The thing present in any global event or arrangement is the ethical aspect of the problem that makes the basis of the made decisions. In the field of sport, the importance of the implementation of ethics in the decision-making process is an integral part of any appropriate and fair action. Additionally, different types of sports are ubiquitously viewed by diverse populations around the globe; hence, sometimes broad-based scandals occur based on the confrontation of opinions or real illegal actions from the football clubs’ side. In recent years, several enormous scandals emerged, and they are mostly connected with corruption and the additional money-earning process as the most crucial aspect for any sports organization. In this case, the 2006 ‘Calciopoli’ scandal can be considered one of the most known and effect-producing brawls with the following hearings in the history of football.
This scandal can be looked at from diverse perspectives; however, the ethical aspect seems to be one of the most significant ones. The background of the issue can be briefly described as the mass falsifications of match results among diverse clubs, leagues, and associations to win higher positions in Series A (Rossi et al., 2018). The unfair judgment was based on the connections and premature agreements between diverse clubs, organizations, and referees, as well as the corrupted appointment of those referees. As a result of this scandal, such football clubs as Juventus, AC Milan, SS Lazio, and ACF Fiorentina received club-level punishments and were banned from Italian football for different periods (Rossi et al., 2018). Hence, if looking at the issue from an ethical perspective, diverse discrepancies in misfits in the social and moral norms can be defined.
The first ethical problem concerning the scandal is the equality of chances and fair judgment during the leagues. By performing the such illegal activity as the result of falsification, separate clubs and teams are provided with an unseen higher status while others still believe in the competition independent of corruption and subjective opinions. Therefore, in football, bribes not only establish an unhealthy and prejudiced environment but also ensure social inequality regarding the provided information. In the modern world, where governments aim to propagate overall equality, those actions of conscious inequality establishment can be considered sabotage against the existing social and moral norms. From the position of ethics, this aspect of the scandal can be considered as undermining the established social structures and processes and therefore causing global dissatisfaction and distrust of the world of sports.
Another aspect that requires to be mentioned is the loss of value caused by this context-specific fraud. Amenta and Betta (2021) claim that corruption can be considered an action that degrades values that are crucial and relevant in the sport. These values often include socially appreciated traits, especially honesty, fair competition, hard work, transparent judgmental processes, and prizes only to the best. In addition, various organizations have lists of ethical rules that sportsmen and their clubs are required to follow; hence, the ‘Calciopoli’ scandal disvalues the importance of such committees and their role and totally ignores the established principles. In 2006 was formed the Independent Ethical Committee that is now one of the milestones and judicial bodies of FIFA (Radenovic & Mihatov, 2020). It was created due to the rising numbers of corruption cases in football, including the discussed scandal.
In this case, this situation of fraud among diverse football entities and their representatives leads the global ignorance about ethical principles, inequality, demolition of trust in the judgmental processes during competitions, and lower motivation. In my opinion, it was quite an unethical movement from the clubs’ sides to establish those huge corruption mechanisms for the sake of bigger popularity, status, and higher profits. Football has always been about honesty and fair competition; hence, I think it should remain this way as an example of motivation, interest, and real achievements.
References
Amenta, C., & Betta, P. D. (2021). The impact of corruption on sport demand. International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, 22(2), 369-384. Web.
Rossi, G., Goossens, D., Di Tanna, G. L., & Addesa, F. (2018). Football team performance efficiency and effectiveness in a corruptive context: The Calciopoli case. European Sport Management Quarterly, 19(5), 583-604. Web.
Radenovic, S., & Mihatov, N. (2020). Ethical committees and professional sports – ‘bioethicalization’ of sports as a need. Sport in Society, 1-14. Web.