10 Most RIGGED Moments in Sports History

While facing Leinster during the second half of the 2009 European Rugby Champions Cup, the Harlequins found themselves in a bind. They were trailing behind and had used up their substitutions. However, they got a lucky break when a player named Tom Williams had to be taken off the field because he was bleeding. This in turn allowed the Harlequins to send in another player on the field. However, the timing of the injury was a little too convenient. Turns out, Williams was instructed to use a blood capsule to fake an injury and set the whole thing up. In the aftermath of the incident, Williams was temporarily suspended and other Harlequin officials received short term bans.

Representing Canada at the Figure Skating Pairs event at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Jamie Salé and David Pelletier put on a performance for the ages. The duo seemed to have the competition in the bag and were set to claim gold. However, much to everyone’s surprise, Russia’s Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze won it all instead. An investigation was conducted, and one of the judges, Marie-Reine Le Gougne, revealed that she was forced by Didier Gailhaguet, the president of the French Federation of Ice Sports, to give a higher score to the Russian skaters. They were both temporarily suspended by the ISU for their involvement in the incident. Fortunately, an awards ceremony was held which saw both the Russian and Canadian teams awarded gold medals.

#8: Roy Jones Jr. Gold Medal Robbery

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10 Bloodiest Moments in Sports History

At a men’s boxing event during the 1988 summer Olympics in Seoul, Korean boxer Park Si-Hun was matched up against legend Roy Jones Jr. Throughout the entire bout, Jones completely dominated Si-Hun. After the match, when the winner was announced, no one could believe what they saw when Si-Hun’s hand was raised by the referee. Turns out, the bout’s end result was fixed! Several allegations came forth indicating that Korean boxing authorities had bribed judges to vote in their favor. Nonetheless, the end result was never changed.

At the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, Renault’s Nelson Piquet Jr. was leading at turn 17 when he crashed into the wall. His teammate, Fernando Alonso, used the opportunity to go ahead and win the race. Initially, the crash was deemed a mere accident as a result of a mistake made on the part of Piquet Jr. However, when he left the team the following year, he revealed that the crash was deliberate, having been ordered to do so by the team’s principal and engineer. The incident had widespread ramifications, including terminated sponsorships, lifetime bans and libel cases. Meanwhile, Piquet Jr. left Formula One altogether and joined NASCAR.

No ifs and buts about it; simply put, the Houston Astros cheated their way to a World Series win back in 2017. Over the course of a number of seasons, the team used unauthorized electronic equipment to get live video feeds to decipher and uncover the signs made by opposing team catchers during games. The information would then be relayed to the players through noises made by hitting a trash can. The team was eventually caught in 2019. The Astros were fined $5 million dollars and forfeited their first and second round draft picks in 2020 and 2021. While manager A.J. Hinch and General Manager Jeff Luhnow were each initially handed one year suspensions, Astros owner Jim Crane went on to fire them both. And if the whole thing couldn’t look any worse for the Astros, the players seemed unapologetic for taking part in the scheme in the aftermath.

In 2010, a journalist went undercover to expose a huge cricket scandal. They found that an agent, Mazhar Majeed, could predict certain events that would take place during a match between Pakistan and England. When everything played exactly like the agent had anticipated, the investigation went public. Team captain Salman Butt and players Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir were all found guilty of taking bribes to perform certain actions during games. Each member of the trio received massive bans from cricket. Additionally, numerous people involved in the gambling syndicate were arrested. Majeed, Butt, Asif, and Amir also each received prison sentences for their involvement in the scandal.

During the 1982 World Cup, West Germany squared off against Austria in a group match. Circumstances surrounding the tournament made it such that if West Germany were to win by one or two goals, both they and Austria would qualify for the knockout round since Algeria and Chile faced each other the day before. During the match, after the lone goal was scored, West Germany passed the ball around amongst themselves, with Austria barely putting in any effort. In the end, West Germany came with a 1-0 win. Naturally, a barrage of accusations were thrown towards both nations, accusing them of having fixed the match. FIFA conducted an investigation but found that no rules were broken by either team.

#3: European Football Match-Fixing Scandal

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In 2009, a match fixing ring involving over 200 members was said to have either fixed or attempted to fix approximately 200 football matches across Europe. Discovered by way of wiretapping, several of these games were played in different organizations including Champions League and the Europa League. The ring was said to have included players, coaches, referees and officials. Arrests and raids were made across several countries, and over €1 million was seized in cash. Many pundits have labeled it the biggest instance of match fixing to ever take place in Europe.

In 2006, it was revealed that several higher-ups heading several Italian football clubs and referee groups had been influencing the choosing of favorable officials for certain matches. Even Serie A champions Juventus were found to be involved. As a result, they were stripped of the 05 and 06 titles, the latter of which was handed to Inter Milan. The team was also relegated to Serie B the following season. Other clubs involved in Calciopoli included; AC Milan, Lazio, Reggina, and Fiorentina, all of whom received various punishments, notably point deductions and expulsions from competitions. As for the individuals, many of them were handed bans from football and even received prison sentences.

#1: Chicago Black Sox

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The Chicago White Sox were the overwhelming favorites to beat the Cincinnati Reds at the 1919 World Series in baseball. However, the latter pulled off a shocking victory. The only thing more surprising however was the bizarre behavior exhibited by the favorites, which included making in game errors that seemed intentional. Naturally, allegations arose that eight players on the team had purposely thrown the match as part of a gambling ring organized by mobster Arnold Rothstein. These players were set to earn $100,000 each for throwing the series. With inflation, that’s nearly $1.7 million today! In 1921, while several players admitted their guilt, all eight were acquitted after a court case, including legendary great “Shoeless” Joe Jackson. However, each of them received a life ban from playing professional baseball within the United States.