Samenvatting

The Zheyun Ye case is a well-documented football scandal in Belgium in which a Chinese businessman gained influence over professional football clubs in the years 2004-2006 for the purpose of fixing matches and betting on the outcomes of these manipulated matches. Ye and more than thirty others involved were prosecuted for private bribery related to match-fixing and complex financial constructions linked to money laundering. In this contribution, the authors discuss the implications of the Ye case from the perspective of the Harm Assessment Framework. This theoretical framework allows to map the consequences of crime from the perspective of the bearers of the resulting harm. Additionally, the authors use social network analysis to analyze the financial exchanges between Ye and other involved actors. By doing so, they hope to show the breadth of the consequences of this case and thereby create more (political) awareness around the urgency of the problem.