This article has printed in “Tejarat_e_Farda” magazine, Dated: Saturday, June 8, 2024.

https://www.tejaratefarda.com/fa/tiny/news-47018

What Is the Structure of Corruption in Iranian Football, and What Are Its Characteristics?

Self-Inflicted Amnesia

Vahid Namazi, Journalist and Football Researcher

He informs the boss. Now, besides him and his employee who went to Isfahan, the head of the federation is also in the know. The order is clear: “Go find out what’s going on.” He heads to Isfahan, visits the stadium, and meets the referees. He wants to get to the bottom of things when a box of gaz (a traditional Persian sweet) is placed in front of him. He’s not in the mood for sweets. He’s there to uncover a major corruption scandal. He pushes the box aside, but the hand holding it doesn’t budge: “Look inside the flour and gaz, Mr. Daneshvar.” The federation’s secretary-general is stunned. Amid the flour and gaz, gold coins gleam. The second season of Iran’s professional league is underway. Everyone, as usual, is chanting slogans. Everyone claims to want to fight corruption. And, of course, everyone wants to get their horse to the finish line first—at any cost, even if it means limping along a crooked path!

The previous season, Persepolis won the first-ever Iranian Premier League title on the final day, thanks to Esteghlal’s failure to win in Anzali. Rumors swirled afterward—allegations of underperformance by some Esteghlal players, backroom deals, and collusion to ensure the championship didn’t go to their rival. Now, with Sepahan crowned champions, whispers of bribery, sweeteners, and buying the title with gold coins emerge. A senior member of the ethics committee at the time, notorious for fining and suspending players for sporting anchor-shaped beards or tattoos, takes the coin scandal to the media. Sepahan issues a statement, threatening the ethics official. The story blows up. Rumors and reports circulate, only to be suddenly swept under the rug, forgotten until the next season and the next race to “secure” a championship.

About 15 years later, in 2016, Mohammad Dadkan, in an interview with Ghanoun newspaper, speaks about Sepahan’s coin-laced gaz: “Mr. Taj is now the federation president, so if I say something, they’ll claim I’m targeting him. I’ll tell you plainly: this happened in Isfahan. They put coins inside gaz boxes and gave them to our referees. Mr. Daneshvar [then-secretary-general of the football federation] uncovered this. I sent him myself. I told him to go to Isfahan without anyone noticing. He took the gaz boxes in the locker room and saw coins inside. Taj came to me one night at the federation and said, ‘We didn’t do this; others did.’ I told him to close the matter and not let it escalate. I’m not saying you did it, but coins were found in the gaz boxes given to our referees in Isfahan. We caught it, and you did the same in Mashhad. I can’t say who did it in Isfahan, but we saw it—coins placed in gaz and given to referees. I never covered it up. But saying who did it? I can’t. Though I had my suspicions, they might deny it, claiming their deputy or manager did it. The point is, coins were in the gaz boxes.”

Under FIFA’s ethical codes, even knowing about potential match-fixing or bribery and concealing it carries the same penalty as participating in the offense. Yet here, the federation president orders the case to be dropped, ensuring silence prevails and corruption trumps ethics! The chairman and manager of Sepahan that year later become federation president and national team manager. Ethics committee members from that era are themselves accused of financial corruption and selling national team merchandise during the World Cup. No one takes action about the past. Anchor-shaped beards are out of fashion, but the bodies of multi-billion-toman players flaunt bold tattoos on TV screens, and Iranian football remains plagued by corruption—a corruption everyone knows about, everyone talks about, but never eradicates. It merely changes form. Once, coins were hidden in floury gaz; now, hefty bribes come as cryptocurrency, dollars, car vouchers, and Rolex watches.

From Italian Totonero to Rafsanjan’s Rials

Act One—1980, Italy: Two Italian shopkeepers claim knowledge of match-fixing by some Serie A players. Italy’s financial police investigate. The scandal, dubbed Totonero, reveals that clubs like AC Milan, Lazio, Napoli, and Juventus were involved. Following court rulings and federation confirmation, Milan and Napoli are relegated to Serie B, and several players are banned, including Paolo Rossi—the same star who, after serving his suspension, leads Italy to the 1982 World Cup title, winning both the Golden Ball and Golden Boot.

Act Two—40 Years Later, Iran: When the management team of Mes Rafsanjan changes, new managers discover a 220-billion-toman debt. Examining the club’s financial records, they find no documentation for a large portion of expenses. Intelligence agencies step in, scrutinizing the club’s financial transactions for the 2020-21 season. They uncover significant sums transferred from Mes Rafsanjan’s accounts to three money exchangers, who confess to receiving the funds in exchange for 400 gold coins, dollars, and euros. Further investigations lead former club managers to admit that the coins and cash were paid, at the request of the then-head coach, to individuals he designated, with no records kept. This marks the start of a new scandal that, over the past one or two months, has exposed another chapter of corruption in Iranian football to the media and public. Three federation and league officials—the head of the referees committee, the head of the Premier League and League One competitions committee—are barred from football activities pending judicial rulings. Footballi news agency reports that, based on local sources, two of the three senior officials involved have faced court in Kerman, and a prominent media figure has also been summoned. The reason for these lavish payments is clear: the newly promoted Rafsanjan team, aiming for a high league ranking, spent on influencing referee and supervisory appointments, media and journalists for biased support, and even pressuring other teams to favor their own. Until external regulatory and judicial bodies issue rulings and clarify the full scope of the case, naming individuals or specifics isn’t certain. But what shines as brightly as Iran’s desert sun is the influx of unaccounted money into the Premier League’s financial cycle—an amount that could have funded two teams for an entire season in 2020-21!

The Ins and Outs of Corruption in Football and Its Examples

Large sums of “unaccounted” money breed corruption. This is a universal truth applicable to any field—industry, commerce, politics, and, of course, sports. Over the past five decades, football’s global influence, massive investments, and influx of sponsors have poured billions into the sport through championship bonuses, TV broadcast rights based on final standings, and rewards for regional or global competitions. Naturally, investors’ efforts to tap into these potential revenues have intensified. As with any field, the more money and power you wield, the more you see chasing greater profits and progress—at any cost—as a “right,” even if illegitimate.

But where does this corrupt mechanism infiltrate football? Undoubtedly, it’s easiest and safest to target vulnerable areas where enticing offers can loosen resolve. Some sectors directly influence match outcomes, while others do so indirectly. In determining a football match’s result, players and referees play the primary role, but managers, media, and even spectators are other entry points for corruption. Football, as a relatively new phenomenon compared to other industrial, social, political, economic, or cultural domains, lacks robust, impenetrable structures globally. However, its high sensitivity and impact on social, cultural, and even political relations have driven football’s governing and supervisory bodies to enforce ethics and fair play. Despite stringent laws, global adherence to ethical codes is uneven, and even FIFA, the sport’s global authority, isn’t immune to the worst forms of corruption.

Here’s a summary of four major corruption scandals in football history, at club, national, regional, and global levels, showing how corruption seeps into this global phenomenon:

4. Cashirules: Mexico, a regular World Cup participant since reaching the 1986 quarterfinals, was absent in 1990—not due to on-field failure but because they used four overage players in the 1988 CONCACAF U-20 Championship, which they won. Journalist Antonio Moreno exposed this scandal, prompting the U.S. Soccer Federation to demand an investigation. CONCACAF confirmed the violation, banning Mexico from the Youth World Cup, with the U.S. taking their place. FIFA upheld the decision, barring Mexico from all FIFA-organized tournaments.
5. Dirty Championship with Tapie’s Money: Marseille’s port dwellers still recall the sweet and bitter moments of the 1992-93 season. Olympique Marseille became the only French club to win the UEFA Champions League, but the path chosen by club president Bernard Tapie and his associates was tainted. Before the European final against AC Milan, needing a win against Valenciennes to secure the French league title, they bribed Valenciennes’ captain Christophe Robert and 1978 World Cup champion Jorge Burruchaga to underperform, ensuring Marseille’s freshness for the Champions League final. Having lost the 1991 final to Red Star Belgrade, Tapie, determined to avoid another defeat, instructed his center-back Jean-Jacques Eydelie to bribe Burruchaga and Robert (former teammates at Nantes). The bribery occurred a day before the match. Marseille won with a goal from Alen Bokšić, but Valenciennes’ Jacques Glassmann reported the incident to the referee and club officials. Days after Marseille’s European triumph, police interrogated players from both teams. Robert admitted to receiving 250,000 francs, with the money found buried in his aunt’s garden. Tapie was convicted of match-fixing and fraud, sentenced to two years in prison. Glassmann, who exposed the scandal, received FIFA’s 1995 Fair Play Award.
6. German Quagmire and Calciopoli Storm: Beyond smaller scandals like Totonero in the early 1980s (mentioned earlier) or the 1971 German football bribery scandal, which engulfed over 50 players and managers from six clubs, including Kickers Offenbach, for rigging matches to avoid relegation, the biggest club football scandal was Italy’s Calciopoli (2004-2006). It began with investigations into the GEA World football agency, revealing that Juventus executives Luciano Moggi and Antonio Giraudo colluded with Italian football officials to influence referee selections. Juventus, AC Milan, Fiorentina, and Lazio were at the forefront. Juventus was stripped of its 2004-05 and 2005-06 titles and relegated to Serie B. Milan lost 30 points in 2005-06, and Fiorentina and Lazio were barred from the Champions League and UEFA Cup.
7. Selling World Cup Hosting and FIFA Bribery: While club and national team scandals are tolerable, corruption at football’s global governing body is unforgivable. Yet FIFA has been tainted to its core. Investigations by British journalists and the U.S. Department of Justice revealed that FIFA officials were bribed to award the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosting rights to Russia and Qatar. Executive committee members, senior officials from confederations like North America and Africa (whose large voting blocs influenced host selections), and cash payments to sway FIFA officials assessing Russia and Qatar’s readiness were implicated. In 2015, it emerged that FIFA officials faced charges of bribery, fraud, and money laundering involving over $150 million. Several were arrested at FIFA’s Zurich congress in May 2015. This scandal-stained football’s governance, leading to Sepp Blatter’s resignation as FIFA president and dragging Michel Platini, then-UEFA president and French football legend, into the mire, accused of receiving a $2 million bribe. He was banned from football-related activities by FIFA’s ethics committee until 2023.

Iranianized Corruption in Iranian Football

Betting, bribery, superstition, and collusion—every form of corruption imaginable thrives in Iranian football. This isn’t new. The deeply flawed and problematic structure of Iranian club football empowers corrupt hands to pursue their goals unchecked. The lower you go in the club hierarchy, the more pungent and uglier corruption becomes. The situation is so chaotic that Amir Abedini, former Persepolis president and a veteran football executive, told ISNA: “I went to a [Premier League] club for some business. I saw one of those so-called sorcerers sitting outside. I went into the office and asked, ‘Who’s that guy?’ He said, ‘Sit down, I’ll explain. Isn’t sorcery mentioned in the Quran?’ I said, ‘It’s condemned. The Quran doesn’t tell you to seek sorcerers; it says avoid them. Why bring him here?’ He replied, ‘Our work is stuck. We brought him to untie the knot.’ I asked, ‘Who recommended this?’ He said, ‘My head coach.’ Imagine—a top football executive thinks sorcery, not science, fitness, nutrition, or psychological work, not selecting good coaches and players, will solve his problems by tossing them into a sorcerer’s bowl!” Elsewhere in the interview, Abedini points to blatant collusion in lower leagues for promotion, involving teams, leagues, and the federation: “The night before a match deciding your team’s promotion or relegation, your best defender suddenly claims to have a fever. You have no replacement for his position, so you move your right-back to center-back. Then, out of nowhere, the federation calls to say his doping test is positive! When’s the match? Tomorrow! Out of fear, you lose that player too…”

This is just a sliver of the One Thousand and One Nights of corruption in Iranian football. The lack of a precise, effective, and empowered oversight system has allowed such blatant cases to surface, alongside even more egregious instances of bribing referees—the guardians of fair play on the sacred pitch. Consider this: Seyed Mehdi Seyedali, a prominent now-retired referee, in an interview on the Sport and People TV program, exposes a clear case of corruption, revealing how a provincial football board president (a direct representative of the federation president and the primary enforcer of clean football in that province) offered bribes in 2020 to influence referees to prevent a team’s relegation in a Premier League match. The bribe—coins and handicrafts—was hidden in a suitcase meant for the referees’ radio set: “He came to my hotel room under the pretense of delivering the radio set, handed me the bag, and made his request, which I rejected. After he left, I opened the bag, saw the coins and handicrafts, and immediately called the hotel lobby to return the ‘gifts’ (bribe).” The crux of Seyedali’s revelation is that he reported the incident to the federation’s then-caretaker and filed it with the federation’s judicial bodies. Yet, like the Isfahan gaz scandal, instead of legal action against the accused board president to prevent future cases, the “cover-up” policy prevailed, sweeping everything under the rug. According to FIFA’s ethical codes, which explicitly outline handling reported corruption with no escape for concealment, addressing this case and similar ones (like the recent Mes Kerman scandal) is mandatory. Failing to process such cases in the federation’s judicial bodies is itself corruption, fueling suspicions of systemic involvement and prompting the AFC to demand explanations from Iran’s football federation regarding the Mes Kerman case. The AFC’s letter names two accused individuals—the former head of the league’s competitions committee and the former head of the referees committee—requesting details on the incident and actions taken.

Yet, the federation president, while claiming a response was sent, seems to cling to the same “feigned ignorance” tactic used in the gaz and coin saga: “Our information is as reported. The bribery issue is under investigation by Kerman’s judiciary, and if proven, the federation’s ethics committee will act. No one should overlook this corruption or take it lightly. Anyone with a non-criminal issue can complain to the federation’s judicial bodies. In 2021, the ethics committee investigated a similar case involving Mes Shahr-e Babak, resulting in suspensions. The current case is solely about bribery. Three football-related individuals, one a media figure, each received about 25 coins. The case is under investigation, and if proven, they’ll be banned. An institution reported to me, and we suggested the case go to the judiciary, not the federation’s judicial bodies. We must give judicial authorities time to investigate.”

But why is there no mechanism to combat corruption, or at least regulate routine football activities, within the federation—the sport’s sole authority? Aren’t FIFA’s ethical codes and the federation’s statutes, with provisions for detecting and fighting corruption, sufficient? Of course they are. Such mechanisms exist not only in FIFA’s statutes but also in Iran’s football federation’s. Why they aren’t enforced is anyone’s guess! Let’s return to Abedini’s ISNA interview: “It’s painful to even have suspects in football. The environment should be so clean that no suspects exist. But they do. I mentally accuse many because there’s no system to investigate, analyze, and robustly defend the interests of individuals, committees, and football’s governing systems. Look at Taj’s defense: ‘It’s not our job; it’s the judiciary’s.’ Why? It is your job. You must investigate and only seek external help in crises. Football has defined roles and structures. If committees functioned strongly, cases wouldn’t reach the judiciary. Unless you can’t handle it. Our federation’s statutes clearly mandate safeguarding football’s integrity and sanctity—it’s the president’s duty. He must establish systems to protect football’s health. Committees like ethics, disciplinary, and appeals exist, but their duties kick in after an incident. They can’t proactively investigate without a complainant or accused. Every federation president or board member has failed to form a safeguarding committee because they haven’t even read the statutes. This committee is meant to oversee, investigate, and prevent corruption from tainting football so much that it reaches fans and the public, causing distress. A federation president on live TV says 80% of match outcomes are determined off the pitch. What’s he shouting? What’s happening off the pitch? Is it tactics a coach relays to players? A club’s strategy, coordination, science, medical knowledge, or nutrition? No! Saying 80% of outcomes are decided off the pitch means you can influence referees and organizers, rigging games and results. No one can ask me why we haven’t introduced VAR. Without it, can we say there’s deliberate intent? Can we say VAR is absent so certain outsiders can profit by manipulating results? We can’t stop betting—it’s not in our hands; other institutions must. But can’t we stop a referee’s fraud or identify those tarnishing honest referees’ reputations?”

…And the Path Ahead Remains Treacherous!

Abedini’s words lay it all bare, and others like Hossein Asgari, former referees committee head, have shed light on this dark landscape: “These incidents have become normal in our football. A resolute will to combat this scourge will yield results. Some individuals seek shortcuts to their goals illegally, and they must face firm action. If a crime occurs and is handled correctly, it will have an impact. Had the judiciary not intervened, this would’ve continued. Reports of these issues were allegedly submitted to the federation last year, but they seem to have ignored them.” Appointing unfit individuals to key roles is another gateway for corruption. Asgari highlights this, pointing to the lack of qualifications of the resigned referees committee head, a suspect in the current scandal: “From the start, I and many veterans opposed his appointment. Per FIFA rules, the referees committee head and members must not hold positions in clubs or federation-affiliated bodies. Yet, he was head of the Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad football board while leading the referees committee—an illegal act that mattered to no one in the federation!”

Read that last sentence again: It mattered to no one in the federation! This is perhaps the greatest problem in Iranian football and beyond. The indifference to responsibilities entrusted by the public, directly or indirectly. A self-inflicted Alzheimer’s, a deliberate feigning of sleep. That’s our problem. This sleeper won’t awaken.

Sources for Further Reading:

https://www.khabaronline.ir/news/623641/

https://www.isna.ir/news/1403030603503/

https://www.asriran.com/fa/news/968720/

https://www.tabnak.ir/fa/news/1237747/

https://www.khabaronline.ir/news/1912682/

https://www.isna.ir/news/1403030603927/

https://tribuna.com/en/news/arsenal-2020-06-16-7-biggest-behindthescenes-bribery-scandals-in-football-history/?utm_source=copy