Do referees get bribed to cheat in a match?

[danherbias07]

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.

[coin-investor]

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.

[Ondekinecakabilirim]

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.

[Fiatless]

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

     

[Accardo]

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.

[AHOYBRAUSE]

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.

[stadus]

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.

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.

[Blitzboy]

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.

[famososMuertos]

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...

[adultcrypto]

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.

[avp2306]

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.

[Charles-Tim]

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.

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.

[Sandra_hakeem]

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? 

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.

[LDL]

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.

[Strongkored]

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? 

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.

[Beparanf]

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.

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.

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.

[bering]

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

[GigaBit]

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? 

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.

[Issa56]

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.

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.

[TheUltraElite]

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.