end-of-season rigging is (almost) out of the question | Relief

The briefcases arrived in the spring, like an allergy sufferer. Almost every football fan whose team was playing thought that someone had been bribed. Bonuses to third parties for winning and even to rivals for losing. Now The volume of this noise has dropped sharply; it is no longer a topic of general conversation.. The question is obvious: did the portfolios disappear or did they simply stop talking about them?

Although intuition may suggest otherwise, it seems that the first option is correct. Maybe not completely, there are always suspicions, but the process has gone backwards and All the experts interviewed emphasize the football, almost social, changes that have taken place in football in recent years..

“I like to think and actually believe that there are fewer cases of these types of deals now than there were a couple of decades ago.“, explains Jesús Lizcano, economist, professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid and transparency specialist. “I think there are fewer portfolios, everything has changed a lot“, says Francesco Baranca, who worked diligently in places such as La Liga and the Ukrainian Football Federation.

Yes, the Italian means the major leagues. “We are talking about the best, about Spain, about Italy, about Germany. This has never happened in England. Now everyone is fighting to the end“, he notes. “I remember when I worked in La Liga there were very predictable endings, but that doesn’t happen now, everything is different,” he continues.

Baranca has spent a significant portion of his professional career monitoring betting markets, which is why he has discovered that the rarities of the past are no longer being reproduced. “I always look at the chances, and 20 years ago in Italy you could find at the end of the season defeats by teams without motivation, who lost to the weakest. Now there is more fear, everything is more controlled“.

“At the end of the season Previously there were draws with odds of 1.1.that everyone was sure that that match would be a draw, this no longer happens, it has disappeared,” the specialist develops.

The data it processes is compelling: there have been virtually no complaints about rigging in recent seasons. There are several factors that explain this. “Both losing bonuses and winning bonuses are regulated by the Spanish Football Federation’s disciplinary code., which is what we mean by portfolios. This is strictly prohibited,” explains a sports lawyer with knowledge of these issues.

The sports part continues with another stage of national football, La Liga: “This is regulated by its statutes and then All professional clubs are required to have a compliance system which internally sanctions any activity by its employees, be it players or managers, who try to manipulate or support a third party,” he says.

In addition, the last obstacle is Article 286 bis 4 of the Criminal Code, which regulates sports corruption and provides for serious penalties. This should be the last barrier to stop anyone from thinking about taking up this practice. However, there is a small nuance to this. “What is happening is that this was recently discussed in the Supreme Court and regarding bonuses for losses, it was clearly understood that they fall under this type and can be punished, but for winnings, contrary to my opinion, there is a very recent ruling in the Osasuna case, which considers that bonuses for winnings are not punishable“comments the lawyer. A small crack, which, however, does not lead to an increase in the problem.

Psychological change

Because this is not just a legal issue, it will not work on its own. “There is a change in motivation, generation, let’s say. The previous generation was crazy. I remember the Regina-Milan game against European champions Milan in which Regina started at odds of 5 and finished at odds of 1.20. Of course they won,” says Baranča. Everyone knew this, and what was planned happened.

“It’s also a matter of awareness, the culture has permeated the players. In addition, La Liga and the Federation provide excellent training to players and managers to explain the problems that can arise and the consequences that these actions can have,” comments the lawyer consulted.

In addition to the change in the psychology of players, it is also true that control methods have become more extreme, and modern technology makes it much more difficult for a cheater to escape punishment. “As far as I know, La Liga is strengthening its systems for detecting all types of violations related to professional football.in matters such as suspicious bets, atypical games… he is first interested in a clean and ethical image in the conduct of his competitions,” says Jesus Lizcano.

In fact, the Spanish Championship has made significant financial efforts to combat bad practices. The program to combat sports corruption has been in effect for more than ten years.which, among many other tasks, implemented the Tyche program, which monitors matches to detect irregularities or anomalous data.

That’s not the only thing that has changed. “Another factor is that it is no longer possible to persuade judges to make bad decisions.In general, the professionalism of judges represents a barrier to suspicion in this area. You can lose a lot if you give in to temptation.

In such cases, money always plays a decisive role. In La Liga, each position in the classification that a team moves up now means an increase in the money each team receives.which means that while matches continue to be played for fans without major incentives, for clubs the number of matches where nothing is at stake has been sharply reduced.

Some suspicions remain because that is human nature. There are rumors of Rayo complaining about Cadiz matches this season. But La Liga is now receiving fewer and fewer complaints, according to those involved.

This doesn’t mean the job is done. Experts interviewed agree that the problems now have more to do with betting than with the difficult end to the season. “It is in this area that there are problems, and It is aimed not so much at winning or losing, but at other circumstances of the game that are much easier to fake and much more difficult to detect. such as corners, maps…” says the lawyer.

Last year, this problem plagued Tonali and Ivan Toni, famous European football players who fell into temptation. La Liga is also working to make this disappear, sanctions are important and interest in easing them is high. But the difficulties with control are great. And this game is probably about to be won.