Topic: Do referees get bribed to cheat in a match?  (Read 725 times)

Well, you are right. I have read some other comments here and it's more convincing now to believe that it's very difficult and rare to bribe a referee, especially referee of top leagues but seems there's a better chance to do that with small team. I know I have not read any news that such incident has happened but I was just not satisfied with the referee's judgment for every move made by the winning team. Seem he was against there victory. Maybe I was wrong, the referee was doing his job.

Obviously we can see the way how they officiate the game since fans would notice that there's something wrong with their decision and make it looks like they are in favor with other team. Lots of incident like this happen. But its hard to prove and management just let those incident go away.

Although there are some recorded incident that referee has been penalized due to this situation, we rarely see this incident happen since its like they are also protecting those officials. The only thing we could do in this matter is to watch how the game flow and if we know that the official is questionable or controversial then I guess its better not to think about placing our bets since its risky to participate knowing that their manipulation antics might happen in that game.

In fact, even those who have been watching their favorite sport for a long time and think that they know everything about it are wrong, because those who have been refereeing games for about 20 years know such cunning tricks that you and I may not even guess about. A red or yellow card shown at an unfortunate time is only part of this. Of course, a referee can influence a match with various small tricks that no one will even suspect him of, and at this time his friend will place a bet. But this does not guarantee victory for them, but only slightly increases the chances of winning. And if you do this constantly, they are probably playing for a profit, but of course this is not fair and it is very difficult to expose them, especially with small stakes.

When a referee doing something that is not right, public will say that referee getting bribe from the team to help the team. Maybe that is right as we don't know what is happen with the referee and the team.
It needs more investigation to search more evidence to find out if referee getting bribe or not. The sport committee must use their source to investigate and find that information and if that is right, the sport committee can give punishment to that referees.
But yes, we already saw some examples of the referee that has been bribed by the team especially in the local competition or tournament. It needs a strict rule to control that referees so they can work with right and will not want to get bribe by any team.

The winner celebrates, the loser explains.

That's why if there are people who complaint about the results, it's obvious that they're fan of the lose teams. Many sports are already professional along with technology improvement, anyone including the referees are trained and it's not easy for them able to become a referees in top match.

Saying x referees got bribed is just showing your real characters who can't accept losses.

Most times this is how one thinks when your favorite team are playing very well and the referee tend to give red card to the players when playing dur to one misconduct or the other that usually it's one tiny mistakes and then you be like what is he doing? Is he trying to let us lose this match,I think he has been bribed.

Wow I do have this thought mostly times but I know that it's very hard to bribe a referee to work to your favour,cause it's just like they are international bodies that are trained to handle and coordinate how the matches go and they try to be fair in their dealings with every team they come across,and any misconduct of sorts will be handled appropriately.
So trying to bribe such persons won't really have much effects.

Of course the referee may have his own interests in this or that match, but I tend to believe that most referees still value their reputation and try to perform their duties fairly. All of us have repeatedly observed how on the field were cases that the referee made a mistake, but it seems to me that the blame for this is largely a human factor rather than bias towards one team or another. If there are bribed referees, they are not so many, because if it turns out that the referee was involved in a contract match, his career will be over. 

I don't think no human is immune to bribery, so you'll always find one or two who got bribed and make terrible calls on a match. Whether every referee is bribed is a different story though. I think you can also specify which matches or sports competition you're talking about because it will affect how much the corruption spread out. I find it hard to believe that an international competition is as corrupt as my national third-tier football league for example. Accusing someone without any proof or baseless assumption is out of the question though.

I don't think things will change unless they show more of their decision making like what happened after the Liverpool vs Spurs match. On the other hand, I can see a referee association argue that they also need protection from abuse since fans can behave like animals. Hard to know if this is planned or not, considering how FIFA or other association seemed to focuses more on getting more money recently.

If you are asking generally in football, I think things like this does happen but they are not common in advanced leagues or developed countries. There are some local leagues/tournaments especially in underdeveloped countries where there has been incidents of referees being compromised. And you can see it clearly in the operation of the referee during the match. Football matches are being played almost everyday around the world, even in remote villages and towns. You will easily see these things happening in some parts Africa and Asia. Since the question is generally about football matches so I won't just limit it to football matches that are been played on international or professional level. That's why I narrowed it down to grassroots football. Football matches are not just the ones we watch on TV. Corrupt practices are in everywhere provided that humans are involved. If the majority are not doing it, that doesn't mean that the system is totally free of corruption, there will always be a few that will be engaged in such acts. We can only know about it when it comes out in the Media.

Yeah, it might just be in some lower leagues that we have heard perhaps a referee to home cook a rematch for money. But for some league it's very hard to bribe them because they know what's on the line for them.

Although they can go and bet secretly on the games and they can control the outcome, just like a NBA referee.

From the archives: How former ref Tim Donaghy conspired to fix NBA games

Yea, referee can be bribe, because this has happened in the past and it's called match fixing in today's football, but according to what you said concerning when most referee issuing unnecessary red card and yellow card even when it's not deserving, what I know am quite sure about that is that their are some referees that had personal hatred for a particular team, and most times they are a fan of one of the team they are officiating, so in that regard, they will definitely favours one side over the other, and sometimes they will be issuing undeserving card to the team they hate or the team they are not supporting just for the other side to have the upper hands.

Ok let's take a look at Anthony Taylors record and Chelsea football club, I can confidently tells you that, that referee have personal hatred for Chelsea, any of Chelsea match he officiated, he always undo Chelsea in one way or the other, just look at Chelsea vs Manchester city in the opening game of the season, he refused to award a clear penalty and a hand ball to Chelsea even when he used the var, so my brother according to your question, yes it's very much possible.

Same here, most referees behave out of their own mind and in the open world it looks like the referee is been paid to behave in such way, let's not forget that been a referee doesn't restrict them from having a favourite football club, so if the referee is on work that day and its his between his favourite football club and other team he could want to take it easy with his favourite football club more, few referees just take this too far that it becomes obvious to the public.

I'm not entirely sure about it but there's possibility that it happens because there are somethings that goes on in some matches that aren't really fair, some referees overlook some foul play from a particular team which isn't supposed to be so. I always feel when a match duration is taking longer than it's supposed to the referee has been bribed, how else would you explain those outrageous extra time that lasts more than 20 minutes if one of the teams is already ahead of the other in terms of goals, it's a manipulation tactic to delay the game, that's my opinion about it if you ask me

How many examples have not already been given here? Look at the biggest scandal ever I mentioned:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calciopoli_trials#Criminal_trials
it was when Juventus was stripped of its title because of that, no way someone could deny things don't happen in bigger leagues and this was not one referee alone, it was 4 clubs and a dozen referees that were influencing matches, and not just that, they even fixed the delegations of referees to specific matches to try to change the outcome.

Fixing matches or favoring a team happens everywhere and sometimes both the reasons and the bribe are just ridiculous
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Sabbagh

What are they going to do, beat him and risk being thrown off the league for an entire season?

And again guys, there have been so many examples already in this topic!
Referees do get bribed, this has happened in the past, it happens now and it will happen in the future, big league or little leagues, football or basketball or baseball, it will!

I agree. Sometimes, a referee can be just like a bull with those It depends on the person, really.

I remember there were some moments when an unfair red card was given to the players. It's when the referee sent off Kieran Gibbs instead of Chamberlain. And Chamberlain complained to the ref if it was him, not Gibbs. But the ref stuck to his decision and gave Gibbs a red card.
Also, David Luiz got a red card vs Wolves. That really angered me. He made no serious contact with the attacker, but the referee gave him an unnecessary red card.

Unfair red/yellow cards are not indications of whether the referee got bribed. I know it's kinda unfair, but it needs more than an unfair red card to prove if the referee was bribed.

Interesting topic.
I am an Argentine soccer fan and the most common allegation against team Argentina is, that they bribed the referees in the World Cup match and they got penalties. But those allegations came from our local Brazil supporters and not from any media or something. Actually, this is the way they want to win the debate about which one is the better team in the last decade.

Get back to your question. I am not sure if that may ever happen in international matches or Club matches. But I think it's very much possible to happen in local soccer matches where a team may bribe the referees. It's a common thing in local soccer tournaments. But sometimes referees get assaulted as well 

A referee can be incentivised towards making biased judgements favouring one team/player over another. But bad refereeing decisions are not always influenced by bribery. Some referees are simply incompetent. They are scared of making harsh calls against the home team. I used to think it only happens in the local league in my country but it seems that happens everywhere in the world. Take for example what this former EPL referee said about Manchester United:
Mark Clattenburg admits Man Utd aura got them favourable calls under Sir Alex Ferguson

I don't know which match you are referring to. Whether it is a top European league match or a match in your local league?
You can judge for yourself how the situation is on the field. Does it make sense to receive a card or not? Such incidents usually occur in an incident of violation that is committed and it is to disguise the bias of the referee. But if there is no violation the referee punishes the player with a yellow card or a red card. Of course, the referee is being bribed.

The practice of referee cheating is very common in local leagues and may not be broadcast live by the media. Especially in unofficial competitions. We can see the annulment of goals or giving penalty kicks to certain teams. But in the top European leagues, the career of a referee is supervised by an institution. They will not do something very bad and clearly visible. Moreover, with the help of current technology, it should minimize errors in making decisions by the referee. Although the referee's bias towards a particular team is still very possible.

In my personal opinion based on what has happened and indeed has been widely discussed by many people among football lovers when there were certain competitions, it did show some truth about the problem of referees being bribed to help one team gain an advantage.
Some things that often happen are about the referee decision and also how the person in charge of Var works, these two things often become the most dominant incidents of unfair and completely non-transparent decisions.
However, for some important matches in big competition, maybe something like this can be avoided considering that the football federation will certainly take firm stance if the referee makes such mistake, dismissal and blocking the use of the services of referees who accept bribes will definitely be carried out.
Consequence can make referees more careful and not try to make mistakes by accepting bribes, but for various small leagues, of course we will see many referees who are suspected of accepting bribes to win particular team.

in my country in football the problem that often occurs is referee bribery where the referee is paid to win and even that can be said to have become a tradition so it is not strange that there are bad incidents such as conflicts between supporters who cannot accept the referee's decision that he made which sometimes it is clear that the referee has accepted bribes to win the team that bribed him.
besides that I think in world football this must happen, because many social media posts that I see do have big teams that are said to be rich teams so they are thought to have bribed the referee. although in world football there must be VAR but when the referee has accepted bribes then the referee will win the team that bribed him. although this is not sporting but I am sure this happens in the world of football.

Sometimes, referees, just like adults, can make mistakes, or give unnecessary red and yellow cards in a heated situation. Sometimes, their decisions seem inconsistent, and even affect the flow of crowd reactions or how the rest of the game pans out. With corruption and money laundering incidents in football, these are highly monitored, with most courts using strict scrutiny to make sure integrity is maintained. An accusation of bribery is a serious accusation, and one that requires a lot of proof. When one's team finds itself repeatedly targeted with questionable refereeing decisions, clearly watching footage of games and discussing experiences with others can be enlightening. But there are also mechanisms whereby government officials refer concerns to the courts to deal with potential misconduct.

You made me remember those days that Howard Webb was still in active service, he was popularly known as Manchester United supporter because they hardly lose a match that he officiates. As funny as it may sound, people took this serious within my city and often use it to make fun of Manchester United whenever they win major match, saying that they were helped by the referee. I never knew that his case is also noticed by others and will make headlines. Referees can actually be influenced to rig a match and there are many ways he can actualize this. I have even seen a case of a referee ending the match before the time. This could also be a case of favoring one team over another.

You have said absolutely right that in a match referee can change the result of the match by taking bribe if he wants. But it is done with great secrecy which the common man does not understand, and the referee facilitates tricks which no one but the referee knows. If for some reason the matter of match-fixing is known then third parties including referees will face heavy penalties which is why they may have done so with utmost secrecy.

Of course they get bribed. I could not imagine them not getting bribed. Especially when it comes to big matches.

Not all of them, though. But definitely the big league ones.

But then again the ref would be risking his own career as well as risking criminal charges if caught. So who knows who exactly gets bribed and who does not?

I think with smaller leagues, yes they can but with professional major leagues it’s probably a lot harder and riskier to do. I haven’t heard much of a referee being bribed though I suppose it’s because it is kept secret? 

Anyway if not bribery I do think sometimes that referees have a natural bias. Especially towards a team that is playing at home with most fans are around to watch their team.

There is possibility in that happening and that is why there is what we call match fixing, the referee will work in collaboration with others to get the match in one direction, most time fans may not know unless in some obvious situations where they got caught.

But sport leagues are now highly advanced now and the possibility of fixing a match is some how likely we now since not only the referee have the final say in goals scoring and other features in sport bets.

You don't see this happen on the known leagues but in amateur ones, if there are unusual calls then you'd probably think that the referees are bought and bribed.

This is true, some biases are really there with these officials or referees but if it's the known leagues, you'd never really see them or if you do, they're rare to happen.

That's sad to know, aren't there higher bodies of the sports organizations for football that doesn't step on for that matter?

Match fixing can happen in lower tiers of football and in very low leagues, but the chances of match fixing in the top leagues is quite slim. That being said, some refereeing decisions could be controversial and sometimes referees might fail to control the game efficiently, but that does not mean that they have been bribed to fix the match, it could just be a bad day at the office for the referee.

There is no way they are going to put it, there is a massive manipulation of games done by the referees but I have notice a usual thing in football. When the referee do it against a team, the team that were favour wouldn't say anything, they will see it as normally and wouldn't even complain since they win the game but the other guys will be complaining but the day it favour them, they will keep quiet and wouldn't say anything and this is why I think it has been like that for years.

If indeed we want referee injustice should be clearly look into, then the both side would have to the talking and let some adjustments be made. The job can't be perfect because it's controlled by humans and that made it more fun but sometime, some of them is obvious they are been manipulated and don't do the right thing, even people that are supposed to talk wouldn't say anything since the game favour them.

There are some boxing and UFC matches where referees seem to sabotage the fight and favor someone. Fans usually suspect something is up with the referee when there is an early stoppage of a fight when clearly the fighter isn't badly damaged yet the referee stops the fight declaring the other as the winner. They suspect more when the referee is wearing an earpiece like they are talking to someone, several of these fights happened in boxing.

Easily.  They are the least paid people in the professional sports match and they literally can determine the outcome.  It has been proven over and over again. I like to think sports are unpainted because I like to casually watch them thinking that it's natural as to who the winner is but I kmwo behind it all there is a chance it can be tainted.  In the NBA just look at Tim donaghy.  Very respected in the NBA as a vet ref and bam, crooked. 

Local sports are sweet to watch especially when they season is off and not busy busy as usual and I can categorically say referees can be bribe and what cause such things is when they are given more than they earn, that means their salary and wages are small and for that reason, people used their financially stability to used them. You don't need anyone to tell you, you can see clearly from their actions.

There are some that may be corrupt doimg big games but majority of them are not that greedy, if you want to manipulate them, you will have to spend alot and if you are caught collecting bribes and officiating nonsense later, you risk loosing your jobs. Even the serious one involves in serious games would have to undergo some process before they can be allowed to blow whistle in such matches.

Yes, referees are humans and can be bribed; this also goes for the players as well. Anyone who is a football fan knows that there are times when a referee makes controversial decisions that have a strong impact on the result of the game. FIFA isn’t ignorant of the fact that referees can be corrupt. This is the reason why VAR was introduced in football to reduce the “errors” made by referees. If you need evidence of the corruption of referees, read this article:
Barcelona have been charged with corruption over payments the club made to ex-vice-president of Spain's referees' committee Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira.

Unfortunately, in my country, the league is rigged. Every weekend when there are games in my country's football league, I see ridiculous things:

- The referee keeps awarding penalties when there is no reason.

- The referee ignores penalties when he wants to sabotage another team.

- The referee gives a red card when he wants to sabotage another team.


The referees in my country's football league are corrupt referees. They receive money from the big teams to sabotage the small teams, and this is something very obvious to see. Anyone who watches my country's football league games can see that the referees are paid to favor some teams. Because of the corruption of the referees in my country's football league, the bookmakers, at least most of the bookmakers, have refused to list my country's football league in their bookmakers.

There have been many cases where referees have been bribed to win certain teams behind it all there are bookies who influence it.

Don't be surprised if the referee cheats this often happens before even the news has been widely spread in the article, so don't be surprised. Maybe for now it is still rare but it does not rule out the possibility that in the minor leagues.

Like the Juventus case, right? This also involves a fraudulent referee.

I remember watching football when I was in high school and there was this controversial referee named Howard Webb. You can read about him. He himself admitted to some mistakes that he made during matches, but fans were certain he's either paid or crooked. All of this happened over 10 tears ago so many of you might not remember it.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/howard-webb-flies-home-to-his-family-insults-ringing-in-his-ears-2025075.html
There was also this controversial decision about a penalty kick that caused Poland to lose a match against Austria and many people claimed Webb did it because Austria was the host of the Euro Cup and they did not want it to drop out of the bracket.
I'm 100% sure many judges are dirty but in most cases it's impossible to prove.

I believe it happens, but it isn’t much Broadcasted because it is very offensive and probably illegal within every sport. It’s just rigging the match entirely. Having a referee under your pocket would definitely give calls, which would benefit the bribing team. I think it is easy if the referee has no morals.

It's actually more common than you think to have a referee try and give an advantage to a certain team. Of course that does not guarantee a victory but there are certain aspects in a game that can give huge advantages like giving more fouls, free throws in basketballs or free kicks in football etc.

For instance this was a very common accusation in the Summer Olympics in France this year, where many people accused the referees of giving advantages to French players and this wasn't just in soccer, but also basketball, water polo and even fencing. It might be true, and in some cases it was even obvious where the referee would give free throws from fouls much more easily to France. In matches where they had a hard time gaining points this was very helpful and certainly helped them reached further.

In these cases it's hard to prove bias if it happens few times but still it can give huge advantages.

Bribery, of course, clearly leads to match-fixing. If in reality, the referees are influenced to make those unfair calls and give red or yellow cards unfairly, it not only undermines the integrity of the game but also disadvantages the team that is doing well. This is very worrying because it undermines our belief in fairness in sport. The whole idea of football is that it's a fair competition, if there is bribery involved, then we have lost the essence of what sport is supposed to be about

Moreover, this sort of cheating has the potential to not only impact one game but the whole competition or league whereby its played. If fans, players and coaches have in mind that there is a possibility for referees to manipulate a sideline as opposed to trusting their skills, talents and efforts then respect towards sport diminish. Consequently sponsors alongside fans lose interest which harms all parties at the end.

This sounds to be unfair if there's a bribery happening in the midst of the match, well performing team doesn't deserve to be treated like this being issued a red card. Each team should be vigilant on this idea of bribed referee, because that's always possible to happen and I bet everybody doesn't wanted that to happen. Professional referee won't do that kind of dirty games, and to those smart team I believed red cards should be issued to erroneous players that needs to be sanctioned.

Basically it's very much possible but we can't determine how much it's been done but fact remains that yes referees do take bribe for teams which are probably going to win, lose the game.

Once the amount is so convincing for the referee he /she will consider the offer even though they are been governed in an association where they will probably get fired if noticed for any reason. I believe this usually happens in the everyday match even in the prominent leagues that we feel it doesn't happen but if we watch very well we might see traces to our suspicions.

Do you have any references to past matches where you find such incidents and later they were highlighted by the media? If you can share such incidents it will give us more insights about such scenarios as right now most of the people here believe that referee are honest and it is not possible to bribe them.

Some who are close to their retirement or who don't care about their reputation may risk this bad act for money but the majority will simply ignore the offers.

Yeah, it can happen at any time, but the thing is that there are many cameras monitoring the referee as well as other activities on the grounds. In this case, it would be very hard to convince any referee to accept a bribe during a match because if he makes a decision, there will be a third party who will also examine his decision. If he is found guilty, he may face some serious action and my be he will loss his job.

I love watching matches and also enjoy playing on the field, but until now, I haven't seen any cases like that. Yes, in cricket, there have been many cases involving umpires and players, but it happens everywhere. In football, if your opponent is strong, you might definitely bribe a referee to win the match, and this would be the only way.

Their control of the game is very minimal when it comes to game fixing. If you are going to bribe a referee to fix the game, you might as well bribe both teams or the fighters because the referee cannot do it alone, and his actions will become obvious.

You know it takes two to tango the referee cannot do it alone both teams and fighters must cooperate to get the desired results, and no referee will take a bribe if he is the only one doing it, his action will be too evident and he might get thrown out or his license suspended and people will hate him

Growing up in my locality where football is loved by all, there are so many things I used to think was normal until I learnt about their illegality and bribing if referees was one of them. Whenever teams from my own town engages teams from other nearby towns in any football competitions, you'll see match officials bidding for a "highest bidder takes it all". Which means that the team that pays better gets the favour of the referee during games so it happens in local competition that doesn't enjoy the visibility of live television.

However, in professional and globally known football competitions where live games are televised, bribing referees are reduced to the barest minimum because even after bribing referees, you might end up not getting decision come your way at the end of the day.

This is an interesting topic, for those who follow football very keenly. I have seen many matches in which decisions by the officials looked extremely controversial, if not unfair. There were moments when either a red card or yellow card was shown at what seemed like the wrong time, and this would be one of the determining factors that heavily influenced the game.

As far as the matter of bribing the referees goes, this has always been a highly sensitive issue in the world of sport. While direct evidence is hard to come by, we cannot rule out the possibility of external influences on refereeing decisions. An odd and inconsistent call may sometimes make us wonder if there are other interests playing behind it.

However, we must also remember that referees are only human and can err. Perhaps the pressure out there on the pitch or a limited perspective can guide them into getting it wrong, even without any ill intentions.

Everything can be done with the right price, although if that's the case, I don't think a referee in football would want to get involved at all given that this will affect his career and future employment. The football managers and players are already doing this stuff and I don't think a referee needs to be involved. It will be too obvious if referees get involved in cheating thus, it is smart to let the players and the org owners do their dirty work instead.

While referees make wrong calls on some games, it is not enough reason to infer that they are working with the a team to get a win. Wrong calls happen on every sport available, so it's unfair to say that a referee helped on cheating in a match just because he/she made the wrong judgment in the heat of it all. Besides, if a report is submitted, it will still go under investigation.

Though the chances of this happening is pretty low, there are still notable examples of referees working with teams on match fixing, namely the Calciopoli.

If there are crime organization out there which are perfectly okey with bribing an entire team for them to under perform and pocket a lot of money, then I don't see crazy or out place having a crime organization doing exactly the same but only taking care of the referee, benefitting a specific team.
I have no specific case to point out to, but I don't have doubts of it happening, specially in developing countries and in small leagues, where referees have little to lose if caught (compared to some referee working for the biggest and highest leagues of football).
Just another reason to stick to the highest leagues with international weight, when comes to sport betting...


That is an incredible moment in the story of that team.
Thanks for sharing, quite remarkable they managed to win having the referee against them.

I'm a football lover and I follow up the EPL and several other top leagues during the weekends, I've seen situations where some referees make some wrong calls that would make fans of the affected teams wonder if the referee was brided by the opposition team, I've thought about that as well like sometimes when my team loses due to a wrong call by a referee but I don't have any evidence to back it up, what I think is that as humans it's normal for a referee to make wrong calls since they're not perfectly free from errors and it's also normal for fans to get emotional and develop certain thoughts when situations like that leads to them losing their bet or their teams losing a match. Well, I'm pretty sure that several referee got various teams they support and most of them are childhood supporters of various club and could favor their teams if they're allowed to officiate for them but I think their are certain rules that disallows that and to make sure those rules are followed as directed, in the EPL several referees have been asked to mention the teams they support. Maybe the OP might be right but I don't have any evidence to back the claims of referee taking bribes, I'm not very sure of bribery though but the only thing I could find while I was trying to research for some evidence is the link below that says Sir Alex Ferguson admitted that he tried to influence some referees with mind games during some matches.

https://www.goal.com/en-ng/news/alex-ferguson-admits-trying-to-influence-referees-during/blta2e3375b191e5310

I'm not sure if referees are being bribe to support a team, and I'm not sure if teams have knowledge of which referee will be use in a particular march that will be taking place. Since I have been watching football, some of the games I have watched before now I noticed that some referee are kind of sentimental in their judgement maybe because of the love they have for a particular team, it something so difficult for them to hide.

I don't think any referee will be allowed himself to take bribe to support a team because if it is found out I don't think the referee will be allowed to continue with his job.

Yeahhh.... About this? Its actually a different case! Those were unprofessional/ state leauges and we all know that nothing serious is happening; no serious title matches/ competitions, no licensing for bigger leagues, corrupt officials etc...whatever happens, the admin of the two teams have made an agreement and players are only instructed on how and what not to play.

If, after the rigged game, your team was still able to defeat against them, they're actually good!
That's mind blowing... With the sanctions and punishment that awaits anyone found guilty of any misconduct, why should anyone wanna risk himself and his position for come cash? Yeahh, I understand the fact that it could be a huge one atimes though, is it worth the punishment?

That's just beautiful. Thanks for sharing your little story about it!

Of course they can be bribed, a massive amount of money is moving each day on casinos and referees are humans like everyone else, so they may have a family crisis and need the money urgently or they may be threatened by members of the mafia to do their bidding, in any case we know this is a possibility and there have been many scandals on the past demonstrating this has in fact happened, so not only it happens, I am sure that even coaches and players are in it sometimes.

I am a big fan of my local team in our region, and I used to follow most of their matches when I was younger. 12 years ago, our team was in the Mobilis First League. Regarding your topic about referees being bribed, I once witnessed an exceptionally and unfair game for us where the referee offered three unfair and imaginary penalties to the opposing team as you can see in this resume. Despite this, our team managed to win 4-3.

I found the summary of the entire match, and also another video that includes a legendary moment where our players applauded to the referee, knowing that he had been bribed.

The summary video for the goals: YouTube

The applauding video : YouTube

Bribery cases in the world of football have not only happened this time, they have been happening for years in various leagues, for this reason FIFA does not hesitate to take action against referees involved in bribery, with heavy sanctions attached.

As was the case with Felix Zwayer in the 2024 Euro, England vs. Dutch.
Whistle blowing. UEFA appoint ref for Eng-Ned semi who was banned for taking a bribe.

And another case occurred in 2020 at the Euros, when a penalty in the match between England vs. Denmark, as reported.
For example:

And many other cases regarding the involvement of referee bribes in various world football leagues, it is indicated that the referee can backfire on the team's defeats and wins on the basis of the referee cheating because of bribes.

What I know a referee can do in a match, is to influence the result of a match to a draw or win for a team he likes. Although that's in the past, it is no longer in the present. Since the introduction of VAR, only the referee can't influence the outcome of a match. There are VAR monitors to do that, for match outcomes. Where the referee can decide match outcomes is where there is no VAR usage. The referee can go ahead to decide how he wants the outcome of the match to be. Whether he's bribed for that or not, nobody can tell. I have seen in some local matches where a referee blows against the away team for the home team to win the finals of a league match.

           -     Maybe there are some referees who are bribed if the two boxing fighters he handles are really heavyweights in the boxing industry. And probably the two sides talk to the referee and offer a sum of money, and whoever makes the big offer is always on their side.

But this is rare among referees because most referees still have the principle that money or value is not paid, no matter how high or big it is.

First of all, is this related to the local league in your area, or a league that is not a big event like the European Leagues. because I doubt if what we are discussing is one of the big leagues in Europe, because technology is currently developing and involved in sports. one of them is VAR, an assistant referee who can minimize a mistake or something intentional like a bribery case. or, cases like score fixing. even, if the referee cheats by siding with one of the teams that are competing. however, wherever the competition, League or whatever, things that smell of cheating have the potential to happen, even in big sporting events. but the potential will be greater in small tournaments, or Leagues that are not too well-known. where the existing regulations and systems are very weak and are often exploited by people who want profit through cheating, especially since technology is usually not as sophisticated as the big Leagues. I personally rarely witness anything that smells of cheating in modern football, amidst the involvement of technology in it. although there are often things that smell of controversy, indications that are close to cheating are rare. Regarding your question, I cannot confirm it. Because, I cannot research it if there is no source or reference to base it on.

This is one of those gambling fallacies that the ref is bribed and that is why I lost the game - not that they were just unlucky on their bet. Shifting the blame on the ref, because they lost is a common mental defense mechanism for the ego.

Maybe in the small neighborhood games and so, where gambling is mostly on paper by locals, some bribery will happen.

But when you are talking about the leagues and big games, the chances are small. I can see some users have brought up some news articles but I still think that gamblers will exaggerate the actual incidence, unless the reality can be found out.

Things like this are just kind of difficult to notice, and if things like this are happening, then it’s going to be local leagues, which don’t really get much attention. But it’s going to be difficult in international leagues because they know the risk involved if they are caught. Also, some decisions will be made by the referee in some matches, it’s going to look suspiciously like maybe the referee is being paid for that, but it’s just the referee’s decision, and he is not bribed for it. I'm not saying things like that might not be happening, but it’s not what’s rampant and will be mostly local leagues.

I am not aware of any evidence that referees have been bribed to influence the outcome of matches. But if this is done then it is not impossible. It may be that one can influence the referee as well as the team players to win in any particular match. But if the referee gives a big wrong decision in the winning team then he can get into big problems. He will lose his reputation and may even be insulted by the public. I have ideas about match fixing where players or related parties are involved. But I did not get any information about any referee being involved. Such an incident may happen in a normal game, but it will not be easy in a big tournament.

For the matches on big events or big league there is VAR and this technology can be used to minimized the referees mistakes but before VAR exist i have watching some important matches on football there are some referees who make wrong decisions by giving the players yellow card or red card but i don't think this can be considered those referees were bribe because some of referees did that purely from their own mistakes so we cannot judge early the referees is involved and the match fixing until the investigation decide whether the referee is bribed

But i have been watching the interview about match fixing in my country which all of match instruments is involved including referees and they said the referees highly susceptible to bribery because usually referees are underpaid for every matches and bribe money is usually very large and very difficult to refuse besides that usually the mafia always be intimidate and pushing the referees to accept the money from them

Officiating a match can be considered as match fixing too. It’s just not too often compared to the players/team involvement but coaches, referees and other game staff can be included on match fixing if they affect the result of the game to make it predetermined.

The post of the guy right above your post is one example of referee involvement on katch fixing.

It is possible but certainly something like this is arranged by a party that has power, not a player or a club manager and this like becomes an organized crime, only accusations like this are more common in small leagues but big leagues can be said to be clean, even if there is where the referee is considered wrong in making a decision, it is more due to human error, not because he accepted a bribe, as I recall, like what happened in the Liverpool vs Tottenham match last season where Liverpool felt disadvantaged by the referee's decision and media reported that the referee of the match was reportedly a Tottenham fan which can make him act unprofessionally.

In a match, the referee basically governs the game by making all the laws, but if the referee is biased in the game, then the beauty of the game is completely lost. A team can win a game by bribing the referee but I have not observed it so far but I can't say if it happens in football. A referee's wrong decision in a game can change the entire picture of the match but in this case it becomes very tough to identify if the referee is bribed by a third party. But the referee is very important for a match so no referee would want to lose a team recklessly by taking bribe in the match.

I don't know how you conceived this, but for sure, everything that involves manipulating a game does exist in lower leagues.... I'm not going to agree with you if you're referring to the referees in major leagues; they've got officials, umpires and VARs.... It's not solely about the field referee's decision alone. So bribing one out of 40 - 60 officials in a game is like an impossible mission.

About the cards -- you can't just issue out a straight red to a player over an offense that's not worth it ... I've watched several games where the referee is called to revise his decision e.g, cancelling the red card and substituting it for a yellow instead.

This is different from match fixing. Match fixing would be a deal between the two teams that are playing and their couches. Even the referee may not know anything about it and he does not need to know anything about the match fixing at all. But it is possible that the referee may be involved in the fixing of the match but not likely and not necessary.

This incident happen recently.

Which a referee is involve with match fixing anomaly https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13616133/german-match-fixing-referee-england-semi-final-banned.html

So there's huge chance that this activities still happening everywhere.  Maybe some incident has not been documented but for sure this scenario exist and provably will not end.

That's why we need to see how reliable the league and also check if there's something something crazy happening especially on how the officials handle the game.

Its so obvious that there's something wrong with the game since referee has a lot of miss calls towards the other team, then provably that is an indicator that there's something terrible happening on the game you are watching.

I want to believe that you are talking about match fixing which is a big problem in sports and have lead to various innovations like the VAR and others. It is a complex thing to implement and done with utmost secrecy. I think most match fixing scandals involves the referee. If have watched some matches where it was obvious that the decision the referee could be induced which shows that referees are heavily involved in match fixing.

Well... there is history with that, it is well documented in countries like Italy, we must not forget that scandal in Serie A, then the United States, mainly in basketball.

What is really important to say is that the high level leagues have taken measures, in NBA basketball (e.g.) they have qualified referees watching each of the games that are played to determine the behaviour of the referees.

In football there is something similar and it is at a global level with the high profile leagues, but despite this, situations have occurred, I think that the correct thing is to bet on known leagues and with that you get rid of the variable doubt with the referee...

Its not impossible for refs to take bribes. When you got big money on the line, there's always gonna be temptation. We must be wise, though. We shouldnt jump to conclusions when a ref makes a bad call. Under pressure, these guys make split-second decisions with millions watching. They're not robots.

A harsh yellow card may be the ref trying to keep the game under control and prevent escalation. It's easy for us to armchair quarterback from the couch, but these guys are in the trenches.

Yes, when a team is rolling and getting called for everything, its easy to cry foul. But maybe those guys are just playing a bit more aggressively, pushing the limits. Refs are taught to see tiny fouls that can change the game.

Am I now implying that every referee is perfect? Of course not. There's always gonna be bad apples. But let's not be naive or conspiracy theorists. Look at the facts, evaluate all angles, and then decide.

That's the logic if it, NBA had caught a ref before manipulating the game, so it's not new.

This was uploaded 9 months ago on Tim's interview

Tim Donaghy, Former NBA Referee Who Bet on His Own Games (Full Interview)

So you are really right with your logic, if this happened in big league, pretty sure it's happening in small league. Most leagues probably are rigged but the people who are running the league have done the right thing to preven it from being exposed bacause it's a big industry, billions of dollars are at stake.

It's easier to bribe a ref for the game to go your way.
A ref costs you 1 payment while if you want a team to lose you have to bribe several players. And you never know if these players get injured during the game and/or just get subbed out for performing bad. Also if you bribe several people it is always bad because the more people know about it, the more trouble it brings.

A ref is 1 guy ( guess lines men are not that important ) , so that's a "positive" and attractive for people that want to fix something. Refs can give falss red cards, penalties, good free kick opportunities and so on.

So if you ask me, it 100% exists. Even in the biggest basketball league (NBA) it happened before so why not in small football leagues.

The system can be rigged, but the fans will soon discover the truth. In our local leagues, referees get harassed by mobs for misconduct. I'm not sure if they get bribed to officiate against a team. At times it appears that the referee's judgment favors a team and spectators will only wait till the game is over to deal with the referee. This happens at the local level, not in big games.

It'll only be obvious for a ref to act strangely in premier leagues or champion leagues. Games like that can't be rigged by the referee, without being noticed.

If top officials in the Fédération Internationale de Football Association can be indicted for corruption, referees might also be collecting bribes to influence games. It might not be pronounced in top-flight leagues in Europe but it might exist in lower leagues or developing nations. Poor remuneration, greed and political influence might contribute to referees accepting inducements. Nevertheless, there are some high-profile cases such as:  

Ibrahim Chaibou: FIFA bans former referee for life for bribery, match-fixing

Felix Zwayer: Revealed: German 'match-fixing' ref in charge of England's semi-final was banned for six months after accepting €300 to cover up for fellow official who was bribed by criminal Croatian betting syndicate

     

Referees are lonely people. If one team buys a referee, other teams can show aggressive behavior against that referee. I don't think referees can afford that. It's too risky for them. Also, nowadays there are VAR systems. The number of wrong decisions is much less than before. Referees are not in a comfortable environment where they can deliberately make wrong decisions. It is common to criticize referees and accuse them of taking bribes. But I see this behavior as a way of mitigating the sins of teams and fans who don't see their own mistakes.

Football is not popular in our country but in general, it's hard to bribe a referee because it will look obvious in a modern day tournament, we have a monitoring team that monitors how a referee behaves in a game, and there are times when the referee is replaced for a questionable action.

Referees face lifetime bans if the committee finds out that he is trying to manipulate the game in favour of the team, and it's not a guarantee that the team or fighter that the referee favours will win the game.

The people that are likely to get bribes to manipulate the games are players and managers, because they are the one that can control the outcome.

I think they can be bribed.
But it's up to them since being caught doing it will probably risk their whole career as a referee and it will be more difficult for them to find another job if they are blacklisted from any league.
I have seen documentaries where retired referees did admit they took bribes but it will depend on what kind of sport is being played since other sport could result differently especially in boxing and other physical sports where a knockout could end it all and that means it won't be in the hands of the referees on what could happen.

in the top leagues this is unlikely. Since they have a very large focus of attention of the press and various sports structures. But in the league of 2-3 divisions this is possible especially if the sponsor of the football clubs is a bookmaker. Fixed matches are more often held there, but if the sulya is caught his path to the major leagues is forever blocked and they know and understand this very well.

Although people saying that its not possible or its hard to bribe those referees there are still series of events that those officials has been involve with match fixing or other officiating anomalies.

Just try to research this information's online and there lots of result that show that this thing is really possible to happen.

But in current modern era where lots of camera is facing the game and people are really meticulous on details on each result I guess this bribing incident is hard to happen in big leagues. Usually this one will only happen in minor or small leagues.

Any system can be manipulated And let me put it this way even when VR has cross-checked a scene to know what to be the verdict, the referee has the final say in the field to choose if it is true or false. The thing is that i dont think any professional referee will be willing to take any bribe because he is putting his career and profession at stake. The amount of the bribe cannot be compared to the total amount and reputation he will have if he refuses the bribe. Although the referee sometimes makes careless mistakes by making a wrong verdict, which my considered to be bribed by sport fans but deep down the organization knows it is a mistake and the referee will be giving a penalty for that action.

In today's scenario, it would be hard to issue such card to unnecessary situations because most games are being recorded and live streamed. So it is the reputation of the referee himself which is at stake if he will do such act. Just remember, it can replayed and see if he is indeed guilty of such act. If the referee will indeed be guilty, it means, it may be unintentional and made a mistake inside the field or the money involved is quite huge where he doesn't need the job the next day.
But we can say, it is still happening but with the technology that we have, I believe it is declining in numbers.

True. Each action or decision made by the referee is also been observed and monitored by some other referees or the higher organization above so if he shows a non valid action like giving a red or yellow card in a certain team when it’s not supposed to, he will automatically put into an investigation and might ruin his credibility, or worst lost his job for a lifetime. That’s why bribing a referee is not that easy, otherwise the party that’s going to bribe will be disclose and will eventually put into shame.

The problem is that if you bribe a referree and he accepts it, then it is very difficult for the referee himself to cheat in the game in the favour of one team. We know that in most sports we have third umpires, TV umpires and it can be judged very easily if an umpire is biased with one team.

This also puts the question mark on the umpire ability as he gives wrong desicions and everyone sees it on camera. Not an easy job for referees to do this type of cheating in international matches.

It would be easier if the refs were the ones getting paid, as it wouldn't be as obvious. I think the rigging shows when the refs are making questionable calls, and if the league itself is rigged, it would be easier for them to manipulate the outcome of the games. Just look at YouTube, there are a lot of videos about conspiracy theories on this topic. Although only a few have been caught doing this, some people believe that major leagues like the NBA, NFL, and MLB are rigged.

I really don't know about bribing referees because they don't have any influence about how the players choose to play,. They watch the match like any other person but the difference is that they officiate the match according to the rules of the game and what they do is seen by all.  What I've observed is that sometimes people feels that referees are biased, I've also had the thoughts but since we can not proof that they're bribed to give unfair calls, we'll be angry at the time and later move on from it. Referees are humans too they might have their own favorite among the teams that they're officiating and it can make them to be a little unfair to their unfavored team.

There will always be cases like that where referees are bribed to win one side, but usually such things only happen in smaller leagues, for example like domestic leagues where FIFA monitoring is very weak and there are many mafias involved in the league. For cases in popular leagues, the cases are very rare, even if there are, they mostly involve players and officials. However, in international matches there are some rumors that say that a country can bribe referees to benefit them, for example like Qatar which is said to usually pay referees to win their team, although this has not been proven but every time they win it seems like they are helped by the referee.

Though I am not a very good gambler, but I love football games. Other than any other games, I often try to don't miss international football games. Regarding your concern, I don't think it's possible to bribe referees; it's even possible, but not an easy task. International football games are monitored very strongly. Referees can't take any decisions without any reason. There are powerful cameras connected to the control room, which means anything wrong can be monitored. There would be some mistakes as humans, but that doesn't mean they happen intentionally. On the other hand, if referees decisions go against our supported team, we might think referees got bribes; that's why he give a red or yellow card. If happen any case about bribe, then it would be hard to find out them, and of course they would be punished as well.

All?  


2006, Juventus loses the title and gets demoted, Lazio and Milan get 30 points deduction, 20 guys get prison sentences of 6 to 26 months and bans from 3 months to a year from football and you say it's a risky move to arrange one match?  

There are hundreds of cases, common people, bribing referees even in the main leagues do happen!!!

The chances of this occuring in a top league is slim to zero, you can see it in much lower divisions/semi professional,/ leagues. But when you go higher-up the ladder, the consequence of such an action is too high, plus the attention and scrutiny they get dissuades anyone from doing that.

Lots of factors influence referees decisions;
• Some have a bad day in the office,
• Some are new and nervous. We saw the red card Aspas got in Celta Vigo's opening match of the season. That was the referees first match and he most likely made a hasty decision due to jitters. The red card was overturned after consultation with VAR,
• Some referees are just bad and enforce the rules differently sometimes choosing to be overly strict or lenient,
• Bribery is the most unlikely cause of bad decisions.

It depends on the league that this issuing of red cards carelessly would happen. In big leagues like EPL, Laliga, Seria A, and so on. If the referee gives a red card that does not deserves a red, VAR will check and call him into order and that cannot repeat itself twice in one match. If 3 players deserves to be given red card, amd the referee gave them, nobody will question him.

Referees are not bribed but they can be biased sometimes, if you overdo it, you will be suspended by FIFA.

Have you heard of a referee that celebrated a team and was banned before? This is one:

A Dutch referee has been banned for life for celebrating a title win with a team

Don't you know that a match can be canceled if something like happened and known?

Everything a referee is doing is obvious and he or she will not want to lose his or her reputation. Bribing a referee will be somehow be useless.

Referees don't work independent of other bodies to guarantee that they could be easily bribed. The introduction of the video assistant referee has made it even more deficult for a referee to be biased in officiating a match talk less of collecting bribes.

If there is a slight form of believe that a referee was bribed that led to making certain wrong or hasty decision to a particular teams advantage, I believe a disciplinary measure will be mated on him without a second thought which will discourage such from happening.

When you even consider the decisions the referee and video assistant referee makes to check which of them looks more bias, it's more likely that the decision of the VAR most expecially with regards offside looks more biased than the decision of the referee.

You might not have heard which also I haven't heard about any but we can't sum it to the fact that all referees are all good to avoid being bribed. Anything is possible as long we all are humans and considering the worth of winning matches then I believe any team or management can take a step ahead to secure their victory, left for the referee to decide if to accommodate such or revoke.

Being asked if referees takes bribe, my answer would be Yes and sometimes they decide based on personal likeness or dislike for a club.

Typically, referee is very hard to bribe since they are working on different group which means there’s someone monitoring their decision in the game too that will cause to lose their job if they do such thing.

Also teams will not dare to do such bold move as bribing since their team might put at risk in general if the referee disclose it in the public. On bigger major league I think this is almost nonexistent but I’m not sure about minor league especially the local league because there’s a lot of potential anomalies that can happened on local sports.

it is really rare bribe a referee.
his conduct is very evident/recorded and evaluated ... and as much as he can influence a match he always has less "power" than bribes a couple of players in a team

here in italy all the scandals of this kind have always involved players.
referees have been involved but only partially (maybe they favored a certain team with "opinable" choices but not a real corruption).

I have not read before that a referee is bribed. Common ones that I know are the football club manager and football players.

So guys, I wanted to get your opinion again in this thread. The thread is concerned with only members that are really experienced in sports events and are mostly lovers of football. 

Actually, the question I asked in my title has nothing to do with any matches that I have watched recently, but it's related to some previous matches that I have watched for a very long time.

So, have you guys watched a match where the referee is blowing a whistle to issue a red or yellow card at the wrong time? Even if what happened is not really something that requires a red or yellow card, but the referee just blows the whistle and gives a red or yellow card according to the situation he feels deserves it? In some of the previous matches I watched, I felt the referee was just unnecessarily issuing red and yellow cards repeatedly to the best-forming team, and I believe he was doing it to make the team lose the match. 

What do you guys have to say about this? Do you think that referees can be bribed so they can issue a red card unnecessarily to the best-forming team to to make the team lose?