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Every human being has got scandals or some issues in their lives that is nobody is really that perfect. Football is the most popular sport watched in the world and there have been plenty of controversies from the FIFA World Cup to the Premier League, some players get involved in some of these controversies which affect their future careers and embarrass them as well. Some of the scandals in the football world include match-fixing, doping, sex scandals and abuses only to mention a few, here are top scandals that hit some of the famous players in football and the football world itself.

ANDRE ONANA

The first-choice Manchester United goalkeeper was banned for twelve months back in February 2021 following adverse findings in a drug test, a drug named Furosemide was found in his blood which is a banned substance. Onana defended himself in court that he mistakenly took his wife’s pregnancy medication but the court still banned him from playing for nine months.

JAAP STAAM

 The retired Dutch centre-back tested positive for a banned drug known as Nandrolone in 2001 when he was still playing for Serie A side Lazio and was banned for five months. Staam did not try to defend himself since he knew he was not guilty of taking any performance-enhancing drugs.

ISRAEL’S TEAM PROSTITUTION SCANDAL

The Israel National team suffered a humiliating defeat against Denmark in their European Championship playoffs, they were thrashed 8-0 on aggregate. It was revealed that Israeli players had invited girls into their hotel rooms the night before the games both home and away before the return leg fixture in Copenhagen-Denmark, the then manager Shlomo Scharf resigned from being the team manager.

ADRIAN MUTU

The Romanian citizen was banned for seven months after testing positive for cocaine in September 2004. His contract at the Premier League side Chelsea was terminated and to date, Chelsea is still seeking compensation of £14.3 million from Mutu due to breach of contract.

DIEGO MARADONA

The Argentinian superstar and playmaker has been banned twice for fifteen months respectively, he was banned first in 1991 due to his cocaine addiction and the second one came at the beginning of the 1994 World Cup. Drugs, sex and alcohol addiction disturbed Maradona during his career period but his doping debacle came in from testing positive for five variants of ephedrine in his bloodstream, a substance banned by FIFA.

THE COLCIOPOLI SCANDAL

The scandal took place in 2006 when it was revealed that club executives of Juventus, AC Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio were accused of bribing referees to favour them and certain referees officiating some of their respective matches. The scandal was uncovered and we saw the 36 Serie A title winners Juventus being demoted by being penalized to Serie B and a 30-point deduction penalty which was later reduced to nine points. Juventus were stripped of their 2005/06 Serie A title before being demoted to Serie B due to the scandal.

RONALDO

The Brazilian star was caught up in a sex scandal when he picked up three prostitutes in Brazil just to realize they were transvestite (men) upon reaching the hotel that he had booked. The Transvestite tried to extort money from Ronaldo or they could expose him which could taint Ronaldo’s image, he refused to be extorted and the men also claimed that Ronaldo used drugs (cocaine) and that he threatened to hurt them.

MARSEILLE

The 1993 UEFA Champions League winners were relegated from Ligue 1 for bribery and match fixing, the title was later stripped of Marseille and some top officials were even jailed due to the corruption scandal in Marseille.

SOUTH KOREA

The K-League in Korea banned a total of 10 players for life and arrested two brokers involved in match-fixing in the year 2011. Nowadays players are targeted during a match to avoid rigging especially strikers who can miss goal-scoring opportunities contributing to the side losing the game.

ACCRINGTON VS BURY

The England League two game in 2009 between Accrington and Bury exposed that five in-field players, four from Accrington and one from Bury had placed a bet that Bury would win the game. One of the Football Association’s rules is that a player is not supposed to make bets that his team or opponents will win, all five players were banned later after they were revealed. Bury won the game 2-0 but the players who placed the bet faced serious consequences.

Do you have any football or player scandals that you think I left behind, please share them in the comment section.