Soccer players call for Football Australia to ban yellow-card bets, tackle match fixing

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a day ago

The professional soccer players' association has called for gambling on yellow cards to be banned in the wake of the A-League's second match fixing scandal in 12 months.
In a rare public criticism of Football Australia, Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) has also blasted the governing body's integrity unit, demanding that it drastically scale-up its player education program.
The association's CEO Beau Busch said he decided to make the organisation's demands public after a player with Melbourne-based A-League team Western United was last week charged with match-fixing offences involving games played in April and May.
The latest scandal comes a year after three Macarthur FC players were charged with match-fixing offences in May last year.
If convicted, the players allegedly involved in both matters face potential prison time.
"We need to learn from this now. We need to get far better," Mr Busch said.
"If it's a matter of public pressure being applied to deliver better outcomes for the game, we're comfortable doing that."
ABC Investigations revealed last week that Victoria's gambling regulator has launched a probe into Football Australia's ability to protect its players from match fixing, and the range of betting markets it allows on soccer.
Football Australia is currently renegotiating its contracts with bookmakers that set out the range of games and elements of play on which gambling companies can offer bets.
Mr Busch called on Football Australia to ban gambling on yellow cards in the wake of the Macarthur FC and Western United matters.
In both cases, players are alleged to have intentionally received yellow cards in acts of apparent spot-fixing.
Mr Busch said allowing such bets was "potentially leaving sport open to more manipulation".
"We need to look at how damaging this has been to the sport and can we have confidence that we can design a new system that will negate those risks as well?"
He said gambling should only be allowed on yellow cards again if Football Australia drastically improved its integrity training.
In 2023, Four Corners revealed that Football Australia gets a cut from bets placed on all levels of soccer in Australia, from international Socceroos and Matildas games to amateur suburban matches.
The governing body does not publicly disclose exactly how much revenue it earns from the payments from gambling companies, which are known as product fees.
But its latest annual report showed it received $15.1 million in "other" revenue during 2024, which included product fees from gambling companies, appearance fees, fines against players and payments from the A-League operator, Australian Professional Leagues.
Football Australia's acting CEO, Heather Garriock, has been travelling in Saudi Arabia for the Socceroos latest World Cup qualifier, so was unavailable for an interview.
Football Australia did not respond to questions about its negotiations with gambling companies.
Mr Busch called for a bigger proportion of Football Australia's gambling revenue to be invested in integrity education for players.
"You should not get the benefit of this gambling money that comes into the sport without the burden of making sure our people are safe," he said.
Mr Busch said the current integrity training program — which is delivered as an annual, online video seminar — did not adequately teach players about the consequences of match fixing.
Mr Busch said his association had repeatedly asked the governing body to resume in-person integrity training — which was moved online during the COVID-19 pandemic — since the Macarthur FC players were charged a year ago.
"We've tried to work collaboratively with Football Australia to try to improve that, but I don't think there has been a significant improvement despite the damage that has occurred to the sport," he said.
"We want to see that swiftly remedied."
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Mr Busch said when he played in the A-League in the late-2000s, teams were forced to undergo an annual intensive training program run by Football Australia's integrity unit that drilled into them the risks of match fixing.
"There was a significant workshop that we did in the preseason," he said.
"It was an in-person workshop."
He said the current online seminar is only delivered in English, and in-person training should cater to players recruited from overseas.
"If you look at the players that are playing in our competition, we have a range of languages, from Spanish and Japanese, to French, Italian and German," he said.
"We need to make sure that every single player has not only sat and watched the webinar but actually can clearly understand their obligations."
After the ABC put the players association's concerns to Football Australia, it responded by saying it would resume face-to-face integrity training before the start of the next A-League season.
"Football Australia and several other bodies, including Sport Integrity Australia (SIA), Professional Footballers Australia, FIFA, and the Asian Football Confederation, contribute to the delivery of integrity education," it said in a statement.
"Football Australia is continually evolving the delivery of its integrity education in conjunction with other partners.
"Football Australia continues to engage with the PFA to further strengthen the delivery and content of integrity education."
Melbourne University sports integrity expert Jack Anderson said player education was crucial in combating match fixing in soccer.
"Proper education, engaging with the players face-to-face and regularly circling back to them during the season, is hugely important," he said.
"When you think about the poor publicity that a sport attracts when things go wrong, any investment in education will pay huge dividends."