2026 FIFA World Cup – Declan Hill – Investigative Journalist & Academic

How to Referee a Fixed Match: FIFA and Gianni Infantino’s Credibility Nightmare

It's not the fixing that is the problem. It is the perception of the fixing where FIFA has an enormous problem. A reasonable person, not a conspiracy theorist, could look at half-a-dozen of the games in this World Cup tournament and have genuine doubts about the integrity of the sport. Gianni Infantino has a huge credibility problem with this year's World Cup tournament Say what you like about Sepp Blatter’s version of FIFA (and I said much), at least the corruption, mostly, stopped...

The Seven Secrets of Why There Will be Match-Fixing at the World Cup – Part 2

Match-fixing has a long, ignoble history at the FIFA World Cup. The fixers are intelligent, well-resourced and well-connected. Some of the football officials are deeply corrupt. There have been fixers coming to almost every FIFA international tournament since at least 1991. They have approached hundreds of players, coaches, and referees. In 1995 at the World Youth Championship in Doha, Qatar. Two young Portuguese players had been invited up to a room to discuss an interesting proposition by two attractive young Malay...