Crime in the Boardroom: Extending the Focus beyond Football Fans

In highly professionalised sports, with substantial financial rewards for success, the pressure to bend and sometimes break the rules is always a potential problem. However, it is the duty of the regulatory body — national and international — and those involved in the sport, such as players and referees, to protect the integrity of their sport. The criminological focus on football, however, has primarily been con- cerned with the behaviour of fans (Trivizas, 1981; Frosdick and Marsh, 2005; Stott and Pearson, 2006; 2007; Pearson and Sale, 2011; Ayres and Treadwe11, 2012; Hamilton-Smith and Hopkins, 2013) rather than those running the football clubs. The sociological and criminological litera- ture tends to focus on low-level criminality and disorder and/or the policing and punishment of that disorder. This is understandable, as the impact of televised crowd disturbances and acts of violence secure criminological interest far more than isolated cases of football club cor- ruption. Furthermore, access to the field of football crowd violence is open and available for observational and ethnographic research far more than crime in the boardroom. This criminological disinterest in white- collar crime in football, even from those with an interest in white-collar crime (Box, 1983; Braithwaite, 1984; 1985; Slapper and Tombs, 1999; Tombs and Why te, 2003), is partly down to a focus on more visible, high-impact crime(s), but also due to lack of access to the research ‘field’.

[1]  P. Millward The Global Football League: Transnational Networks, Social Movements and Sport in the New Media Age , 2011 .

[2]  G. Brooks Online gambling and money laundering: “views from the inside” , 2012 .

[3]  I. Henry,et al.  The governance of professional soccer: Five case studies – Algeria, China, England, France and Japan , 2005 .

[4]  Clifford Stott,et al.  Football Banning Orders, Proportionality, and Public Order Policing , 2006 .

[5]  J. Michie,et al.  The Corporate Governance of Professional Football Clubs in England , 2005 .

[6]  Julia Hörnle,et al.  Cross-Border Online Gambling Law and Policy , 2010 .

[7]  Yee-Kuang Heng,et al.  Financial Action Task Force , 2014 .

[8]  G. Pearson,et al.  Keeping the Peace: Social identity, procedural justice and the policing of football crowds , 2012 .

[9]  J. Forster Global sports organisations and their governance , 2006 .

[10]  P. Millward The Global Football League , 2011 .

[11]  Niall Hamilton-Smith,et al.  The transfer of English legislation to the Scottish context: Lessons from the implementation of the Football Banning Order in Scotland , 2013 .

[12]  J. Braithwaite Criminological theory and organizational crime , 1989 .

[13]  Mark D. Button,et al.  Fraud, Corruption and Sport , 2013 .

[14]  Geoff Pearson,et al.  Football ''Hooliganism'', Policing and the War on the ''English Disease'' , 2007 .

[15]  G. Pearson,et al.  ‘On the Lash’ – revisiting the effectiveness of alcohol controls at football matches , 2011 .

[16]  H. Dietl,et al.  Governance Failure and Financial Crisis in German Football , 2007 .

[17]  D. Hill How Gambling Corruptors Fix Football Matches , 2009 .

[18]  P. Kautt,et al.  Effective policing: management influence and the commitment of senior police personnel , 2011 .

[19]  Julak Lee,et al.  Match-Fixing in Korean Football: Corruption in the K-League and the Importance of Maintaining Sporting Integrity , 2012 .

[20]  Mary A. Hums,et al.  Governance and Policy in Sport Organizations , 2003 .

[21]  James Treadwell,et al.  Bars, drugs and football thugs: Alcohol, cocaine use and violence in the night time economy among English football firms , 2012 .

[22]  J. Foot Calcio: A History of Italian Football , 2006 .

[23]  Stephen Morrow,et al.  The governance and regulation of Italian football , 2010 .

[24]  T. Jones The Dark Heart of Italy , 2003 .