Een onderzoek naar algemene fraude in de sport: typologie, verschijningsvormen en de uitdagingen bij de bestrijding ervan

Over the past decades, recurrent scandals have exposed a wide range of fraudulent practices within the sports sector. While academic, policy, and public debates have largely focused on sports-specific frauds such as doping and match-fixing, non-sports-specific—or "generic"—frauds have received comparatively little attention. This neglect of generic fraud in sports, including offences such as tax fraud and embezzlement, has hindered a realistic assessment of the manifestations, extent, seriousness, and harms of fraud in sports, as well as the development of effective countermeasures. The dissertation addresses this gap by advancing knowledge on generic fraud in sports. It identifies its defining elements and analyses how such fraud is currently addressed, with particular attention to the factors that hinder effective responses. Empirically, the research focuses on Belgium and draws on 37 criminal, administrative, and disciplinary proceedings, as well as 44 expert interviews with state authorities and representatives of sport governing bodies and clubs. The dissertation introduces a novel typology that distinguishes six types of generic fraud from five sports-specific fraud types. It demonstrates that multiple types of generic fraud occur across a wide range of sports in Belgium and that certain types, especially those involving public funds, appear to have become almost normalised. The dissertation further identifies a significant gap between the formal and substantive criminalisation of fraud in sports and links this gap to factors including the special status of sport in society, conflicts of interest, and tensions between sport's autonomy and external oversight. A case study of the anti-money laundering legislation in Belgian professional football further illustrates how regulatory initiatives may produce largely symbolic effects when underlying structural problems remain unaddressed. On this basis, the dissertation advances several policy recommendations, emphasising that addressing fraud in sports requires not only legal enforcement but also cultural change and greater institutional accountability.