“Football is not a matter of life or death” claimed Bill Shankly, an iconic former manager of Liverpool football club, “it’s far more important than that”. Shankly, ever able to come up with a memorable line, was certainly over-egging that particular pudding, but the importance of football to billions of people around the planet shouldn’t be ignored.
Football is also, of course, a multi-billion dollar business. There is serious money to be made both within the game (i.e. the salaries that top players earn) and from without it (i.e. via advertising contracts, sponsoring opportunities and such like). It’s with that in mind that FIFA, the governing body of world football, is trying to take steps to make sure that the decisions the officials on the field take are correct.
Centre for the Study of Corruption 