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Is Turkey the template for most of the planet? I had a good Irish friend (RIP) with whom I shared a flat in London. He was a gambling addict. He had a very good salary – a lot more than mine - and got paid every Thursday. He would borrow money off me and others and pay us on Thursday then go down to a pub which had gambling slot machines. He would stay there until he lost all his money. It didn’t make any difference if he won, he would just stay longer until it was all gone. Even if it was closing time he would go to another that was open. Then borrow money to live to his next pay-check. I had many conversations with him about it. He was a lifelong addict and he had lived in London as his parents had kicked him out after paying his gambling debts once too often. Paul Merson knows all about it It gave me a unique insight into gambling as an addiction. To me it is probably the worst. If it is drugs or alcohol you are limited in the amount you can spend but gambling has no limits. It also, because you can actually win, means that sometimes you get out of metaphorical jail with a win that happens at the right time. And you always believe that that is all you need, the big win which means you can repay all your borrowings or thefts and get back to a normal life. It justifies those borrowings or thefts. Of course, if you owe money to unsavoury types, they then control you. Most refs had betting accounts If you are involved in sports you can influence outcomes such as results but also incidents which happen in games. In football, a player can give away a penalty, get sent off, or many other things. So can an official. And this is the area I will focus on today influenced by the huge betting scandal which erupted recently in Turkey. Ultimately, Fifa have to fix the problem For those of you living under a rock I will quickly provide a summary. On 25th October 2025, the Turkish football federation published a report which said that 371 out of 571 professional referees had illegal betting accounts. 151 had placed bets on football matches. All the referees are under scrutiny and it is unclear, at this juncture, as to what their eventual sanction will be. I will quickly mention that all sorts of people involved in football in Turkey, from cleaners, masseurs, players, trainers, etc., up to owners have also been implicated in the betting. But I am going to concentrate on referees today. We all bet sometimes? Inevitably, there have been denials, accusations of fake I.D’s used and all sorts of side issues. Possibly some who have been accused are innocent but surely this level of gambling is widespread in Turkey? The report, I assume, is broadly correct. Is it elsewhere? My own life experiences suggest that huge numbers of people gamble, coupled with sports gambling advertising being ubiquitous, leaves me to believe that the only thing I can conclude that the best we can hope for is that the Turkish experience is among the worst. And I haven’t got much confidence in that belief. I would say that there are three essential types of bettors: those that occasionally bet on big events or maybe the lottery for a bit of fun, those that bet regularly, and those that are addicts. Those three probably comprise a huge number of the adult human race. However, the FIFA Code of Ethics explicitly prohibits betting to any party connected with the work of matches which means that they have to be outside of any of those three categories. That is not possible, is it? Gangsters are increasingly in control of football Players and referees have the biggest possibility of affecting outcomes, I think we can take that as given. The rest can mostly rely on information but not so easily directly affect an outcome. Own a referee and you have a cash cow that keeps on giving while they are still officiating. If a referee is in the 1st category of a rare fun bet, has integrity and never on football, they can still be a target of betting gangsters if they find out about any betting. A professional referee can lose their livelihood and their reputation by such a fact being released. They have to be outside normal human experience and never, ever gamble. What I am saying is that is unusual. We virtually all occasionally gamble. But those referees that are in the 2nd and 3rd categories are far more susceptible. And once in the clutches of gangsters, they may not be able to get out. Everyone fun bets? For this exercise, I have asked myself if I was a professional referee, would I be tempted? If the money was substantial enough and I thought I could get away with it? My only answer is yes. Would I act on that temptation? I truly hope not. I think the numbers advanced in the Turkish report indicate that probably all referees will come up against this temptation. Or are blackmailed into giving into gangsters, maybe even for a minor transgression that they found out about. That’s the second question I asked myself. If I had never betted on anything against my integrity, but had betted and been put under pressure by gangsters to do what they wanted, would I succumb? Again I would truly hope not. Can VAR help? I should say, at this juncture that I no longer even have a fun bet or do the lottery, but I used to regularly go to the bookies and horse and greyhound racing. I was never an addict but would have been firmly in the 2nd category and if I became a referee, I would certainly have been at risk of being targeted. Most sports struggle to get referees I believe that referees are under pressure worldwide with this problem. I am also going to declare that we badly need referees or the sport will die. VAR, in that context, is a good thing as not just a referee or maybe a linesman by themselves can provide a betting coup but VAR would have to be bought as well, as they could overturn a dodgy decision. We need a proper plan for officials in all sports Referees get astonishing abuse, and there is a worldwide dearth of people wishing to sign up for it. They need help on this area. I believe that what is needed are dedicated colleges for high school leavers who wish to become a sports official, irrespective of the discipline. They should be taught not only the rules but many different skills such as ethics, communications, empathy, body language, conciliation, dealing with aggressive players, the ability to calm situations down, and the ability to remain steadfast in your decisions unless directed by VAR or other new technology that may appear. What's there at the moment should be replaced by proper career focused colleges But one area that must be addressed is this one of betting. You must accept that even fun betting is out and getting kids straight out of school is one way of doing so. The old Jesuit idea of “Give me the boy and I will give you the man”. If I am right and virtually every top official (whether paid or not) in any sport in which there is widespread gambling will at some point get tempted, or attempted to be forced into corruption. Some will do it, some won’t, but the ones who do destroy the fabric on which enjoyment of sport is built. Betting companies should pay That is the only real solution I see. Dedicated officials colleges in every country, coupled with paid officials in every sport in which there are significant levels of gambling. And all the sports bodies create proper rules and enforcement to bring this problem down to a very minor one. It will probably not be possible to eliminate it entirely. These guys taxes should pay to solve the problem My final thought is that the betting companies should be forced to pay, in taxation, for these colleges and to pay towards the salaries of those officials in sports where, currently they don’t get paid but there is significant betting activity. Legitimate betting companies have a vested interest in eliminating betting fixing. Without officials, there are no sports. Let’s give them the tools and the backing to make it a viable career choice and clean up sports at the same time. This is something that could be done and should be done. Anyone any thoughts? Update to Where can we finish 2025? Well, myself and Dave Hardy went for 2 wins from our first 2 against Burnley and Sunderland. We got the second one wrong and are now 2 points behind in our predictions. Check it out here.