywer could construct a fraud case on behalf of those who lost money on odds which could never pay out.
Fabian O’Neill, a former Juventus player happily recounts a time where, while playing for Cagliari, both teams required a draw to avoid relegation, and so the two captains met, and placed bets accordingly, demonstrating that it's not just at the top of the table these things happen.
Cricket also doesn't escape match fixing. A report entitled "Match Fixing Rampant in 80s-90" has Lord Paul Condon (former Anti-Corruption and Security Unit chief for the International Cricket Coucil), quoted as saying "In the late 1990s, Test and World Cup matches were being routinely fixed,". A quick scout of the Wikipedia page listing players punishments for match fixing shows several life bans, but also punishments ranging from 6 months to 10 years, and also includes time in prison.
Then, of course, there are other types of match fixing. Performance enhancing drugs to facilitate a position you require can be, as certain cyclists, runners, and horse racing people will attest to, just as effective as having a referee on your side. Dwain Chambers received only a 2 year ban from competing way back in 2004 (although he was banned for life from the Olympics) for having taken the anabolic steroid THG. While attempting to better your performance doesn't always guarantee a betting syndicate will win, it does alter the odds considerably in your favour, and does essentially and most importantly constitute cheating.
So therein is the issue. Within sport, all sport, the threat of being caught cheating, simply must outweigh any gains to be made from taking the risk. Be it a football club, a runner, a snooker player, a boxer or an athlete. Until this happens, temptation will invariably be too high for people to resist. Make diving in the penalty area an automatic 3 game ban (the equivalent of a straight red card), deliverable by both the referee and a review panel after the game and it will see incidents such as the Ashley Young dive recently reduced drastically.
A dive is just a spur of the moment incident, but for premeditated actions, such as match fixing, doping, and even the infamous blood capsule used by Harlequins , which has to have been preplanned for there to even be a blood capsule available, the answer is simple. Get caught, never be allowed back. Zero tolerance is the only way to underline to all involved that, if you are to defraud the general public of a right and proper outcome of a contest, you WILL lose your livelihood.
With odds like that, only a fool would still gamble.
Source: DSG
