Manipulation of results at sport competitions-criminal liability for the criminal offence of fraud

Abstract

The manipulation of results at sporting competitions probably has a history as long as sport itself. However, one can presume that perviously, these were rare isolated cases. In more recent times and as a result of the increased commercialisation of sport, such behaviour, which is actually of a corruptive nature, is constantly increasing. It is an occurrence which is very often linked to betting, but not necessarily, given that also present is game –fixing with the exclusive aim of achieving a certain sports result, for example, to stay in a certain sports league and so on. In this paper, the characteristics of such activities and the possibilities for punishing the perpetrators of such illegal offences based on legal norms of criminal law are considered. Of the several possibilities of establishing criminal liability for various criminal acts, only one criminal liability for the criminal act of fraud will be considered in this paper. The other criminal acts which are usually linked to game-fixing in sporting competitions ( offering and accepting bribes, collusion, illegal possession, abuse of position and power and so on) will be considered in more detail in another paper.

Keywords

• sport
• criminal law
• criminal offence
• game-fixing
• fraud