England – Declan Hill – Investigative Journalist & Academic

04AugAugust 4, 2017

Why Neymar is Cheap at 220 Million Euro

It is not about the sport. The sporting giants like Jürgen Klopp and Arsène Wenger have weighed in to denounce the transfer of Barcelona’s Brazilian star Neymar for 220 million Euro to Paris Saint-Germain. They claim it is against the spirit of sport and is “beyond rationality”. Their rival José Mourinho at Manchester United, somewhat, agrees saying say that the real problem with the Neymar transfer is that the whole player market will now go berserk. In sporting terms they are...

10JunJune 10, 2016

How to Fix the European Championship

This is an article that I hate to write. I hope that fixing does not happen at the upcoming European Championship. I hope that no teams, players or officials are involved in corruption. However, for all the football fans that are concerned for the integrity of the beautiful game here is the blueprint of how match-fixers go about corrupting a big international football tournament. I write this because the only way to find proof of match-fixing is to mount proper investigations....

30AprApril 30, 2016

It’s Not a Fix: Leicester City’s Dream Season

Returning from three-weeks away to an inbox of e-mails from around the world asking, 'is the whole thing is a fix?'. Is Leicester City's triumphant surge simply a case of bunged envelopes, compliant defenders and compromised games? The notes have poured in from across the world. Readers from New Zealand to South Africa to England to the US, and many countries in between, have asked this question. The answer is no. If there were any fixing in the Premier League (which...

24JunJune 24, 2015

The ‘Sports’ Farce in Washington

To my American colleagues who went to the seminar on ‘sports integrity’ at the National Press Club on June 24th, You saw a presentation by a man with little credibility in sports integrity and two other men who have failed. You attended a presentation sponsored by the Qatari sports establishment. This is a group that is suspected by sports fans around the world of corruption in securing the rights to the World Cup tournament of 2022. This is a group that...