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How to fight corruption
Football referees in Nigeria can take bribes from clubs but should not allow them to influence their decisions on the pitch, a football official said on Friday.
Fanny Amun, acting Secretary-General of the Nigerian Football Association, said bribery was common in the Nigerian game.
"We know match officials are offered money or anything to influence matches and they can accept it," Amun told Reuters on Friday...
"Referees should only pretend to fall for the bait, but make sure the result doesn't favour those offering the bribe," Amun said.
Here is the full story, and thanks to David (not Tom) Williamson for the pointer.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on April 1, 2006 at 07:37 AM in Political Science | Permalink
Comments
Hmm, that sounds like a good way to get yourself beat up as a ref.
On the other hand, not taking a bribe could be a good way to get yourself beat up...
Posted by: Aaron Suggs at Apr 1, 2006 9:08:52 AM
Coud be a way to make sure that the ref doesn't favor the home team, or
the team with the most vocal fans in the stands. The visitors offer the
ref a bribe to "keep it fair" then just for insurance the home team has to
match it. The football association wins because it doesn't have to pay
the refs much if anything. The ref has the incentive to be fair because if
he isn't he won't get the bribe from the visitors next time, and so won't
be able to shake down the home team. With no bribes, you end up with
inferior refs who are easily influenced or intimidated by the home fans.
Or, I may just be some kind of fool.
Posted by: Pat L at Apr 1, 2006 9:28:50 AM
If some refs accept bribes but then ref fairly, it decreases the effectiveness of bribing at the margin.
Posted by: TomHynes at Apr 1, 2006 2:52:27 PM
Did they use the U.S. congress as their model?
Posted by: michael perelman at Apr 1, 2006 3:40:57 PM
Amateur Analysis: To build upon Tom's comment, when this happens profits will decrease for referies who ref fairly. Thus, the financial incentive is to reward the highest bidding customer with favorable calls. Or am I missing something?
Is it an overreaction to compare the integrity of congresspeople to African soccer referees? I hope so, but suspect not in many cases.
A post on the economics of American Congressional bribery would be very interesting.
Posted by: Jake at Apr 1, 2006 4:42:15 PM
Tom is right if refs will be fair in the absence of bribes and bribes are
offered to gain favorable treatment. But if the refs would favor one side
or the other in the absence of bribes, bribes may increase the chance of
a fair game. It is possible that the game could be auctioned to the highest
bidder, but I suspect that the team managers would collude with each other
to prevent this, especially if they play many games every year. Overall it
would be better to pay the refs a fair salary and to have effective legal
and other sanctions against them cheating. But if there are no effective
sanctions, there is no point in paying them a salary because you may still
have to bribe them to get a fair game. I don't know anyting about Nigerian
soccer so things probably don't work the way I've described. For now the
main competing explanation seems to be that Nigerian soccer is rigged, and
while that wouldn't be a total shocker, it seems odd to me that Mr. Amun
would come clean about it to Reuters. Maybe April 1st is the day of
atonement in Nigeria.
Posted by: Pat L at Apr 1, 2006 5:36:04 PM
Jake,
"Is it an overreaction to compare the integrity of congresspeople to African soccer
referees? I hope so, but suspect not in many cases."
Yes, it is an overreaction. Congress has never had as much integrity as a bribed referee.
cheers,
-hamilton
Posted by: hamilton at Apr 1, 2006 10:44:36 PM
In order for bribes from both sides to produce a fair game, the refs have to be known to be willing to rule in favor of the team that offers a bribe, if only one team does. Therefore teams would be offering a bribe so that the other team wouldn't be favored. The balance would seem to be difficult to maintain, however.
Posted by: Robert Speirs at Apr 3, 2006 10:14:40 AM
That was actually Sir Francis Bacon's defense when he was a judge: he took the bribes, but decided the cases the same way he would have regardless.
Didn't work for him ....
Posted by: Anderson at Apr 3, 2006 12:55:27 PM
Yes, the model used was the US Congress!!
We need to change this state of affairs. Did anyone believe for a second that these refs aren't influenced by the bribes they accept?
We need proportional representation and more amendments to limit what government can muck with. Yes, I know that's really tough to do, but something worth shooting for.
Posted by: Alan Brown at Apr 4, 2006 4:31:21 AM
Old pols in the US used to have a saying like "If you can't shake their hands, take their money, screw their women, and then vote against them, you're not doing your job."
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Posted by: levan at Sep 7, 2006 3:17:54 AM
