Sepp Blatter – 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...

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...

16DecDecember 16, 2022

The Mystery Final

There are some games that are far larger than just a sporting competition. There was that game in 1936 in Berlin when the England team were forced to raise their arms in Nazi salutes. There was that game in Belgrade between Red Star and Manchester United on February 6, 1958. It was to be the last footballing appearance of the Busby Babes. After the match, many of them flew off into the skies of football immortality in a crash at Munich Airport. There...

25JunJune 25, 2022

The Sickness of the “Sports Integrity Industry”

Qatar 2022 is about to start with massive labour and human rights challenges. The sports integrity industry has had little effective effect. Sports integrity is, now, an industry. It needs clear rules of disclosure.

10FebFebruary 10, 2017

The Greatest Case of Commercial Blindness in the History of Sports Integrity

There are all kinds of examples of inappropriate blindness. There was Captain Smith of the SS Titanic not seeing the iceberg. There was Admiral Nelson putting the telescope to his eye patch not to see the signal to retreat. There was Johnny Papalia the mafia thug who beat up the head of Toronto’s illegal gambling racket in front of two-hundred people in a crowded restaurant and when the police arrived none of the patrons said they saw anything. Then there is...

09MayMay 9, 2016

Requiem for a Football Legend: Michel Platini

So he is gone. Michel Platini's drink at the last chance legal saloon of the Council for the Arbitration of Sport (CAS - the supreme court for sports) just ended. Here is the background. Michel Platini “advised” Sepp Blatter, the former president of FIFA, between 1999-2002. Just before the 2011 FIFA Presidential election, where Michel Platini chose not to run against Blatter, he received a payment of 2 million Swiss Francs from Blatter. Their story was that this payment was in recompense...

04MarMarch 4, 2016

Covert Campaigns at the FIFA Game of Thrones

The FIFA presidential election was about covert campaigning, geo-politics, arrests for racketeering, corruption, fraud and sex: it did not have much to do with soccer. There were two FIFA Presidential elections happening here in Zurich. The public one with fine sounding statements and pronouncements of public morality made by the five presidential candidates. Their speeches featured all the clichés mentioning “accountability”, “transparency” or “a few bad apples ruining it for the honest majority”, etc, etc. Then there was a...

24FebFebruary 24, 2016

The Elephant in the FIFA Room and the Caribbean Delegates

https://www.declanhill.com/storage/2016/02/X-Fifa-vice-president-Jack-Warner-is-caught-on-tape-offering-_gifts-of-25_000-to-Caribbean.flv.mp4 There are two unresolved questions here in Zurich with days to go before the biggest election in FIFA's history. The two front runners are Gianni Infantino and Sheikh Salman. They both have the official support of two confederations: Salman his own Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the African Confederation (CAF). Infantino – Europe (UEFA) and Latin America (CONMEBOL). Most of the discussions, media spinning, rumours, etc in this city is about whether Salman's support is declining and Infantino is gaining: or,...

07DecDecember 7, 2015

Games Night at Zurich Hotels & Why Dan Tan Should Be Released

Crikey – the arrests of FIFA executives is getting so routine at the five-star Hotel Baur au Lac in Zurich the management should build it into their daily schedule: 5 p.m. - High Tea 6 p.m. - Cocktails & Happy Hour 6 a.m. - FBI & Swiss Organized Crime Police arrests of FIFA executives 7.15 a.m. - Continental breakfast Possibly the hotel has, like chocolates on the pillows, turn-down service and concierges, criminal lawyers standing around...