Life in the 21st century is complicated. As the population continues to explode and everyone competes for resources, every aspect of the human experience becomes a hot commodity. Those who are best at packaging, marketing and selling, manage to outpace the competition to get a nice piece of the money pie. The beautiful game is not immune from this trend of corporatization, as league revenues, television coverage and jersey sales are continuously driven by men in suits.
That corruption and scandal become part of the cycle is only natural, since getting a leg up on the competition is always critical to success. As the FIFA scandal continues to trudge forward until the eventual climax that will be the election of a new President, PortuGOAL examines the different levels of historic corruption in the world’s favourite sport. Prominent examples of cheating, in one form or another can be found on every level; from the individual, to a league, all the way up to the governing body. The unfortunate reality is that this phenomena is not new to football, nor is it likely to disappear anytime soon.
