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Italy again, and this time we're in Serie C, where an encounter between Cremonese and Paganese became famous for all the wrong reasons.

Early on in the clash, Cremonese players were visibly lethargic, with some barely being able to walk, and one player even crashed his car on the way home from the game.

Eventually, it was discovered that opposition goalkeeper Marco Paolini spiked some of the drinks with tranquilisers to fix the match and pay off his gambling debts.

Paolini was banned for five years, after the Italian FA discovered that he was linked with disgraced Singaporean businessman Dan Tan

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On December 2, 1896, former Old West lawman Wyatt Earp refereed the Fitzsimmons vs. Sharkey boxing match, promoted as the Heavyweight Championship of the World.[22] Earp was chosen as referee by the National Athletic Association the afternoon of the match after both managers refused to agree on a choice. In the eighth round of a fight dominated by Fitzsimmons, Sharkey suddenly went down, clutching his groin, yelling foul. Referee Earp conferred with both corners for a few seconds before he disqualified Fitzsimmons for a foul that virtually no one saw.[22]Fitzsimmons went to court to attempt to stop Sharkey from taking the purse, but failed when the court ruled that the match was illegal and it had no jurisdiction.[23]

Eight years later, Dr. B. Brookes Lee was arrested in Portland, Oregon. He had been accused of treating Sharkey to make it appear that he had been fouled by Fitzsimmons. Lee said, "I fixed Sharkey up to look as if he had been fouled. How? Well, that is something I do not care to reveal, but I will assert that it was done—that is enough. There is no doubt that Fitzsimmons was entitled to the decision and did not foul Sharkey. I got $1,000 for my part in the affair."[24]

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An example occurred in the 2004 European Football Championship. Unlike FIFA, UEFA takes the result of the game between the two tied teams (or in a three-way tie, the overall records of the games played with the teams in question only) into consideration before overall goal difference when ranking teams level on points. A situation arose in Group C where Sweden and Denmarkplayed to a 2–2 draw, which was a sufficiently high scoreline to eliminate Italy (which had lower-scoring draws with the Swedes and Danes) regardless of Italy's result with already-eliminated Bulgaria. Although Italy beat Bulgaria by only one goal to finish level with Sweden and Denmark on five points and would hypothetically have been eliminated using the FIFA tie-breaker too, some Italian fans bitterly contended that the FIFA tie-breaker would have motivated their team to play harder and deterred their Scandinavian rivals from, in their view, at the very least half-heartedly playing out the match after the score became 2–2. The same situation happened to Italy in 2012, leading to many pre-game complaints from Italy, who many commentators suggested were right to be concerned because of their own extensive experience in this area.[28] However, Spain-Croatia ended in a 1–0 win for Spain, and the Italians went through.

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It was a match fixing scandal in Italian football's top division - Serie A. The scandal was uncovered in May 2006 when a number of telephone interactions showed relations between team managers and referee organisations during the 2004/05 and 2005/06 seasons. They were accused of selecting favourable referees.

Champions Juventus, Milan, Fiorentina, Lazio and Reggina were some of the teams involved. In July 2006, Juventus were stripped of their 2004/05 title (and was left unassigned) and were downgraded to last place in the 2005/06 championship and relegated to Serie B. The title was subsequently awarded to Inter Milan that year.

Many sporting directors and referees were given prison sentences, but after almost a decade of investigation, all were acquitted in 2015 due to the expiration of the statute of limitations, except for a one-year sentence confirmed to referee Massimo De Santis.

Transcripts of recorded telephone conversations that were published in Italian newspapers suggested that, during the 2004/05 season, Juventus general managers Luciano Moggi and Antonio Giraudo had conversations with several officials of Italian football to influence referee appointments. During one of those conversations, Moggi accused Pierluigi Collina and Roberto Rosetti (two referees that were part of the few that emerged from the scandal unscathed) of being 'too objective' and asked them to be 'punished'.

On July 4th 2006, Italian Football Federation's prosecutor Stefano Palazzi called for all four clubs at the centre of the scandal to be thrown out of Serie A. He called for Juventus 'being excluded form the Serie A championship and assigned to a lower category to Serie B with 6 points deducted', while for Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio to be downgraded to last place in the 2005/06 championship and relegation to Serie B. Palazzi also asked for point deductions to be imposed for the following season for the clubs (3 for Milan and 15 for both Fiorentina and Lazio). The prosecutor also called for Juventus to be stripped of its 2005 title and downgraded to the last place in the 2006 tournament.

In the case against Reggina, on August 13th, the prosecutor called for Reggina to be demoted to Serie B with a 15 point penalty. On August 15th, Regina's punishment was handed town: a 15 point penalty, but no relegation from Serie A. Furthermore, the club was fined 100,000 Euros, while the club president Pasquale 'Lillo' Foti was fined 30,000 Euros and banned from all football related activities for two and a half years.

The clubs relegated were expected to have a difficult road back to the top flight. They would have had to finish in the top two to be assured of promotion also had to avoid finishing in the bottom four to make sure they weren't relegated again. The point penalty for Juventus was reduced from 30 points to 9 points, giving them a fighting chance at promotion. They won Serie B in the 2006/07 season to make a swift return to Serie A. Fiorentina, who were docked 15 points, were expected to struggle in Serie A and faced an outside chance of relegation the following season. However, they finished the 2006/07 season in 6th place, earning a place in the UEFA Cup the following season. Juventus's relegation prompted a mass exodus of important players including Fabio Cannavaro, Lillian Thuram and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Thirty other Serie A players who participated at the 2006 FIFA World Cup opted to move to other European leagues in the wake of the scandal.

On May 8th 2006, Franco Carraro resigned from the presidency of the FIGC, the body responsible for selecting Italy's FIFA World Cup national team. Juventus's entire board of directors resigned on May 11th, while Moggia resigned shortly after Juventus won the 2006 Serie A championship on May 14th. On the Borsa Italiana, Italy's stock market, Juventus shares had lost about half their May 9th value by the 19th.

Initially, with Juventus, Fiorentina and Lazio all relegated, Messina, Lecce, and Treviso would have remained in Serie A, despite finishing in the bottom three in the 2005–06 season. After the appeals, only Messina remained in Serie A. Teams promoted from Serie B (Atalanta, Catania and Torino) were unaffected and promoted to Serie A as normal.

Based on the preliminary final league positions, Juventus and Milan would have earned a direct entry into the UEFA Champions League, Internazionale and Fiorentina would have entered the third qualifying round of the Champions League, while Roma, Lazio and Chievo would have been eligible for the UEFA Cup. On 6 June 2006, the FIGC officially withdrew from the 2006 Intertoto Cup, costing Palermo a place in the third round of the competition, citing the fact that the 2005–06 Serie A standings could not be confirmed by the 5 June deadline.

UEFA gave FIGC a 25 July 2006 deadline to confirm the standings or face sanctions in the two larger European competitions (then extended to 26 July). After the appeals, Inter, Roma, Chievo and Milan occupied Italy's four Champions League places for 2006–07. Inter and Roma received a direct entry into the Champions League, while Chievo and Milan started at the third qualifying round. Milan's entry was confirmed by UEFA shortly after the appeals process. Milan went on to win the competition. Palermo, Livorno and Parma took the UEFA Cup first-round slots originally given to Roma, Lazio and Chievo.[13]

On 26 July, FIGC declared Inter as the Italian champion for the 2005–06 season.

Regarding this decision, Carlo Porceddu, a federal prosecutor from 1998 to 2001 and current vice president of the Federal Court of Appeal, stated in an interview with Unione Sarda: "Revoking (sic!) the 2005/2006 "scudetto" (championship) from Juventus and assigning to Inter it was a serious mistake. The Calciopoli investigation should have been more thorough, so much so that we, as the Federal Court, had limited the penalty to Juventus not withdrawing the championship title due to insufficient evidence. In fact, that aspect had been neglected. Then, the special commissioner of the Federation of that period had appointed a group of his friends, one of whom was also on the board of directors of Inter, and that title was revoked from Juventus and given to Inter. That was a grave error in my view." Purceddu had more than once in the past highlighted several points to be clarified on that investigation.

Juventus originally announced that they planned to appeal the punishment in the Italian civil courts, an action that would have brought further punishment to the clubs and the FIGC by FIFA, as FIFA has historically taken a dim view to government involvement in football administration. FIFA announced that it had the option to suspend the FIGC, thus barring all Italian clubs from international play, if Juventus went to court. Juventus dropped its appeal before the Lazio Regional Administrative Court on 31 August, the day before it was due to be heard. Juventus officials cited the "willingness shown by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) and the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) to review its case during (CONI's) arbitration."

On 26 October 2006, the second appeal reduced Lazio's penalty to three points, Juventus's reduced to nine points and Fiorentina's reduced to 15 points. Milan were unsuccessful and were still faced with an eight-point deduction.

Massimo De Santis was due to be Italy's refereeing representative at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, but was barred by the FIGC after coming under investigation. Italiana referee Roberto Rosetti remained untainted by the scandal and was chose as one of the 21 2006 FIFA World Cup officials.

The scandal also drew attention to many potential conflicts of interest within Italian football. Adriano Galliani, as the Vice President and CEO of Milan, also served as the president of Serie A,

In addition to allegations of corruption and sporting fraud by owners, managers, players, referees and league officials, the host of Italy's most popular football show, Aldo Biscardi, resigned amid allegations that he collaborated with Juventus general manager Luciano Moggi to boost the club's image on television.

In all, magistrates in Naples formally investigated 41 people and looked into 19 Serie A matches from the 2004/05 season and 14 Serie A matches from the 2005/06 season. Prosecutors in Turin examined the Juventus chairman Antonio Giraudo over transfers, suspected falsified accounts and tax evasion. Prosecutors in Parma investigated national team goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, Enzo Maresca, Antonio Chimenti and Mark Iuliano for suspected gambling on Serie A matches, but all were cleared in the same year.

After the first penalties were handed out, more teams were looked at for possible links to the scandal. Messina, Lecce and Siene were also investigated as prosecutors continued to analyse transcripts of telephone calls.

New details about the Calciopoli affair were disclosed by La Repubblica in April 2007 as Naples prosecutors were able to find a series of telephone calls through foreign SIM cards between Moggia, Bergamo, Pairetto and several referees. As the conversations were through foreign SIM cards, the Italian police could not tap them, so they could only try to match together phone numbers, numbers called and places. The SIM cards had been purchased in a store in Chiasso, Switzerland. Some SIM cards were Swiss and registered to the store owner's family, while the others came from an anonymous person in Liechtenstein. The prosecutors also discovered the use of a Slovenian SIM card. In this investigation they involved Moggi, Pairetto, Bergamo, Fabiani (Messina sporting director), the referees De Santis, Racalbuto, Paparesta, Pieri, Cassara, Dattilo, Bertini, Gabriele and the assistant Ambrosino. According to this investigation, Paparesta also used the Swiss SIM card for personal use and this helped the prosecutors to discover this secret communication channel. Apparently, Moggi had five foreign SIM cards, two of which had been used to communicate with Bergamo and Pairetto, whereas the others had supposed to have been used to communicate with the referees and Fabiani. Moreover, another wiretapping was recently unveiled by La Stampa. Although containing nothing truly comprimising, in the recording Moggi and Marcello Lippi (former coach of Juventus and the coach of the Italian national team at the time) clearly insulted Inter's president (Massimo Moratti) and trainer (Roberto Mancini), as Lippi stated that Mancini deserves a lesson while Moggia answered that Mancini would have such a lesson.

On April 26th 2007, La Repubblica's website published around two hundred audio files of the wiretappings, some published one year before in the written form and some never published. This allowed readers to perceive tones and forms of the conversations as well.

Milan, originally ejected from the 2006/07 Champions League due to the scandal, went on to win the competition on May 23rd 2007.

On June 17th 2007, on the Italian show Qui studio a voice Stadio, a popular football show broadcast by the local TV Telelombardia based in Milan, Bergamo admitted that Moggi actually gave two Swiss SIM cards to Pairetto and Pairetto gave one of those SIM cards to him. Bergamo stated that, on suspicion of being tapped, he used that SIM card only to communicate with Pairetto and that, after exhaustion of the credit, he did not use the SIM card anymore.

In June 2008, Juventus were fined a further 300,000 Euros in three instalments, Messina were fined 60,000 Euros.

On December 14th 2009, Antonio Giraudo was sentenced to three years in prison.

During the Calciopoli trial in Naples, the legal team of Luciano Moggi released a number of wiretapping showing that Milan and Inter had been involved too in the Serie A scandal during 2004 and 2005. Such wiretappings were involving Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani, Inter owner Massimo Moratti, then-Inter chairman Giacinto Facchetti and former referee designators Paolo Bergamo and Pierluigi Pairetto, as well as many other Italian clubs not previously mentioned in the scandal.

On 15 June 2011, FIGC announced that former Juventus directors Luciano Moggi and Antonio Giraudo would be banned for life from any football-related roles in Italy. However, the sentence stated that no Article 6 (about match-fixing or attempted match-fixing) violations were found within the intercepted calls and the season was fair and legitimate. Furthermore, no requests for specific referees, no demands for favours and no conversations between Juventus directors and referees themselves were found.[33][34]

In July 2011, FIGC Chief investigator Stefano Palazzi alleged in his report that, in addition to Luciano Moggi, the following club officials have also violated the Code of Sporting Justice by contacting referee designators in illegal manners.[35]

Article 1: Campedelli (Chievo), Cellino (Cagliari), Corsi (Empoli), Foschi (Palermo), Foti (Reggina), Gasparin (Vicenza), Governato (Brescia), Meani (Milan), Moratti (Inter), Spalletti (Udinese).

Article 6: Facchetti (Inter), Meani (Milan), Spinelli (Livorno).

According to Palazzi's findings, the clubs represented by the above people had to be punished during the Calciopoli trial, but no court could confirm these allegations since all facts are covered by the statute of limitation.[36] Regarding Palazzi's report, Giancarlo Abete, then-president of FIGC, stated that there were no legal ground to revoke the title from Inter. However, he also hinted that Inter should give away the 2006 Serie A scudetto and leave it unassigned on the basis of ethics.[37][38]

On 8 November 2011, Naples court issued the first conclusion of the criminal case against Luciano Moggi and the other football personalities involved, sentencing him to jail for five years and four months for "criminal association".[39]

In December 2013, Moggi's sentence was reduced to two years and four months for being found guilty of conspiring to commit a crime, but the earlier charge of sporting fraud passed the statute of limitations.[40]

On 23 March 2015, in its final resolution the Supreme Court ruled that Moggi was acquitted of "some individual charges for sporting fraud, but not from being the 'promoter' of the 'criminal conspiracy' that culminated in Calciopoli." Nevertheless, the remaining charges of Moggi were cancelled without a new trial due to the statute of limitations.[41][42][43] Giraudo's sentence also expired in March 2015.[44] Appeals by Fiorentina owners Andrea and Diego Della Valle and Lazio president Claudio Lotito against their sentences were also rejected on the same ground—their cases have also passed the statute of limitations.[45]The court accepted the prosecutor's request to clear charges of former referees Paolo Bertini, Antonio Dattilo and Gennaro Mazzei, but rejected the appeals for Massimo De Santis and Savaltore Racabulto.[46] Shortly after the court's decision, FIGC president Carlo Tavecchio remarked in an interview with ANSA that "while the motivations may be pending, the sentence confirms the thesis of the prosecution" and that "the crimes were real and so was the criminal conspiracy."[47] In response to the final verdict, Moggi claimed that it merely let the courts off the hook, not him, therefore he vowed to turn to the European Court in hopes to have his ban from football world lifted.[48]

On 9 September 2015, the Supreme Court released a 150-page document that explained its final ruling of the case. Despite that Moggi's remaining charges were cancelled without a new trial due to statute of limitations,[41] the court made clear that Moggi's unwarranted activities incurred significant damage to Italian football not only in sporting, but also in economic terms. In the document, the court confirmed that Moggi was actively involved in the sporting fraud which was intended to favor Juventus and increase his own personal benefits.[49] The document also stated that Moggi had "unjustified and excessive power within Italian football", which he used to exert influence over referees, other club officials and media, thereby creating "an illegal system to condition matches of the 2004/05 championship (and not just those)."[50] On 15 March 2017, Moggi's lifetime ban was definitively confirmed on final appeal.[51]

In September 2016, District Court rejected the claim from Juventus because it had no jurisdiction over CONI arbitration chamber's decision made in October 2006.[52] In December 2018, the Supreme Court of Cassation upheld this District Court's decision.[53] In January 2019, Juventus handed another appeal to Sports tribunal under CONI to have the 2005–06 Serie A title removed from Inter.[54] The appeal was rejected on 6 May 2019.

Initial verdicts (bans July 2006, sentences November 2011) handed out to the following individuals, and subsequent acquittals due to expiration of the statue of limitations (March 2015):

Massimo De Santis: four-year ban from football and 23 months' imprisonment; one-year suspended sentence confirmed in 2015

Luciano Moggi: five-year ban from football and five years and four months' imprisonment; acquitted

Antonio Giraudo: five-year ban from football and three years' imprisonment; acquitted

Paolo Bertini: 17 months' imprisonment; acquitted

Antonio Dattilo: 17 months' imprisonment; acquitted

Innocenzo Mazzini: five-year ban from football and 26 months' imprisonment; acquitted

Pierluigi Pairetto: 42-month ban from football and 16 months' imprisonment; acquitted

Tullio Lanese: 30-month ban from football; acquitted

Claudio Lotito: 30-month ban from football and 15 months' imprisonment; acquitted

Andrea Della Valle: three-year ban from football and fifteen months' imprisonment; acquitted

Diego Della Valle: 45-month ban from football and 15 months' imprisonment; acquitted

Pasquale Foti: 30-month ban from football and 15 months' imprisonment and fined €30,000

Sandro Mencucci: 30-month ban from football and 15 months' imprisonment

Leonardo Meani: 30-month ban from football and one year's imprisonment

Salvatore Racalbuto: 20 months' imprisonment

Stefano Titomanlio: one year's imprisonment and fined €20,000

Adriano Galliani: nine-month ban from football

Gennaro Mazzei: six-month ban from football

Fabrizio Babini: three-month ban from football

Gianluca Paparesta: three-month ban from football

Claudio Puglisi: three-month ban from football and one year's imprisonment and fined €20,000

Franco Carraro: fined €80,000

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Standard Liege were involved in a match-fixing scandal that rocked Belgium a few decades ago. Club manager Raymond Goethals had instructed players to offer their match bonuses as bribes to their opponents.

This would have allowed Standard Liege to ensure victory and win the title trophy. It would've also allowed them to keep their players match-fit and uninjured for their game against Barcelona.

After the match-fixing scandal came to the fore, Goethals was banned from managing in Belgium for life. 13 Standard Liege players were also found quilty and banned from Belgian football.

Notably, Goethals would go on to coach Marseilles and bring them their Champions League trophy in 1993. In the same year that Tapei was involved in the club's Ligue 1 match-fixing scandal.

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In March 2004 top British jockey Kieren Fallon had a comfortable lead on a ride named Ballinger Ridge as he headed along the final straight in the main race of the meeting at Lingfield Park Racecourse.

Fallon, a top exponent at his trade, apparently failed to notice the favourite gaining on him from behind, eased off. He was dramatically overtaken before the finishing post.

This started a group of investigators to suspect that something wasn't completely kosher here.

Later, in 2006, Fallon was one of six jockeys who were arrested as part of a police investigation into the alleged fixing of over 80 races in the previous two years.

They were charged with conspiracy to defraud by interfering with the running of horses to ensure they lost races. All denied the charges.

Fallon and two others had their UK racing licences suspended.

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In September 2009, Formula 1 driver Nelson Piquet Jr. admitted to having intentionally wrecked his race-car during the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix due to team orders. It gave an advantage to his teammate Fernando Alonso who went on to win the race. Following a lawsuit by the Renault Formula 1 team against the Piquet family, a judge ruled in Piquet's favor due to overwhelming evidence against the team; fining the Renault Formula 1 team millions, liquidating various employees, banning the team from Formula 1 for 2 years (on suspended sentence) and various key members of Renault Formula 1 team being banned for life (which was later appealed).

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In June 2018, Filipino darts player Gilbert Ulang was found by the Darts Regulation Authority to have deliberately lost to Kevin Simm in the preliminary round of the 2017 PDC World Darts Championship. Ulang was given a seven-year suspension from the sport

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At the 2012 Summer Olympics, a match result was overturned and the referee was expelled from the tournament after a very controversial decision which included a boxer winning the match despite having been knocked down five times in one round, in violation of amateur boxing regulations. Under AIBA rules, both the mandatory eight count and three knockdown rule are in effect. Eleven months earlier, BBC reported on a possible bribery attempt, which could be related

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In 2017, eight members of the Siliwangi Bandung in the Indonesian Basketball League were expelled from the league for fixing at least four games. Danny Kosasih, chairman of the Indonesian Basketball Association, said he received proof of the match fixing through recorded audio conversations of the players involved

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In 1982, Belgian Side Standard Liege were fined £75,000 after their manager suggested to the players that they offer their match bonuses to the opposition on the final day of the season in order to ensure a victory and subsequent league title.

The manager was Raymond Goethals.

Goethals was banned from managing in Belgium for life along with 13 of the Standard Liege players.

Liege were allowed to keep their Belgian title and Goethals found a job at Marseille some years later.

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Marseille were found guilty of match fixing in the early 90s.

Marseille won four league titles between 1989 and 1992 under the guidance of Bernard Tapie, as well as a UEFA Champions League trophy to boot.

The foundations of a great Marseille side came crumbling down in 1993 when it emerged that Tapie was involved in match fixing.

Marseille were stripped of their league title, banned from entering the Champions League and banned from entering the Intercontinental Cup.

Tapie received two years in prison whilst Marseille suffered financial problems and were demoted to Ligue 2.

Marseille were managed by Raymond Goethals at the time.

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Late 2013 saw match and spot-fixing creep back into the conscience of professional football in the UK to a significant extent, with the arrests of six individuals in relation to offences carried out in League One matches and below. Such an instance so far up the English league pyramid has caused great concern within professional football, but it should be remembered that this is not the first or even most serious occurrence of an attempt to influence results or incidents on a football field.

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South Korean footballer Choi-Sung Kuk was found guilty of match fixing in the South Korean K-League and has been banned from football for life by FIFA. Choi also received a 10-month prison sentence—suspended for two years—for an offence of manipulating game results in two matches in 2010.

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The 1919 World Series was lost intentionally by the Chicago White Sox in one of the most controversial and consequential scandals in American history.
They were in agreement that White Sox players were underpaid by team owner Charles Comiskey.
Eddie Cicotte hitting a batsman with his second pitch, serving as a prearranged signal that the fix was in.
After the nation bet heavily in favor of Cincinnati to win, the White Sox would lose the nine game series in eight games, completing the fix. One year later during the grand jury investigation, Joe Jackson and Eddie Cicotte confessed to their roles in the scandal.
The team became known as the “Black Sox” and the name has become synonymous with the scandal since.

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A more recent example occurred in the 1982 FIFA World Cup, West Germany played Austria in the last match of group B. A West German victory by 1 or 2 goals would result in both teams advancing; any less and Germany was out; any more and Austria was out (and replaced by Algeria, who had just beaten Chile).