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Identifying Causes of Tendency for Match-fixing using Human Resources and Strategies to Combat it in Sports

Abstract

Summary
At the beginning of the 21st century one of the new problems reported in the world sports sector was match-fixing. Every year, a large number of collusions are reported in domestic competitions or world competitions under the supervision of the committees or world federations, and this can have many consequences.
Introduction
Match-fixing is ranked the third in corruption in sports, which can be defined as a deceptive act or action in order to determine the outcome of a match before it is carried out. Collusion can have many consequences for the players, referees, coaches, league managers, fans, and supporters (Peurela, 2013). Match-fixing in sport can also have other definitions if it can affect a course or outcome of a sporting event in order to gain an advantage for one person or for the others (individuals or institutions) and eliminate all or part of the uncertainty in the length of a competition (Moriconi, 2016). Carrying out research works that can lead to the aggregation and analysis of the opinions of different experts will probably lead to a reduction in the decision-making time of club managers in order to combat this phenomenon for a fair athlete benefit from sports and maintain the sanctity of clean sports. Therefore, the main question will be answered in the two axes of contexts and strategies so that what components are effective on the formation of collusion in sports. After identifying these components, the main question is the strategies available to combat collusion or reduce the opportunity to create it.
Methodology and Approach
This research work was a qualitative one in terms of the strategy type, and the grounded theory was used in terms of the research method. The participants in this work included the knowledgeable people, managers, coaches and athletes, psychologists, sociologists, and sports science professors who were familiar with the issue of corruption, and 18 people were selected non-randomly and by snowballs. The research tool was semi-structured interviews; before the interviews and at the first stage of the work, by studying the research background and collecting the library information, some existing cases were identified. After the interviews, the findings were analyzed using the contextual method. In this way, after conducting and editing the interviews, different views were coded and classified in the same conceptual groups and then analyzed qualitatively.
Result and Conclusion
The results obtained showed that the legal, economic, public pressure, prejudice, athlete morale, control, professionalism, and social and sports nature were among the factors associated with match-fixing. The strategies including the financial management reform, education, transparency, structuring, and social organization were also identified. The strategies could be examined at three levels: individual, organizational, and extra-organizational. At the extra-organizational level, the social organizing strategies were considered; at the organizational level, education, transparency, financial management, and structuring; and finally, at the individual level, retraining could be emphasized. An athlete or professional coach should first help reduce deviant situations in the sport by promoting the ethical professionalism. Also the structure of sports clubs and leagues should limit the possibility and opportunity of collusion by creating the transparent financial structures and emergence of the Islamic and Iranian cultures.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References
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Human Resource Management in Sports
Volume 8, Issue 1
January 2021
Pages 145-161
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