Abstract

Sport and physical education can play an important role on the development of moral behavior. However, there has been a surge in unethical conducts both in and out of sports fields in recent years. Conducts such as match fixing and incentive payment which fall into the realm of corruption are unacceptable by some fans. For some others, these are deemed as acceptable. Tenacity to win at the expense of anything cripples fair-play principle. This study aims at exploring whether identification of fans with their sports teams has an impact on their attitude to match fixing and incentive payment. The outcomes of the study reveal that fans with high identification are less likely to accept that their teams arrange some match fixing and/or incentive payment and they do not want their teams to be subject to any penalties. Moreover, fans with high moral disengagement are of the opinion that their teams do not get involved in any match fixing and incentive payment. The higher the level of identification gets, the higher moral disengagement becomes.

Key words: Fans, moral education, team identification, match fixing, incentive payment.