JOURNALISM

ANDMASS COMMUNICATION

NAME : Avik Roy

ROLL NO: 48

REGISTRATION NO: 223-1121-0260-09

STD : Master of Arts (2nd Year)

CORRUPTION IN SPORTS

AND MEDIA’S ROLE IN IT

INTRODUCTION :Sports is one of the most popular entertainment of the world. According to World Sports Encyclopedia (2003), there are 8,000 indigenous sports and sporting games. So, the sportspersons are the most famous celebrities in the world. Keeping the fact in mind, there are some loopholes also. With the overgrowing popularity in different sports, there are some people who tries to exploit the games. They often associate themselves along with the sportspersons, to do corruption. One of the most important factor behind is that, the greed for money. There are many popular sports, for e.g. football, cricket, tennis, hockey which are popular all over the world. But there are also some players who wants to make more money apart from their professional activity. They are easily indulged into corruption. The roots of this may have come long long ago. But after the emergence of media as a powerful weapon, it has highlighted the major corruptions and in some case the criminal have been seized with proofs. But surprisingly, the trend of corruption has no signing of an end, rather it has been associating with sports, which are not mainstream.

OBJECTIVE:The reason behind choosing this topic was to bring into limelight the major corruptions of the world of sports and media’s role in identifying it. There are large number of sports ofcourse. But I tried to find out the major ones to prove the importance of my theory. Before starting my work, there were few objectives which can be narrated as follows:

To find out the major incidents of sports corruptions, when and where it happened and what was the outcome of it.

Whether the authority have taken any action of that particular sports or sportsperson.

What is the reason behind the growing corruption? From when the media started to highlight the corruptions in sports? What media can do in protecting corruptions and promoting against it?

METHODOLOGY/PLANNING OF WORK:Before the beginning of work, I tried to sort out the major events of sports. In this method, I found football, cricket, tennis other related athletic games where corruption has reached its higher level.

FOOTBALL: This is perhaps the most popular game all over the world. It is played not less than 170 countries. So, criminals easily eyed this game to profit their business. The most recent in this case is about the Qatar World Cup 2022, where it is almost proved that, there were exchanges of bribes to give the responsibility of holding the prestigious event in the Arabian country. Apart from that, there are corruptions in domestic leagues of various countries, including the English Premier League, the Italian league and the Spanish League.

CRICKET: This game though is not played by many countries, is popular around the world. This is the ultimate sports where one could make full profit of his business. The most recent incident of corruption in this game revolved around India. The domestic cricket league of India, the IPL is often considered as a platform of business and the birthplace of corruption. Earlier, players like Mohammed Asif, Imran Tahir and others were associated with corruption and banned lifetime from cricket.

TENNIS: One of the oldest and the prestigious game is tennis. But like other sports, it has also came under corruption. Many players associated with this game have violated the rules and joined hand in hands with the criminals.

OTHER GAMES: Not only this three games I have mentioned earlier, but there are also certain sporting games where the corruption has been done. Like in hockey, basketball, weightlifting amd in some major tournaments like the Olympic Games, The Asian games and the Commonwealth Games.

Besides, I have also taken the help of:

Internet where there are many reports regarding corruption. Newspapers where grassroot level of corruption in sports can be found. Books specializing the nature of different corruptions.

HYPOTHESIS:In my analysis I tried to find out different types of corruption. Where I found that mainly there are different types of corruptions associated with different games. Like match fixing in Cricket and Football. Then I will try to sort out the reasons behind it. And to give some solutions which media can do to protect the beauty of the related sports.

LITERATURE SURVEY:This is an topic which grabbed the media’s attention most of time in recent days. In various sports websites, column after column has been written to find a solution against corruption. Newspapers are also not far behind as they tried to highlight any kind of corruption related to sports. It has been seen that, sometimes it is media’s sting operation which helped the investigators to find the real culprit.

CONCLUSION:The issue of sports corruption is a large one. So it cannot be discussed in a small research paper. There were many incidents and there are many incidents by which media are working constantly. There are many people who love sports, live sports and die for sports. But due to some of the players, the brighter side of sports has been hidden. Still the topic is so much relevant in today’s world. So, in my paper, I would like to highlight some of the major incidents of corruption and the measures which can be taken against it. Hope this study can fulfill my dreams. It will be entertaining ang a good read for all kinds of sports loving persons.