The Global Fix: How Betting Markets Fuel a Worldwide Yellow Card Epidemic

Yellow card spot-fixing is rapidly becoming one of football’s biggest integrity threats. Players and referees from the UK to Australia and from Spain to Chile are being caught. Here's why.

Match-fixing scandals involving football players deliberately getting yellow cards seem to be everywhere. Players making millions in the Premier League, La Liga and Serie A are under investigation for suspicious bookings, referees in South America are believed to have given out hundreds of odd yellow cards in a single season, organised networks have been found from Australia to Bolivia.

The Sports and Crime Briefing investigates what makes yellow card spot-fixing so attractive to bettors and players alike, and why it’s here to stay.

At the Highest Level

Lucas Paquetá is in a spot of bother. The West Ham and Brazil midfielder will face a hearing by the English Football Association in March for alleged betting infractions. In 2022 and 2023, Paquetá is accused of trying to get yellow cards during four West Ham games. If found guilty, he faces a lengthy ban. In late 2024, Paquetá was also summoned to testify in front of a Brazilian Senate committee on the same matter.

Paquetá is not alone in this situation. In recent years, prominent footballers have repeatedly been accused of trying to fix matches by getting a yellow card at key moments of a match.

That series of four suspicious yellow cards made Paquetá the highest-profile footballer to date accused of participating in such a scheme. A report released in Brazil in February claimed that Paquetá intended to get booked during a West Ham vs. Aston Villa game in March 2023, as a birthday present for his brother, Matheus.

A whistleblower told Brazilian authorities that Paquetá’s uncle sent five bank transfers worth about $16,000 to a bettor named Marlon Nascimento da Silva. Da Silva allegedly placed two bets, one on Paquetá getting a yellow card against Aston Villa and another on Brazilian star Luiz Henrique also being booked while playing for Real Betis.