FIFA World Cup – Declan Hill – Investigative Journalist & Academic

08JulJuly 8, 2026

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...

25JunJune 25, 2026

Happy Hunting Ground for the Match-Fixers

This next few days of games at the FIFA World Cup are where match-fixers find their success. The match-fixers are already buzzing around the tournament and teams. The arrangements and initial payments made. For those of you who didn’t get a chance to read it - I wrote a three-part series on match-fixers at the World Cup. The Daily Telegraph was kind enough to ask me to write a summation of the work. Since then we have discovered - thanks to...

11JunJune 11, 2026

The Seven Secrets of Why There Will be Match-Fixers at the World Cup: Part 3 – No one is stopping them

The match-fixers were at the last men's FIFA World Cup in America. They will be back. There are more teams. The gambling market is larger. And no one is stopping them. Match-fixers approached players on the Swedish team before the 3rd place match in the 1994 FIFA World Cup Finals It was - theoretically - the second most important game at the tournament: The 3rd place match on July 16,1994. The game was between Sweden and Bulgaria. It was a...

08JunJune 8, 2026

CBC TV Interview: Why the FIFA World Cup Needs Basic Accountability

FIFA is a legally-defined criminal organization, yet Canadian taxpayers have to cover all the loses while FIFA keeps all the profits - why? And why can't we know how much the whole thing will cost? Democracy, anyone? https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.7226257 FIFA World Cup and the Absence of Democracy On my beloved CBC Television this weekend to discuss the FIFA World Cup in Canada. It was a strange interview - felt like it should have been done years ago, not a few...

21MayMay 21, 2026

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...

11MayMay 11, 2026

The Seven Secrets of Why There Will be Match-Fixing at the World Cup – Part 1

Of course, there will be match fixing at the FIFA World Cup - Why wouldn’t there be? Sports gambling/betting, corruption, under-paid players, its all legal! Match-Fixing at the World Cup So what you want, we can deliver to you. After this match, I have a game in the Under-20 World Cup… So Under-20 World Cup first two games they will play, so after the third game, they will do for us because XXXX is our team (names...