Sport is synonymous with uplifting and inspiring stories of triumph over adversity and exceptional talents winning the biggest prizes. However, there have also been significant incidents of cheating and criminal activity that have shocked sports fans and rocked the world in recent decades. From Lance Armstrong’s doping confession to FIFA’s corruption charges, stories of corruption have dominated media headlines and left an indelible mark on their respective sports.
High-quality investigative journalism has been the key to uncovering many of these scandals. If you have a passion for sports and a desire to create compelling, engaging stories, a career as a sports journalist could suit you. Completing an MA sports journalism will give you important journalistic skills while learning the ethical values of honesty, accuracy, and fairness that are vital to the profession. By earning a high-level qualification, you could soon be covering some of the most notable stories in sports.
Russia’s doping scandal
Arguably the biggest scandal in sports in terms of scale is the unanimous decision by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to ban Russia from every major sporting event including the Olympic Games for four years in 2019. The first rumblings of misconduct came in 2014 when a German documentary alleged that the vast majority of Russian athletes were taking illegal substances to improve their performance.
Those claims were then backed up by a whistleblower in Russia in 2016 who revealed that the country’s athletes had fallen foul of drug tests at the 2014 Winter Olympics. Russia was the home country at that event. The ‘McLaren Report’, published later that year, finally uncovered the full extent of Russia’s transgressions with positive results in tests across a wide range of sports including athletics, football, ice skating, and weightlifting.
The scandal was reported extensively by different media outlets and even spawned an Oscar-winning documentary titled Icarus, which was released on Netflix to widespread critical acclaim in 2017. WADA eventually banned Russia for four years in 2019, though an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) reduced that penalty to two years. 48 Olympic medals were also stripped from Russia as a result.
Lance Armstrong’s downfall
On a slightly smaller scale, but no less controversial, is Lance Armstrong’s jaw-dropping fall from grace. It seemed like the seven-time Tour de France champion was destined for cycling immortality following a trophy-laden career. However, the sporting world was shocked when Armstrong confessed to using a wide range of performance-enhancing drugs during an emotional interview with Oprah Winfrey in early 2013.
The confession followed years of rumors and hearsay that the American had been using banned substances to gain an edge over his rivals. It wasn’t just a single drug either, as Armstrong also admitted to blood, HGH, and EPO doping. The news shattered the cycling community and aroused suspicion that others had also cheated their way to success.
Armstrong’s downfall was swift and brutal. He had previously been hailed for his courage in overcoming testicular cancer to return to cycling, but he quickly became a pariah as the full extent of his misdemeanors were uncovered. Armstrong’s confession came amid a string of investigations and intense media scrutiny surrounding the doping allegations.
The scandal brought shame to the sport with the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) boldly stating that Armstrong was involved in the “most sophisticated, professionalized and successful” doping program ever seen in cycling.
Rugby’s “Bloodgate”
The two previous scandals exposed cheating over years and even decades. In contrast, rugby’s “bloodgate” took place in just a few minutes on an overcast afternoon in London when Harlequins faced Leinster in the Heineken Cup in 2009. Everything appeared normal with the score at 6-5 in Leinster’s favor late in the game until winger Tom Williams went off with an apparent blood injury. In rugby, teams are entitled to a “free” substitution when this occurs.
Harlequins opted to bring on a player who had already left the field injured, Nick Evans, as he was a specialized kicker and the team needed just 3 points to win the game. It was later revealed that Williams had used a capsule of fake blood to feign a mouth injury to enable Evans to return to play. News of Harlequin’s duplicitous behavior shocked a game that is usually known for its sportsmanship.
After an investigation, which was heavily publicized in the UK, Harlequins were fined around $323,000 and several key figures involved were banned from rugby. It was revealed that Williams was coerced into performing the blood stunt, though he still received a four-month ban.
Tonya Harding’s sabotage
Sports fans in the US will likely know the name Tonya Harding. The figure skater was involved in one of the most high-profile scandals of the 1990s when it was found she intentionally sabotaged a key rival during the US Women’s Championships. Harding’s then-husband, Jeff Gilooly, hired a hitman to strike and injure fellow competitor, Nancy Kerrigan.
The assault occurred during the final practice of the major event in 1994. Kerrigan exclaimed “Why? Why me” after she was hit by Shane Stint, who had been paid $6,500 to carry out Gilooly’s orders. It came on the eve of the Winter Olympics in Norway, where Harding and Kerrigan were among the favorites to win.
The plan didn’t quite work as intended, however, as while Harding did win the Women’s Championships, Kerrigan recovered in time to secure silver at the Olympics. After video footage showing the incident was uncovered, Gilooly was arrested and sentenced to two years in jail. Harding also received a $100,000 fine and three years on probation.
The story was a regular top headline in US media during that time and it has since been given the Hollywood treatment in the form of a movie called I Tonya, starring Margot Robbie in the titular role. The disgraced skater, who was banned from figure skating for life, later claimed that she had been sabotaged by her management.
Spain’s Paralympics basketball saga
One of the most controversial sports stories of the 2000s involved the Spanish basketball team at the Sydney Paralympic Games. Spain looked to have secured a memorable gold medal down under after edging out Russia in the final, but pictures widely circulated in the media in the aftermath suggested something circumspect was going on. The pictures seemed to suggest that the entire team was in fact able-bodied.
When the images were beamed to millions worldwide on TV and images published in newspapers, viewers and readers got in touch with authorities to reveal that they knew the players involved were not disabled. This was then confirmed by an undercover journalist, Carlos Ribagorda, who told a popular national magazine that players in the team had failed IQ tests and skipped disability screenings to dupe the Olympic Committee.
It eventually came out that around 80% of Spain’s basketball team were not disabled at all and had simply feigned intellectual impairment during the tournament. The callousness of the subterfuge shocked the sporting world and resulted in a swift ban for the whole team as their gold medals were retroactively stripped. It also had wider implications as athletes with intellectual disabilities were barred from the next two Paralympic Games in Athens and Beijing.
It later came to light that a leading figure in Spain’s Sports Federation, Fernando Martin Vicente, spearheaded the campaign in an attempt to “win medals and gain more sponsorship”. While he initially denied the allegations, a later confession saw him fined around $5,000. His admission also saw the allegations against the rest of the “fake” Paralympians dropped entirely, though the shameful actions of everyone involved cast a shadow over their sporting careers.
Diego Maradona’s “Hand of God”
One act of cheating that never had any consequences for the perpetrator was Diego Maradona’s infamous “Hand of God” incident during the World Cup quarter-final against England in 1986. Maradona went up to head the ball past England goalkeeper Peter Shilton, but instead of a legal play, he used his hand to punch the ball into the back of the net. Despite ferocious protests from England’s players, the goal stood, and Argentina went on to win the match 2-0 before eventually winning the tournament.
The cheeky handball is not as malicious as the other sporting shocks listed here, but it remains iconic and controversial to this day, especially considering tensions between the two nations following The Falklands War. Despite his misdemeanor, the quarterfinal is also remembered for one of Maradona’s best-ever goals after he dribbled for 60 yards past numerous England players before tapping into an empty net. The incredible strike was later voted the ‘Goal of the Century’.
Maradona’s infectious personality and checkered private life only add intrigue to the ‘Hand of God’ incident, which was one of many high-profile stories the Argentine was involved in during the 1980s and 1990s. He was embroiled in another scandal later in his career after failing a drug test at the 1994 World Cup in the US. Maradona was sent home in disgrace, and he never played for Argentina again.
FIFA’s bribery charges
A more recent scandal that has rocked sport is the corruption case involving soccer’s international governing body, FIFA. Allegations that FIFA was involved in bribery, fraud, and money laundering gathered pace after Qatar was selected as the host country for the 2022 World Cup. In mid-2015, 14 people were indicted by the FBI for illegal practices such as wire fraud and racketeering. The scandal brought intense pressure on President Sepp Blatter, who was urged to resign amid the scale of the allegations.
An investigation found that bribery was common throughout the organization and that a number of leading figures were involved. Ricardo Teixeira is alleged to have been involved in around $200m worth of “bribes and kickbacks” over the years.
Key figures in the media and behind the scenes have played a major part in uncovering the extent of the scandal. An aptly named documentary, FIFA Uncovered, was released on Netflix on the eve of the World Cup in Qatar in 2022. The four-part documentary covers the brazen wrongdoings of multiple key figures over many years and clearly shows how corruption was endemic throughout FIFA’s organization. The reverberations from the fallout were felt across the sport and new stories of corruption are still coming to light to this day.
Tiger Woods’ infidelity
Finally, a purely off-the-field scandal rocked the golfing world in 2009 when Tiger Woods was involved in a shocking bust-up with his then-wife, Elin Nordegren. Woods crashed into a fire hydrant after he was forced to flee from Nordegren, who threatened him with a golf club at the couple’s home. The media was quick to report on the incident and it subsequently came to light that Woods had been unfaithful in his marriage after visiting several strippers, escorts, and exotic dancers. The news destroyed Woods’ brand image as an honest, successful, family man and his form on the course plummeted thereafter.
There was a form of redemption for Woods, though, after he returned from multiple back injuries and surgeries to win the US Masters. It was the 15th major championship in his illustrious career and the first since the infamous incident with Nordegren a decade prior. Woods was involved in another shocking incident in 2021 when he was hospitalized following a car crash.
Wrapping up
This article tells of several major sporting controversies and scandals over the last forty years. If you are interested in discovering and reporting upon sporting scandals such as these, it could be highly beneficial to study Master’s in sports journalism and obtain an education in how to be a qualified and specialized journalist.
