– It is shocking, says Norway’s biggest handball star, Sander Sagosen, to news. He has just heard the results of the survey to which 103 national team players have responded. This means that almost half of those who have represented Norway, Denmark and Sweden in championships in the last five years have answered anonymously. One in three thus suspects that they have played a handball match that was fixed. Of these, two out of three answer that they think it has happened several times. More than half of those who suspect a match-fixing answer that this has happened during the last four years. The figures are deeply worrying, says Sagosen. – It is simply not good for our sport. So it’s sad to hear those numbers, says the Norwegian to news. SUSPICION: One in three respondents to the survey suspect match-fixing. Graphics: Maria Eriksen Volthers / DR Feeling powerless The same attitude is shared by Lotte Grigel, who is one of those who knows the suspicion and the feeling of “frustration and powerlessness”. EXPERT: Lotte Grigel quit in 2021, but has since been an expert commentator. Now she will cover the WC in handball for DR. Photo: LOIC VENANCE / AFP She has represented Denmark in eight championships and was a foreign professional in both Russia, Hungary and France, before ending her career in 2021. – It is problematic that there is not more trust from the players, because there should be nothing problem we even needed to talk about. One must be able to be sure that there is no form of match-fixing whatsoever, says Grigel. There is one type of match that seems to be particularly vulnerable: European Cup matches. Among those who have suspected a match, 91.2 answer that it concerns European Cup matches. Swedish Jamina Roberts, who now plays in Vipers Kristiansand, is among those who suspect that she has played an away match in Europe that was fixed. – I am quite sure of it. As soon as we got over the center line, the arm came up for passive play. We stood and shot from midfield until the end. It’s frustrating, but you can’t do anything, says Roberts. Her team had won the home game first, so despite losing away, they won on aggregate. news has presented the figures for several of the Norwegian men’s national team. They have thus received the survey themselves, but still react strongly to the fact that the numbers are so high. Javad Parsa / NTB Sander SagosenI am sometimes unhappy with the referees, but I have never played a match where I think they did it on purpose. But if there are some facts behind it, and some evidence that it is a suspicious game, or someone is doing it deliberately, then it is unbelievably sad. Beate Oma Dahle / NTB Stine Bredal OftedalI obviously think it’s too high, we don’t want any of that in our sport at all. At the same time, there is no doubt that if you have perhaps played for 15 years at the top level, then perhaps at some point there have been some matches where you feel there is something. Annika Byrde / NTB Kent Robin TønnesenI think that it is far too high, and that it is quite sick. But it’s clear, we’re playing a sport where it might be easy to make some small fixes. So, no, it’s like it’s shocking and way too high. Carina Johansen / NTB Camilla Herrem It is quite surprising that it is so high. It certainly shouldn’t be like that at all. You want it to be honest and nice when you play handball. It must be fair when you go out there. Annika Byrde / NTB Harald Reinkind First of all, it’s incredibly sad to hear and sad for the sport. Whether it’s match-fixing or not, but that you even suspect it, that’s not how it should be. It is something that should absolutely be dealt with extremely hard. Beate Oma Dahle / NTB Henny Reistad It’s high when you think that you would like to avoid everything that has to do with match-fixing. There have been matches where people have been dissatisfied with referee decisions, but drawing the conclusion to match-fixing has been difficult. EHF: – Not reflected in our numbers DR, news and SVT have sent the results of the survey to the European and international handball federation, EHF and IHF. The EHF writes in an email that it has zero tolerance for match-fixing and does everything to protect handball’s reputation as a clean and fair sport. Every single case is one too many, it says several times. In the Scandinavian survey, less than 30 percent answered that they know where and how to notify if they suspect that a match has been fixed. The EHF admits that they do not do enough to inform about how they work against match-fixing and how players can report suspicions. They still have a different view than the Scandinavian players express. PRESS RESPONSIBLE: Thomas Schöneich in the European Handball Federation (EHF) Photo: Beate Oma Dahle / NTB – The players’ suspicions about match-fixing in the survey are not reflected in our figures, replies EHF’s communications manager Thomas Schöneich. For “contractual reasons”, he does not want to share the union’s own figures, but emphasizes that the union has its own notification channel. EHF also does not wish to provide any figures for how many cases are sent to this notification channel or how many cases are investigated in more detail. Since 2018, they have collaborated with Sportradar, an international organization that monitors suspicious play in the gaming industry. Sportradar identified 1,200 suspicious matches in 2022 across sports. Of these, there were fewer than ten handball matches, says an e-mail from the EHF. news, DR and SVT’s survey on match-fixing The survey has been sent to players who have been selected for a championship for Denmark, Norway or Sweden in the last five years. 103 players have responded. The response rate was 49. Among the responses, 58 were women and 45 were men. 26 Danish, 33 Swedish and 44 Norwegian players have responded. The survey was anonymous and was sent out via SMS via the survey tool Questback in the period 3 October to 27 October 2023. Match-fixing was defined as follows in the three different languages: Norwegian: Match-fixing means that a player, coach or other person involved in the handball match has deliberately tried to achieve a certain outcome, either for oneself or others to make money. Examples of this could be receiving a given amount or placing a bet on the fixed outcome. Swedish: Match-fixing means that a player, coach or other person involved in the handball match has tried to manipulate the match result or events in the match, either for himself or others to make money. Examples of this could be receiving an amount or betting money on a fixed match result or other event in the match. Danish: Match-fixing is when one of the involved parties (players, coaches, referees, etc.) tries to influence the result or course of a sports event with the purpose of gaining an advantage for himself or others, with intentional or non-existent action. It could, for example, be manipulation of the outcome or incidents in a handball match. Source: news Research center – No clear evidence In September, news met the presidents of the European and international handball federations. At the time, the results of the survey were not clear, but with several match-fixing cases in the media in recent years, we nevertheless asked some general questions about match-fixing in handball. PRESIDENTS: The Norwegian handball president, Kåre Geir Lio and EHF president Michael Wiederer at the EC draw for the men’s handball EC 2020. The championship was played in, among other places, Norway. Photo: Ned Alley / NTB – There is no clear evidence of match fixing coming out of our systems today. For many years we have cooperated with the relevant authorities because it is impossible for us to see the details of what is happening in the gaming industry. This is a matter for the police, said EHF president Michael Wiederer. President of the international association, Hassan Moustafa, rejected that the IHF has a problem with match-fixing. – Not in the international association. Something happened, I think it was in Europe. But in the international association we always look for fair referees, replied Moustafa. IHF PRESIDENT: Hassan Moustafa after the WC final in 2021, when Norway beat France. Photo: Beate Oma Dahle / NTB – But this is a human thing and people can make mistakes. You don’t know that. At the same time, it is clearly stated in our regulations that referees cannot fix a match. It is not allowed at all, Moustafa added. When the survey is now ready, we have also sent new questions to the IHF. In a long email, they reply that they are working closely with the IOC on such challenges. They write that they request all players, referees and coaches to sign their ethical guidelines. At the same time, the IHF states that they also collaborate with Sportradar. They also point out that the association together with the IOC has only identified one case of match-fixing in the last decade. In the e-mail, they stress that if they suspect match-fixing, they will do what they can to investigate, but that so far they have received very few tips. – We have two members of our legal department working on this. These people can be contacted at any time. No external parties have access to the emails sent to our head office. In this way, all parties can share information with us without being afraid that their identity will be revealed, writes IHF. In connection with the women’s handball WC at home, which starts on Wednesday 29 November, news, SVT and DR will publish several articles about international handball, match-fixing and a lack of trust in the top of the pyramid.
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