A legal analysis of the 'Prevention of Corruption in Sport Act' of 2018 : is there room for improvement?

Abstract

The dissertation entitled ‘A Legal Analysis of the ‘Prevention of Corruption in Sport Act’ of 2018. Is There Room for Improvement?’ explores the area of law dealing with corruption in sports in Malta, especially match-fixing in football. In order to do so an indepth analysis of Chapter 593 of the Laws of Malta have been made. In Chapter 1, one will find a general introduction to the notion of corruption in sports whereby the focus is on the definition given to corruption in general and also some definitions given by various legal scholars to different terminology used to refer to sports corruption specifically. Chapter 2 focuses on the analysis of the ‘Prevention of Corruption in Sport Act’ and the changes made to the law when compared to the previous piece of legislation, the ‘Prevention of Corruption (Players) Act’. In Chapters 3 and 4, a comparative study has been carried out whereby Chapter 593 has been examined and compared to the UEFA and MFA Regulations and with laws implemented in foreign countries such as Germany and the UK respectively in order to examine both similarities and differences present in the Maltese law. Chapter 5 is completely dedicated to the analysis of various case law, including both Maltese and foreign judgements. Then, in the Research Analysis section, there is a thorough analysis of the findings made through the various interviews conducted with specialised lawyers on the field and the ex-integrity officer of the MFA and through the questionnaires distributed to some Maltese Football Clubs. In the end, the Conclusion includes some proposed amendments and recommendations based on the research carried out which could be helpful in this battle to prevent corruption from tarnishing sports even more.