Manchester City to Calciopoli: The biggest scandals in football history

The football world, like any other sporting universe, is vulnerable to scandals. It's inherent in any business that involves so many people, with so much at stake. We've seen it countless times over the years.

However, few scandals have stirred up as much dust as the current Manchester City scandal involving sham contracts and fake sponsorship deals.

The possible repercussions are endless, and massive disciplinary action for breaching the Premier League's financial rules 115 times seems imminent.

It got us thinking: how have other massive football scandals turned out? And how big were the sanctions? Flashscore takes a look at the biggest football scandals in the sport's history.

The Calciopoli scandal

Who: FIGC, Juventus, Milan, Lazio, Fiorentina, Arezzo, Reggina, Siena, Triestina

When: 2004-2006

What: After the 2005-06 season, Juventus director Luciano Moggi was found to have been involved in a massive corruption scandal. After Italian authorities began an investigation into potential doping by Juventus players, tapped phone calls between Moggi and FIGC officials and refereeing board members revealed that Moggi requested specific referees to officiate games for Juventus and other Serie A teams, while paying referees off to have players suspended for games against Juventus and bend for the Turin giants.

Investigators also looked into other clubs for their role in the scandal. Besides Moggi and Juventus CEO Antonio Giraudo, who was the administrative mind behind the plot, Milan were involved as VP Adriano Galliano requested favourable assistant referees, Fiorentina were investigated via owners Diego and Andrea Della Valle's attempts to influence officials to avoid relegation, and Lazio were investigated after club president Claudio Lotito's efforts to secure favourable referees.

In total, investigators looked into 19 games during the 2004-05 Serie A season, seven of which included Juventus, nine Italian referees, and 41 total suspects, which include club presidents and executives, referees, referee designators, referee assistants, and FIGC higher-ups.

Discipline: Juventus received the biggest punishment in Italian football history: they were stripped of their 2005 and 2006 titles, relegated to Serie B, given a 9-point deduction, and fined €75,000. 

The entire Juventus board resigned following the 2005-06 season, while Luciano Moggi and Antonio Giraudo received lifetime bans from Italian football.

Fiorentina were also initially relegated to Serie B, but remained in Serie A after a successful appeal. Instead, they were barred from the 2006-07 UEFA Champions League, started the 2006-07 Serie A season with a 15-point deduction, and were forced to play two games behind closed doors.

Lazio, too, were relegated, but had the decision reversed on appeal and were instead given a 3-point deduction and a ban from the 2006-07 UEFA Cup.

Milan were given an 8-point deduction and had 30 points deducted from their Serie A finish, which left them out of the UEFA Champions League. Serie B side Reggina were deducted 11 points, while the 2004-05 Serie A season was left without an assigned champion.

Marseille's bribery scandal

Who: Olympique Marseille, Valenciennes

When: 1993

What: One day before the Ligue 1 match between Olympique Marseille and Valenciennes on May 20th, 1993, Marseille club president Bernard Tapie and general manager Jean-Pierre Bernes told midfielder Jean-Jacques Eydelie to contact three Valenciennes players (Jorge Burruchaga, Jacques Glassmann, and Christophe Robert) and ask them to play poorly against Marseille in order to keep the l'OM players fresh for the UEFA Champions League final against Milan on May 26th: "It is imperative that you get in touch with your former Nantes team-mates at Valenciennes. We don't want them acting like idiots and breaking us before the final with Milan," Tapie told Eydelie.

Robert, the Valenciennes captain, and Burruchaga accepted the bribes, with the former convincing Valenciennes to deliberately lose the match, which Marseille won 1-0.

However, Glassmann refused the bribe and told referee Jean-Marie Veniel, who noticed irregularities during the match, and Valenciennes manager Boro Primorac about the bribe, without naming individuals. French police entered the Marseille dressing room after the game and questioned players.

Eventually, after Marseille had won Ligue 1 and the UEFA Champions League final, Christophe Robert contacted French authorities and admitted his role in the scandal. Robert received F250,000 (converted to €63,404 in 2025) from Eydelie, who was arrested alongside Bernes.

Discipline: Olympique Marseille were stripped of the 1992/93 title and relegated to Ligue 2 for the bribery scandal and financial issues in 1994. After the club filed for bankruptcy in 1995, Marseille did not return to Ligue 1 until 1996, after three years on the second level.

Tapie and Bernes received lifetime bans from French football, though FIFA overturned Bernes's ban in 1996. In the trial, Tapie was sentenced to 26 months in jail for match-fixing and fraud and fined F20,000, while Bernes was given a two-year suspended sentence and a fine.

Eydelie received a one-year suspended jail sentence and a two-year worldwide football ban, while Burruchaga and Robert received six-month suspended sentences. Burruchaga was suspended from football for six months, while Robert served a one-year suspension. Jacques Glassmann, meanwhile, was handed the 1995 FIFA Fair Play Award for refusing the bribe and bringing the scandal to light.

West Ham's shady Tevez and Mascherano moves

Who: West Ham, Carlos Tevez, Javier Mascherano

When: 2006/07

What: Many eyebrows were raised when West Ham presented the double swoop of Argentine World Cup stars Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano from Brazilian side Corinthians. Chelsea had been close to reeling in Tevez, but the Argentine striker ended up at Upton Park, looking rather stunned next to manager Alan Pardew.

People were surprised by the transfers, while West Ham fueled speculation by stating that "all other aspects of the transfer will remain confidential and undisclosed."

Soon, it came out why West Ham remained secretive about the transfer, with the club having broken the Premier League's rules concerning third parties through agent Kia Joorabchian, who was also in advanced takeover talks with West Ham.

West Ham's contracts with Tevez and Mascherano, whose rights were partially owned by Joorabchian's company MSI, included private agreements with offshore companies linked to Joorabchian, and the club did not disclose them during the players' registration.

While Mascherano left for Liverpool in January, Tevez played a massive part in lowly West Ham's 'Great Escape', scoring seven times in the Hammers' last 10 games to avoid relegation by three points.

But even before the season was over, West Ham, by then taken over by Icelandic investor Eggert Magnusson, were found to have seriously misled the Premier League and breached two competition rules.

Discipline: West Ham avoided a points deduction and were handed a British-record fine of £5.5 million on April 28th, which would eventually keep them in the Premier League.

Sheffield United, who finished 18th on goal difference and were relegated to the Championship, took West Ham to a tribunal but failed to have the decision reversed and were awarded only £20 million in a court settlement concluding that Tevez's goals made a critical difference in the league outcome.

The Totonero scandal

Who: Avellino, Bologna, Lazio, Milan, Perugia, Palermo, Taranto 

When: 1979-1980

What: In 1979, Roman restaurant owner Alvaro Trinca and his supplier, Massimo Cruciani, plotted a corruption scandal involving several Lazio players who frequented the restaurant.

Trinca and Cruciani planned to fix games and win money in Totocalcio, the state-run betting pool and the only form of legalised sports betting in Italy at the time.

Lazio players agreed to fix games in return for a cut of the winnings, but the results did not go in Trinca and Cruciani's favour, with the two having lost over 100 million Italian lire by February 1980.

The pair took to Rome's Public Prosecutor, admitting to the scheme involving 27 players and 13 Serie A and Serie B clubs.

Discipline: Milan and Lazio were hit with heavy sanctions, being demoted to Serie B following the 1979/80 season, while Milan president Felice Colombo was disbarred from Italian football.

Serie A sides Avellino, Bologna, and Perugia were hit with 5-point deductions for the 1980/81 season, with Palermo and Taranto given the same punishment in Serie B.

A total of 20 players were given all-encompassing football bans. Avellino's Stefano Pellegrini received the longest suspension at 6 years, while 11 players received bans of 3 years or longer.

Among those banned for the Totonero scandal was striker Paolo Rossi, who returned to play shortly before the 1982 FIFA World Cup, where he won the Golden Boot and was named Player of the Tournament.

All active players who were still banned when Italy won the 1982 World Cup were reinstated shortly after.

2009 European football betting scandal

Who: Clubs and games in Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Croatia, Slovenia, Turkey, Hungary, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Austria, referee Oleg Oriekhov, FK Pobeda

When: 2009

What: The Prosecutorial Office in Bochum, Germany, had opened an investigation into organised crime activities and discovered widespread fraud through phone taps.

The betting investigation led to a series of raids in November 2009 in the UK, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria.

The prosecutor's office revealed that at least 200 football games across nine European countries had been manipulated by bribing players, coaches, and officials.

Croatian brothers Ante and Milan Sapina led the fraud, while Ukrainian official Oleg Oriekhov was caught fixing a UEFA Europa League game between FC Basel and CSKA Sofia in November 2009.

Investigations across Europe exposed the widespread fraud. A German investigation found that 32 games across several levels were manipulated, including games from SSV Ulm, SC Verl, and VfL Osnabruck, while 29 games were affected in Turkey, including games involving Fenerbahce, Besiktas, and Istanbul Basaksehir.

Elsewhere, 11 games were affected in Austria, 22 games in Switzerland, 17 in Belgium, 14 in Croatia, 7 in Slovenia, 13 in Hungary, and 8 in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In Europe, 3 UEFA Champions League and 12 UEFA Europa League qualifiers were under investigation.

Discipline: Before the investigation, UEFA had already banned Macedonian side FK Pobeda from European football for eight years for match-fixing a 2004 UEFA Champions League qualifier against Armenian side Pyunik, and it had given club president Aleksandar Zabrcanec and captain Nikolce Zdravevski lifetime bans from European football.

A German referee was accused of being bribed in a regional league game in May 2009, while Croatian Ulm players Davor Kraljevic, Marijo Marinovic, and Dinko Radojevic were denounced by the club for being involved in the scandal.

Verl player Patrick Neumann admitted to receiving a €500 bribe after being suspended alongside Tim Hagedorn. Osnabruck player Marchel Schoun admitted that the 3-0 loss to Augsburg in April 2009 was manipulated and was fined.

In Austria, no clubs were held accountable, while Kapfenberg players were alleged to have received large sums of money after purposely losing against Red Bull Salzburg, Rapid Wien, and Austria Wien during the 2009/10 season.

Swiss teams FC Thun and FC Gossau were under investigation in Switzerland, with Thun players suspected of having received thousands of Swiss francs and Gossau midfielder Mario Bigoni admitting that a 2009 game against Locarno was "not clean". Gossau players reportedly received tens of thousands of Francs, and Bigoni was found dead in the Rhine River in October 2011.

Ante and Milan Sapina, also convicted in the 2005 Bundesliga match-fixing case, received jail sentences: Ante served 5 years and Milan 10 months. Better Tuna A. and betting office operators Stevan R. and Nurretin G. were given 44-month and 47-month jail sentences for manipulating 32 games and bribing players.

Manchester City's sham sponsorships scandal

Who: Manchester City

When: 2009-2018

What: Manchester City rose to dominance after the 2009 takeover by the Abu Dhabi United Group, led by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Millions flowed into the club, which quickly racked up titles and turned the ever-so-competitive Premier League into a one-horse race.

However, after leaks uncovered by German newspaper Der Spiegel and a lengthy investigation, the Premier League announced in February 2023 that it had charged Manchester City with 115 breaches of the league's financial rules.

For nine years, Manchester City circumvented the Premier League's financial rules through sham sponsorship contracts that were deliberately overvalued.

Sponsors paid only a fraction of the contract, with the Emirati owners covering the rest, booking profit on paper instead of building club equity.

The club were officially found guilty on 114 of the 115 charges on September 29th, 2026. In total, the club were found to have inflated revenue and artificially generated over £900 million in profits.

Discipline: On October 2nd, Manchester City announced it would appeal the independent commission's verdict. A final ruling, including disciplinary action, is expected before the end of January 2027.