Scandals That Rocked The World Of Sport Quiz

Answer: Deliberately threw games

In the 1919 World Series the White Sox were playing the Cincinnati Reds. White Sox players lost games on purpose for money and lost the series. Arnold "Chick" Gandil organised the match fixing and persuaded teammates to take bribes. Even a century later, the scandal loomed large in baseball.

Many baseball fans believed that "Shoeless" Joe Jackson was wrongly accused of involvement - he maintained his innocence - but he was denied a merited place in the Hall of Fame.

Answer: Ben Johnson

Johnson won the Olympic 100m final in Seoul in 1988, lowering his own world record to 9.79 seconds. However, in a mandatory drugs test he tested positive for Stanozolol, a prohibited substance, and within two days had been stripped of his gold medal and the record. Johnson again failed a test in 1993 and was banned for life. Ironically, six of the eight sprinters who lined up before that Seoul final went on to fail drugs tests during the remainders of their careers.
Note: The wrong answers are all fictional.

Answer: Tonya Harding

Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan were the closest of rivals and few beforehand were able to predict which would come out on top of the US National figure skating championships in 1994. Harding resolved that by hiring a man to injure one of Kerrigan's knees.

A video shows a man strike Kerrigan with a metal pole on her leg right before the Championships, leaving her crying and screaming in pain. Harding later confessed that she, her ex-husband and her bodyguard conspired to hire the assailant. Harding was banned from skating, but after threatening to sue was allowed back into the US team. In the next Olympics, Harding took eighth place while the recovered Kerrigan won a silver medal.

Answer: Income tax irregularities

Rangers FC along with their Glasgow rivals Celtic dominated Scottish football for decades. Each had the money to pay the best players around - they had budgets 10 times that of other clubs.

But Rangers went further; they used an pay system to attract players who demanded more money than could be legally paid. Rangers Football Club entered liquidation in October 2012. As a result, the club was thrown out of the Scottish Premier League and reduced to playing in the lowest division of Scottish professional football.

In 2017 the UK Supreme Court ruled that £47m paid to players, managers and directors was in the form of tax-free loans, and this was in breach of income tax laws. There is not enough room here to describe the intricacies of the aftermath, save to say it was legally messy. The assets of the club were sold and a new club emerged and it returned to the SPL within a few years.

Answer: Lance Armstrong

Lance Armstrong started to race professionally in 1992 but quit due to illness in 1996. Returning to the sport in 1998, he went on to win arguably cycling's most famous event, the Tour de France, seven times before 2005. However, rumours of doping emerged in 1999. He denied them.

The rumours remained and in 2012 an investigation by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) concluded he had used performance-enhancing drugs over the course of his career. Later, Armstrong said he started using the drugs in 1995, and did not challenge the USADA ruling. He was stripped of all of his wins from August 1998.
Note: The wrong answers were all motorcycling world champions.

Answer: Fielded ineligible players

At the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia, the Spanish Paralympic basketball squad was supposed to comprise intellectually disabled player. In fact, 10 out of 12 members of the squad had no such disability and were competing with fraudulent documents. Their gold medals were removed.

Answer: Spied on a rival team

The fine came after McLaren employees improperly received confidential technical information from their Italian rivals, Ferrari. McLaren were also excluded from the 2007 constructors' championship, effectively handing that title to Ferrari.

McLaren disputed the accusations, saying: "We have never denied that the information from Ferrari was in the personal possession of one of our employees at his home. The issue is: was this information used by McLaren? This is not the case and has not been proven ..."

Answer: Salt Lake City

Salt Lake City bid to host the Winter Games on four occasions without success. In the bidding for the 2002 games, the Olympic organising committee voted by a landslide to grant the games of the Salt Lake City.

It later became clear that some on the the Salt Lake City bid team team had bribed high-ranking international Olympic Committee members. The British newspaper the Guardian later reported: "The International Olympic Committee has expelled six members this afternoon for taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from officials who brought the 2002 Winter Games to Salt Lake City.

Answer: Under-inflated the ball

National Football League (NFL) rules state that the balls have to be inflated to a certain pressure. Letting pressure out makes the balls easier to throw and catch. In the 2015 AFC playoffs, the Patriots were found to have used the tactic and were fined.

They also had to give up draft picks and quarterback (probably the most important game-influencing player on a team), Tom Brady, was banned for four games.

Answer: Association Football (soccer)

The allegations were against officials, from Hungary and Bosnia, after two friendly matches in Turkey were decided by seven goals - all from penalties.
The officials were banned for life.