Ethical and legal implications of third-party incentives to win matches in European football

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the legal case involving the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS), the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), and the Turkish team Eskişehirspor to analyze the legitimacy of third-party incentives to win in European professional football. We first present arguments for the legalization of such incentives. Then, we analyze four ethical arguments, namely the equivalency argument, the conventionalist argument, the integrity argument, and the fairness argument. We conclude that none of the arguments provides enough ground for the legalization of third-party incentives in European professional football.